Top-Rated Debt Collection Agency in Slovakia
Fast and reliable debt collection in Slovakia - no upfront costs, only pay for success. Request a FREE Consultation or upload your claim today.
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In Slovakia, recovering your debt is easiest using this method.
Debitura focuses on debt recovery in Slovakia, providing a complete range of services with a team of experienced professionals. These services include managing accounts receivables, issuing debt collection notices, handling pre-legal and legal debt collection, and pursuing enforcement court proceedings. We are knowledgeable in the debt collection laws and regulations of Slovakia, enabling us to deliver efficient and effective solutions to aid businesses in recouping outstanding debts.
From beginning to end, we provide unwavering assistance.
Tailored collection approach.
We have over 500 specialists available for global debt recovery.
We achieve a 87% success rate while maintaining the lowest cost.
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We provide legal advice and complex solutions with added value to our clients, thanks to a unique combination of knowledge from law and economics. Thanks to our passion and tenacity, we have become one of the most successful restructuring managers and experts in insolvency law in Slovakia.
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"You do not have to foresee the future, but to enable it." My great role model were advocatus of Ancient Rome. Advocatus meant "solicited". They had a special place in society, they respected the law, the value of words and gestures, maintain a theory of justice. They constantly maintained in education, they also had a knowledge in philosophy and other areas to maintain detachment. My ideology is to maintain and practice these ideals nowdays, to respect justice, to stay educated and be informed, and master the art of speech. I believe that these values help to distinguish my law practice and contribute to the well-being of clients and to solve their legal problems so that they are satisfied with the solution.
The ultimate guide about debt collection in Slovakia
If you have a financial claim against a business or customer in Slovakia, we can help you. We have helped hundreds of other businesses recover debt in Slovakia.
It can be very hard to get people to pay you back if they owe you money in Slovakia. Things like different languages, customs, and laws make it difficult. And if they live far away, it can be even harder.
It is easier to get your money back when you use a collection agency that knows the laws and customs of the country where the person you are owed money from lives.
At Debitura, we always put people first. We do everything we can to get your money back while still preserving a good relationship with your customer. Our strategic public relations efforts are fair, but firm-ensuring your reputation is our top priority! If you want to understand the Slovakian debt collection process from beginning to end, continue reading this guide. If you prefer working with a local law firm specialising in debt recovery in Slovakia, we are here to help.
At Debitura, we provide a way to collect money people owe you in Slovakia and many other countries. To get started, upload your claim today. We will review it and within 24 hours provide you with 3 free quotes from local debt collection lawyers in Slovakia. Our company uses a people-oriented approach with the latest tech-driven solutions to get results and provide better contact management. This method gets the results you need while still keeping good customer relationships. We have a lot of friends who help us get the job done. We have debt collectors, attorneys, suppliers and vendors. We like all of them and think they are important.
Upload claim
Begin your debt collection process in Slovakia today at zero cost. Simply create a free profile and submit your case, which takes only 2 minutes.
Pre-legal
For the initial 3 months, we will use our effective pre-legal recovery process to try and collect your claim with a 100% no-cure-no-pay approach.
Legal
If your claim remains unpaid during the pre-legal phase, we offer you three quotes from our nearby debt collection lawyers.
24/7 updates
You get access to our online portal where you can track your case in real-time
Introduction to collecting debt in Slovakia
Do you have a hard time getting paid by your Slovakian customers? Do not worry; we make it easy for you to collect debt in Slovakia.
The person who owes money is called the debtor. The person who the money is owed to is called the creditor. If the creditor collects the debt themselves, it's called first-party collection. If they have someone else collect it, it's called third-party collections.
- Domestic companies usually make their payments on time. However, according to data from 2016, Slovakian companies or entrepreneurs were late on their payments 27% of the time.
- Many people do not trust the legal system. They think it is too slow. People who owe money often use the system to make it take longer to pay them back.
- There are ways to help get money that people owe you, but it is not very likely to work if the person who owes you money is insolvent and the legal proceedings have been delayed.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Domestic companies have been paying their bills more slowly recently, with some payments coming up to 20 days late. Usually, companies have 30 to 60 days to pay their bills (up to 90 to 120 days in the heavy industry and construction sectors), but sometimes suppliers don't get paid until after the due date. In practice, most overdue invoices are paid within one month of the due date.
Main corporate structures
The legal structure of a business determines who is responsible for the business' debts. The most common business structures are sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies (LLCs), and corporations.
- A sole proprietorship is a type of business that is owned by one person. This person is responsible for all the debts of the business. A partnership is when two to 50 people own a business together. The partners are responsible for the actions of the other partners. A limited liability partnership is when some of the partners have limited responsibility for the debts of the business.
- Most businesses in Slovakia are private companies with limited liability. This means that the company's owners are only responsible for the amount of money they have put into the company. They are not responsible for any of the company's debts. Joint Stock Companies are used for larger structures that want to divide their capital into tradable shares. In these entities, the shareholders are not responsible for the company's debts. However, the shareholder must pay for their shares since it is not allowed to forgive the debt of a shareholder in order to pay the issue price of the shares. There are some types of Joint Stock Companies which are not used often. There are two types of Joint Stock Companies. One is where the registered capital (money that the company has) is divided into a lot of shares without a value. The other is where the registered capital is divided into shares with values. The people who own shares are not responsible for the company's debts.
- Foreign companies can also choose to settle in Slovakia through Branch Offices. This means that the foreign parent company is not limited in terms of liability. Joint Ventures may take the form of any legal structure, but incorporation is not necessary. A contract drafted for this purpose would suffice.
The debt collection process in Slovakia
The debt collection process in Slovakia usually happens in more than one step. The picture below shows the standard way to collect debt in Slovakia:
1 Upload your claim:
You will start by finding a company to help you with your debt. You will tell this company about the money you are owed. They will help you get the money back. Debitura will help you find a company in Europe to help you. It is free to use Debitura.
2 Amicable collection:
The collection process begins with sending reminders to the person who owes you money. This is called a campaign. The reminders go through email, SMS, letter, and other ways to communicate in the specific country. The goal is to get the debtor to pay or agree that they owe the debt, and then start a plan to pay it back. Debitura offers a no-cure-no-pay solution for amicable collection. This means that you only have to pay a small success fee if we recover your debt. Amicable collections with Debitura are risk-free!
3 Evaluation:
If you have not received payment from the debtor yet, it is time to look at what to do next. We will look at the size of your claim, how likely it is that you will get paid, and other factors to help you decide what to do. There are three typical next steps:
A Surveillance:
If your claim is for less than 2,000 to 5,000 euros, it usually does not make sense to take any more legal action. In this case, we recommend "debt surveillance." This means that we will keep trying to contact the person you owe money to and try to reach an agreement about payment.
B: Legal collections:
We suggest that you go through a specific set of steps, called a legal process, if you have a big claim. The steps you will need to follow may vary depending on the kind and amount of your claim. Typically, it will take around one and a half to two years to finish the process.
In simple term, if you want to sue someone or something, the process of doing that has some set of rules and procedures. The amount and type of the claim you want to make will dictate the specific set of rules and procedures. Also, it is expected that it will take around a year and half for the process to finish.
C: Debt enforcement:
If the person you are owed money from has said that they owe you money, or if there is a court order saying they owe you money, you can go to the bailiff's court to get your money.
At Debitura, we can help you with all three steps in Slovakia.
Amicable collection in Slovakia
At Debitura, we offer a 100% risk-free and efficient process for Amicable collections. All you have to do is submit your claim, and we will get started within 24 hours.
We will try to contact the person you owe money to through different ways, like email, text messages, letters, phone calls, and social media.
This process has two goals:
A) To get the debtor to pay the full amount
B) To get the debtor to agree that they owe the money and start a payment plan
If the debtor disagrees with your claim, you must start with legal collections instead of trying to resolve it peacefully.
Late Payment Interest
The EU Directive 2011/7/EU says that payments in the EU should be made within 60 days. This was turned into Slovak law through Act no 513/1991 of the Commercial Code. This means that, as a general rule, business-to-business transactions must be paid within 60 days, although payment terms may be extended by contract, as long as it is not unfair to one of the parties. Unless the people involved agree on a different interest rate, the creditor is allowed to charge interest for late payments. This is calculated by taking the base rate of the European Central Bank and adding eight percentage points to it. In practice, people usually charge nine percent interest for late payments, even though debtors (the people who owe money) rarely agree to pay this much in the early stages of trying to get the money back.
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amicable debt collection
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Legal collection in Slovakia
If the person you owe money to has not paid you back, or if they disagree that they owe you money, we will give you 3 free quotes from local debt collection attorneys. In the legal phase, our local attorney will reach out to your debtor and try to negotiate a payment. Our partners can also go to court and get a payment order from the legal system in Slovakia. This payment order can then be used to enforce your claim via enforcement court.
Ordinary proceedings
If the creditor is sure that the debtor owes them money, they may request a Payment Order from the District Courts. The debtor would then have 15 days to pay the debt or to say why they do not owe the money. If the debtor does not respond, or if they fail to pay the debt, the court will continue with legal proceedings and usually order a hearing.
The law has changed so that it is now easier and cheaper to get money that someone owes you. This change will happen on February 1, 2017. The new Act has some changes. The most important ones are: you can only file a petition electronically, and you have to sign it with an electronic signature; the only court that can hear this case is District Court Banská Bystrica; and the court fee for initiating the procedure is half of what the creditor would pay if they requested the issuance of a Payment Order.
A creditor may also start proceedings by filing a claim. The debtor is then told to come and explain why they should not have to pay. However, this takes time and the debtor may be able to disappear before they have to go to court. Also, proceedings would give debtors many chances to delay payment even more.
If the company that owes money does not dispute the debt and has assets in other European Union countries, there is a procedure that can be used to recover the money owed. In this case, the party that is owed money can ask a District Court to issue an Order to Pay. This Order will be enforceable in all European Union countries (except for Denmark) without any additional proceedings.
Slovakia has a Civil Law system. This means that there are 54 District Courts, 8 Regional Courts, and 1 Supreme Court. These courts provide justice by making decisions about cases. The amount of the claim does not affect which court hears the case in Slovakia.
In June 2016, the European Commission said that there was still a lack of trust in the rule of law. This means that businesses might not be able to get fair and equal treatment from the law.
The amount of money you need to pay for a lawyer depends on how big and difficult your case is. To get the best price, it is a good idea to ask different lawyers for their prices. You can do this easily by using Debitura.
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legal debt collection
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Debt enforcement in Slovakia
If you have written proof that the person you are trying to get money from owes you money, or a court order, you can go to the bailiff's court in Slovakia. This will help you get your money from the person who owes it to you.
A judgment is when someone says you owe them money. If you agree, then you have to pay. If you do not agree, then you can go to court. If the judge agrees with the person who says you owe them money, then you have to pay. But sometimes people do not pay even if the judge says they have to. If this happens, the person who is owed money can ask the court for help. The court will send someone to make sure the person who owes money pays what they owe. The Enforcement Procedure Code has been changed a lot as of April 1, 2017. The main changes are:
• The Slovak court that has the power to enforce laws is the only one with jurisdiction over the entire country.
• The Republic is the District Court Banská Bystrica and the enforcement petition may be filed there.
• You can only file this document electronically with an authorized electronic signature.
• The reason for these changes is to make the enforcement procedure faster and more effective.
The cost and process for Debitura depend on your case. Upload your case information to get 3 different quotes within 24 hours.
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debt enforcement
Upload your claim and get 3 FREE quotes from our local collection partners.
Insolvency proceedings in Slovakia
If the person you owe money to cannot pay you back, you can do something called an insolvency procedure. This is when you take their things and sell them to try to get some of the money back that they owe you.
- The law does not provide specifically designed out-of-court proceedings.
- Restructuring the debt: The legal framework offers two distinct proceedings but gives priority to debt restructuration (reštrukturalizácia).
- Winding-up proceedings - bankruptcy and liquidation: Bankruptcy proceedings (konkurz) aim at obtaining optimum realization of the creditors' interests from the proceeds of the debtor’s assets. Liquidation describes the voluntary procedure which is normally conducted when the debtor decides to close its business without necessarily being insolvent.
- Priority rules normally apply while distributing the proceeds to the secured creditors (separate part of the debtor´s property).
- How long could insolvency proceedings take?: Insolvency proceedings may last for years.
European Late Payment Directive in Slovakia
Slovakia is in the European Union. That means the Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payments across Europe in commercial transactions applies to us.
The directive includes the following main provisions:
- Public authorities cannot require payment terms of more than 30 days.
- Private companies cannot require that payment be made more than 60 days after purchase.
- If the person you lent money to is a business, you can charge them an extra €40 for not paying on time.
- If you are late on a payment, the interest rate must be at least 8% higher than the European Central Banks reference rate.
The Danish government cannot make local rules that are not as good for creditors as the EU-wide rules.
Credit risk and payment behaviour in Slovakia
- Slovakia seems to be strongly averse to using trade credit, showing no clear preference for selling on credit to domestic or foreign customers.
- An average of around 20% of the total value of domestic and foreign B2B sales in Slovakia is made on credit. This points to a relatively uniform perception towards the risk of trade credit with both domestic and foreign B2B customers.
- A comparison with the regional figures suggests that the proportion of B2B credit-based sales in Slovakia is significantly lower than the corresponding proportions in Eastern Europe (42.9% domestic and 38.4% foreign) and Western Europe (44.9% domestic and 37.7% foreign).
Our analysis has shown that the risk of doing business in Slovakia is low. Based on this low score, You can feel reasonably confident that you will be able to get paid when trading with customers in Slovakia. Nonetheless, we always recommend doing a specific credit analysis on an individual customer basis before offering any credit. The low risk score is based on the following factors:
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The economic risk in Slovakia
Economic risk in Slovakia is low (2 out of 6). An economic risk of 2 out of 6 is relatively low in Europe.
GDP and economic growth are critical drivers for economic risk.
The GDP of Slovakia is 114,87 bn. USD (2021), growing by 3,02% per year.
In terms of the size of its economy, Slovakia ranks #58 out of 183 countries and has a medium-sized economy.
In terms of growth rate, it is ranked #129 out of 183 countries and is therefore considered an excellent growing economy.
GDP per capita is 21088 USD, ranking Slovakia number #41 out of 183 countries. This means the purchasing power of citizens in Slovakia is high compared to the rest of the world.
You can see a more detailed picture of GDP and economic growth in Slovakia in the table below:
Another huge impact for the economic risk score is the inflation rate and the interest rates. You can see a more detailed overview of monetary data points in Slovakia in the table below:
The inflation in Slovakia was 3,1% in 2021 which is considered a low inflation rate.
The business environment risk in Slovakia
Our analysis shows that the business environment risk in Slovakia is low (2 out of 6), which is a pretty average risk score in Europe.
Economic freedom and rights determine the business environment risk in a country. Take a look at the important facts for Slovakia in the table below:
As you can see above, the property rights index is 72 in Slovakia, which is considered pretty average in Europe.
The business freedom index is based on 10 indicators, using data from the World Bank’s Doing Business study. The Index is 56 in Slovakia, a low score for a country in Europe.
Slovakia's overall economic freedom index is 66 out of 100 and is based on factors such as the rule of law, regulatory efficiency, and market openness.
The political risk in Slovakia
The political risk in Slovakia is very low, with a score of 1/6. This is a low political risk score in Europe.
The governance and political stability indicators are critical drivers for political risk. An overview of Slovakia can be seen in the table below:
The rule of law index analyses to which extent agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the quality of the courts, and the police's ability to enforce court orders.
When doing business in a country, the rule of law index is critical as it describes your ability to enforce commercial contracts.
In Slovakia, the rule of law index is at 0,71 points, with the score going from -2.5 (weak) to 2.5 (strong). Slovakia has, therefore, a high rule of law index, which means you should have a good chance of enforcing your contracts. If your individual customers have good creditworthiness, you should therefore feel relatively safe when providing credit.
Other drivers for the very low political risks are the weak control of corruption, the weak political stability index, and the normal shadow economy that is 11,18% of Slovakia's GDP.
The commercial risk in Slovakia
In Slovakia, the commercial risk score is 3/4, which in our model is a medium score. This medium commercial risk score is pretty average compared to the average in Europe.
The commercial risk is impacted by a country's international trade relationships. You can see some of the key facts for Slovakia in the table below:
Slovakia has a total of foreign exchange reserves of 9.61 bn. USD.
Slovakia has a negative trade balance of -0,64% of GDP. This means that Slovakia imports more goods and services than the country exports.
The annual growth of exports of goods and services has been growing 10,23% annually - now 93,86% of GDP. Import of goods and services represents 94,5% of the GDP in Slovakia.
The financing risk in Slovakia
We have calculated the financing risk to be 1/4, which equals a very low risk. A very low financing risk score is relatively low for countries in Europe.
The country's banking system, efficiency, and stability influence the financing risk. You can find the critical facts for Slovakia in the table below:
In Slovakia, the credit information sharing index is 7 on a scale from 0 (low) to 8 (high). The result of this, is that the access and trustworthiness of the credit information in Slovakia is medium-high.
This makes it easy for you to understand the credit risk of your counterpart in Slovakia. You would be able to find a good local credit rating agency that can help you analyse the creditworthiness of your specific customers.
Your legal rights as a creditor (and as a borrower) are 7 out of 12 and, therefore, medium.
Debt Collection in Slovakia: Frequently Asked Questions
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In Slovakia, debt collection typically involves a multi-step process that starts with uploading your claim and finding a company to help you collect the debt. The debt collection process includes sending reminders to the debtor through various communication channels. If amicable collection doesn't work, you can proceed with legal collection or debt enforcement, depending on the size and type of your claim. Debitura offers a risk-free no-cure-no-pay solution for amicable collection and can help you with all three steps in Slovakia.
The debt collection process in Slovakia typically involves three steps: pre-legal collection, legal debt collection, and debt enforcement. Pre-legal collection involves sending reminders to the debtor to pay or agree that they owe the debt. If this is unsuccessful, the next step is to evaluate whether to proceed with debt surveillance or legal collections. Debt enforcement can be pursued if the debtor acknowledges the debt or a court order is obtained. Debitura can help with all three steps in Slovakia.
In Slovakia, if the debt is disputed, a civil lawsuit is required. Legal options for debt collection also include debt enforcement and insolvency proceedings. However, legal actions require a local lawyer. Ordinary proceedings involve requesting a payment order from district courts, while a creditor can file a claim to start proceedings. If the debtor has assets in other EU countries, a District Court can issue an Order to Pay. Insolvency proceedings involve taking the debtor's assets and selling them, but can take years.
Debitura offers a pre-legal debt collection service with a no-cure-no-pay model and a success fee between 10-20%. For legal actions, pricing varies on case specifics. Debitura can obtain 3 quotes from the top debt collection lawyers in Slovakia to help you make an informed decision.
The duration of debt collection in Slovakia greatly depends on the debtor and the case. If the issue can be resolved in the pre-legal phase, it usually takes 3-6 months. However, if it has to go through legal actions, the process can last 12-18 months. The timeline is determined by the complexity of the case and the debtor's willingness to pay.
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