Debt collection without a prior payment reminder

When will your customer be in default?

Your customer is in default as soon as the agreed payment deadline has passed. Not the reminder triggers the delay, but the deadline. Therefore, before each collection order counts not how often you have warned, but whether and since when your customer is in default.

Payment default is the legal condition that triggers late-payment interest, fixed compensation and reimbursement of collection costs. It can arise in three ways; a reminder is only one of them.

Way 1: The agreed payment date

If you have specified a specific payment deadline in the contract, offer or invoice, such as "payable until 15th of the month", the delay occurs on the day after the expiry of this date. A reminder is not necessary because the calendar determines the deadline.

Route 2: Germany’s 30-day rule

Germany’s 30-day rule is set out in section 286 BGB: business customers enter default no later than 30 days after the due date and invoice receipt. Austria has no equivalent general waiting period; the relevant due date determines the start of default.

Way 3: The reminder

If the due date is not determined by the contract, law or nature of the service, make a documented payment request. A reminder with a clear deadline provides a record for the next steps.

When is debt collection possible without payment reminder?

Collection without your own reminder may be appropriate when the customer is already in default, for example after an agreed payment date. Assess Germany’s 30-day rule separately; do not apply it to Austria.

For you as an entrepreneur, this means that as soon as one of these cases is available, you may hand over the claim to a licensed debt collection agency without having warned yourself beforehand. Whether you should do it anyway is a second question that this guides answers below. How often you should warn in case of doubt, the article explains How many reminders to collection in detail.

Check the due date and start of default for the relevant jurisdiction. Customer type affects additional conditions and interest rates. The following overview distinguishes Austria and Germany.

Must I send a reminder before instructing a collection agency in Austria?

In Austria, the due date is decisive. If the date is determined by contract or law, default can begin without an additional reminder. If it cannot be determined, request payment. There is no general automatic 30-day waiting period.

Business customers: check the agreed date

For Austrian business customers, the relevant due date is decisive. Where an agreed payment date passes without payment, an additional reminder is generally unnecessary. There is no general additional 30-day waiting period.

Consumers: check the due date

A reminder is not universally required for Austrian consumers either. If the payment date is already determined, default can begin when it passes. If the due date cannot be determined, payment must be requested. Document the invoice, deadline and receipt.

When is a payment reminder required in Germany?

For German business customers, section 286 BGB applies no later than 30 days after the due date and receipt of the invoice. For consumers, this rule requires an express invoice notice. An agreed payment date can trigger default earlier.

Business customers: the 30-day automatic

If you send an invoice to another company, the delay occurs automatically in Germany 30 days after the due date and access. You do not have to warn, do not call, do not remember. The basis is in the Civil Code.

Private customers: it depends on the default notice

Unlike in Austria, Germany’s automatic 30-day rule also applies to consumers, but only if the invoice expressly explains the consequences of late payment. Without that notice, you must send a reminder before instructing a collection agency. A single sentence on the invoice can save that extra step.

Legal basis Austria: Late Payment Act, Austrian Commercial Code (UGB) and General Civil Code (RIS, Call July 2026). Germany: Civil Code on Late Payment and Late Payment Interests (gesetze-im-internet.de, 2026). No legal advice in individual cases.

Before handover, check and document default under the relevant country’s rules. Consumer status alone does not always make a reminder mandatory. Distinguish Germany’s 30-day rule from Austria’s due-date rules. For costs, see Debt collection costs.

Why the default decides on your collection costs

Whether your customer is in default, not only decides whether you may commission, but also who bears the collection costs. Collection costs are to be refunded by the debtor only if they occur as default damage, and a default damage can only occur after the delay occurs.

If you instruct a collection agency before your customer is in default, you may have to bear the costs yourself. The debtor can correctly object that payment default had not begun when the agency was instructed. That is why evidence of default is part of incaseof.law a mandatory condition for opening the case. This protects you from triggering costs that you may ultimately have to bear.

The amount of late interest on a specific invoice is calculated by the Late-payment interest calculator in a minute.

What conditions apply before the assignment?

Five points should be fulfilled before the collection order. If all five have answered yes, nothing stands in the way of the handover, regardless of whether you have warned yourself or whether the delay has occurred automatically.

• Receipt of the invoice can be proved. The invoice has been received by the customer, by mail receipt, e-mail confirmation or registered letter.
• Payment deadline has passed. The agreed or legal payment deadline has passed.
• Payment default has begun. Default is documented, for example through expiry of an agreed payment date or a required reminder. Germany’s 30-day rule does not apply generally in Austria.
• The claim is undisputed. There are no unresolved complaints, notices of defects or counterclaims.
• The claim is not time-barred. Many Austrian claims for goods and services generally become time-barred three years after the due date, rather than automatically at year-end.

How do you proceed step by step?

For most outstanding invoices, a three-step process is useful: first a friendly reminder of payment, then a formal reminder with a final deadline, and if both remain unresponsive, the transfer to a debt collection agency. The contribution shows exactly how the collection will take place afterwards. How debt collection works in Austria.

There is no legal waiting period between payment reminder and collection in Austria. A formally correct template for the first payment reminder is produced by the Payment reminder generator.

In case of doubt, your own reminder before commissioning is never a mistake. It costs little, documents your good will and creates a clean basis for delay. The earlier you act, the higher the recovery rate: after six months it falls significantly according to experience, and after three years the claim is time-barred. Anyone who has unsuccessfully sent the first reminder can then hand over the claim online and Debt collection services, without contract and without minimum volume.

This guide explains the legal situation in Austria and Germany in general and does not replace consultation in individual cases. State of the cited standards: July 2026.