Debt collection

Debt collection starts when a payment is missed. In lending it usually runs in stages. Early collection covers the first days of delay: reminders, a message in the app, a call. Amicable collection (windykacja polubowna) aims at an agreement without court: a repayment plan, a deferral, an extension or a settlement. If that fails, the creditor goes to court for a payment order or judgment, and enforcement by a court bailiff (komornik) follows.

A lender can collect its own receivables (first-party collection), usually early and in its own name, keeping the relationship with the customer. It can also hand the case to a collection agency that acts on its behalf, or sell the receivable to a debt buyer, who then collects in its own name (third-party collection). When the rights under a consumer credit agreement are assigned to a third party, the consumer keeps every defense they had against the original creditor, and the original creditor must inform the consumer of the assignment, except where it keeps servicing the credit by agreement with the assignee (CCD2, Article 39).

A delinquent loan is the same loan in a different state. The amount due, the days past due, fees, any extension or plan in progress and the stage of the case all describe the same loan the customer sees in their app. Collection works well when every channel and every person sees the same state.

For a lender, most collection work runs through software: the loan system computes what is owed, the app and messages tell the customer, and the collection tools record every contact. Requirements for the system:

• Delinquency is part of the loan state machine. Statuses such as due, overdue, extension in progress, plan active and case transferred belong to one model, tested on edge cases such as a repayment that arrives while an extension is pending.
• One balance everywhere. The app, text messages, e-mail and the collection agent's screen show the same amount and status, taken from the loan system, not copied into each channel.
• Paying is one step away. The customer can pay from the app or from a link in a reminder, and a Pay button appears only when there is something to pay.
• Self-service options come before calls. Extension, deferral, payment holidays and a repayment plan can be offered in the app, with their cost shown before the customer agrees.
• Contact rules live in the system. How often and at what hours each channel may be used, and with which consent, are configurable rules, and every contact is logged with its channel, content and time.
• Fees are capped in code. In Poland, late payment fees and late interest on a consumer credit together cannot exceed the maximum statutory late interest calculated on the overdue amount (Consumer Credit Act, Article 33a). The system should apply the cap automatically.
• Difficulty is data. Late payments and extension requests are signals the system can act on, with a path in the app to forbearance options and debt advice.
• Cases can leave and come back. Transfer to an agency, sale of the receivable and a return after settlement change who may contact the customer, so the system needs a clear owner for each case.

The new Consumer Credit Directive, CCD2, whose national rules apply from November 20, 2026, adds duties that land in collection. Under Article 35(1) creditors must, where appropriate, exercise reasonable forbearance before enforcement proceedings, taking into account the consumer's individual circumstances. Forbearance may include total or partial refinancing and must include modifying the terms, which may mean, among other options, extending the term, deferring installments, reducing the borrowing rate, a payment holiday or partial repayments. Where Member States allow creditors to charge additional fees on default, they must cap them (Article 35(4)). Under Article 36, creditors need processes and policies for the early detection of consumers in financial difficulty and must refer such consumers to easily accessible debt advisory services.

In Poland, the Consumer Credit Act caps late payment fees and late interest together at the level of maximum statutory late interest (Article 33a). If the borrower's PESEL number was restricted when the agreement was concluded, the lender cannot demand payment from the consumer or sell the receivable (Article 9b), apart from the narrow exceptions described under PESEL restriction. This entry is not legal advice.

We have not built a collection system or a contact strategy engine. We build the customer side of lending apps: the screens where a customer sees the amount due, pays, asks for an extension or takes a payment holiday.

In the app we have built for AvaFin Poland since January 2026, the customer panel shows the amount to repay, the due date or the delay, the loan history with documents, repayment and extension offers. The loan extension is a separate flow with its own statuses, and the app hides the extension offer once the latest loan is repaid.

In Aasa24, the lending app we have built for Aasa Polska since May 2023, the customer can pay an installment, repay early, take payment holidays or refinance without calling the hotline. Payment holidays went into the app in November 2023 and refinancing in August 2024. Since 2024 the app marks an installment as paid by rules agreed with Aasa, and the Pay button appears on the repayment screen only when there is something to pay.