Who is who, and what everything is called
Core concepts and roles
Claim, principal, creditor, debtor. The words everything else is built from — and the ones that appear in every single letter you send and receive.
The process
The whole dictionaryApplies all the way through
Core concepts and roles is not a step in a case. It applies from the invoice to the bailiff’s court.
The concepts
13 conceptsThe concepts in this theme
Each entry is one page: the definition, the rate and the rule behind it.
- Arrears (restance)Arrears are the part of the debt that has fallen due and has not been paid — what the debtor is behind with.Due and unpaidis
- Claim (fordring)A claim is a legal right to performance — in debt collection, almost always a right to a sum of money.Documentablemust be
- Collection case (inkassosag)A collection case is the whole course of one claim — from the moment it is handed over until it is paid, written off or time-barred.On handoverbegins
- Creditor (kreditor)The creditor is the party that is owed the money — the holder of the claim.Fordringshaver (holder of the claim)also called
- Debt collection (inkasso)Debt collection is the recovery of a due money claim that the debtor has not paid despite reminders.Inkassoloven (the Danish Debt Collection Act)governed by
- Debtor (debitor)The debtor is the party who owes the money — the counterparty to the creditor in a debt relationship.Skyldneralso called
- Default (misligholdelse)Default is when a party fails to perform its side of the agreement — in debt collection, almost always failure to pay on time.Interest and reminderstriggers
- In-house debt collection (egeninkasso)In-house debt collection is when the creditor pursues its own claim without handing it over to a debt collection agency.Authorisationdoes not require
- Legal collection (retslig inkasso)Legal collection is recovery through the courts and the bailiff's court, used when the debtor does not pay voluntarily.An enforceable instrumentpurpose
- Out-of-court collection (udenretlig inkasso)Out-of-court collection is recovery without the courts — the letter, the call and the settlement, before the case may go to court.The courtswithout
- Outstanding balance (restgæld)The outstanding balance is the whole amount still owed — both what has fallen due and what has not yet fallen due.
- Principal (hovedstol)The principal is the original claim, excluding interest, fees and costs.The invoice amountconsists of
- Third-party debt collection (fremmedinkasso)Third-party debt collection is the recovery of other parties' claims — it requires authorisation from the police or admission to the Danish Bar.
Next
Other themes in the dictionary
The 6 steps of the process are above. Here are the other cross-cutting themes.