Inkasso Letters in Austria: What a Debt Collector May Charge (2026)

How Much Can an Inkasso Agency Charge in Austria?

Source: § 3 of the regulation on maximum fees for debt collection agencies, BGBl. Nr. 141/1996 as last amended by BGBl. II Nr. 103/2005, consolidated version on RIS read 12 October 2026. The printed amounts exclude VAT (§ 4 Abs. 1) and are linked to the consumer price index (§ 4 Abs. 2). They are ceilings, not prices.

An Austrian Inkasso agency may charge only what was necessary and proportionate to collect the debt, and never more than the regulation’s caps. The legal claim comes from § 1333 Abs. 2 ABGB, which lets a creditor recover the necessary costs of out-of-court collection where they stand in reasonable proportion to the debt. On a claim under €73 the one-off processing fee is capped at €20.35; on €73 to €364 at 22%.

The caps are not a price list, and that distinction is where most overcharging hides. The regulation dates from 1996 and is still in force on RIS; its euro amounts were set in 2002. The Arbeiterkammer Wien plenary put it bluntly in a motion of 28 May 2026: agencies routinely bill the full maximum, although the law ties the fee to the individual case, and an itemised breakdown is often missing. The AK asked for the regulation to be tightened. Until that happens, the cap is your ceiling and § 1333 is your argument below it.

The regulation also caps the extras. An address search may cost up to €17.44 in the agency’s municipality and €30.52 elsewhere in Austria; a home visit €12.35 to €38.52 depending on distance; and record-keeping up to €20.35 per started quarter on larger claims. Each of these still has to be necessary. A visit you never received, or an address search when the agency wrote to your correct address from the first letter, fails that test.

What Does an Unpaid Bill Grow To After Inkasso?

Our calculation, 12 October 2026. Method: the § 3 processing cap for the claim’s bracket, plus the first-reminder cap, plus one further reminder, using the printed amounts net of VAT. Interest at 4% a year (§ 1000 Abs. 1 ABGB), address searches, visits and record-keeping are left out, so a real letter can be higher, and should usually be lower.

Inkasso fees hit small debts hardest. On a €50 bill, the processing cap plus two reminders comes to €37.07, or 74% of the original claim. On €2,000 the same steps add €269.01, just 13%. The reason is the fixed €20.35 floor for every claim up to €73. For a forgotten online order or a missed Klarna instalment, the collection costs can approach the price of the goods.

The arithmetic gives you a rule for when to pay fast. Every further reminder adds between €5.09 and €58.14, depending on the claim. If you owe the money, paying the principal and interest straight after the first Inkasso letter caps the fees at processing plus one reminder, and you can still dispute the fees afterwards. Paying is not an admission that every fee is owed, as long as you say so in writing.

Where the claim started with a bounced direct debit, your bank and the creditor will already have added their own charges before the agency’s. Our payment methods guide works through that first stage for a €30 bill.

How Do You Dispute an Inkasso Claim?

To dispute an Inkasso claim in Austria, answer in writing and keep proof of sending. Check that the agency is real, ask for the original creditor and an itemised breakdown, pay any part you genuinely owe, and reject the rest with reasons. Never ignore a court Zahlungsbefehl: you have 4 weeks to object (§ 248 ZPO). The Arbeiterkammer and Schuldenberatung check letters for free.

1. 1

   Check that the agency exists

   Debt collection is a licensed trade in Austria (§ 118 GewO 1994). Search the agency’s name in the public trade register GISA. No entry, no licence.

2. 2

   Identify the original claim

   The letter should name the original creditor, the invoice or contract, and the date it fell due. If it does not, ask before you pay anything.

3. 3

   Ask for an itemised breakdown

   Principal, interest rate and period, and each fee with its legal basis. A lump sum labelled “costs” cannot be checked against the caps.

4. 4

   Pay what you owe, dispute the rest

   Transfer the principal and interest with a note that the payment does not acknowledge the fees. Paying the creditor directly is allowed; tell the agency the same day.

5. 5

   Get the letter checked

   The Arbeiterkammer consumer advice and the Schuldenberatung offices review Inkasso letters at no cost.

The difference between an Inkasso letter and a court order matters more than any fee. An Inkasso agency cannot garnish wages, freeze accounts or send a bailiff. Only a court can, and only after a title: a judgment or a Zahlungsbefehl you did not object to. Threats of an imminent “Pfändung” in a letter from an agency, with no court case number, are pressure, not procedure.

If the claim itself is wrong, say so plainly and stop there. A claim for a subscription you never signed, a delivery you never received, or a bill you already paid is disputed in substance, and the agency must then take it to court if it wants to pursue it. Do not negotiate an instalment agreement on a claim you dispute: under the regulation each agreement is a chargeable step, and agreeing can count as acknowledging the debt.

How Do You Spot a Fake Inkasso Letter?

Source: Watchlist Internet warnings, linked by date.

A fake Inkasso letter in Austria usually fails one of three checks: the company is not in GISA or any company register, the claim is for something you never ordered, or it wants payment through an unusual channel such as WhatsApp, a paysafecard code or a foreign account. Watchlist Internet warned on 9 September 2026 about a €4,400 demand from a firm that does not exist. Do not pay, do not click, and report it.

Real agencies make mistakes too, so a check beats a guess. Look up the agency in GISA, then call the original creditor on a number you find yourself, not the one in the letter. A real claim exists at the creditor. If you already paid a fake demand by transfer, contact your bank at once and ask for a recall, then file a police report. Recovery is rare, but the bank can block the receiving account.

When Does a Debt Expire in Austria?

Read against the ABGB on RIS, 12 October 2026.

Most consumer debts in Austria expire after 3 years. That covers bills from businesses for goods, work and services, rent, and fees of doctors and lawyers (§ 1486 ABGB), plus interest arrears (§ 1480). A debt confirmed by a court judgment runs for 30 years (§ 1478). The clock starts when the claim could first be demanded, which for an invoice is its due date.

Expiry protects you only if you use it. The court does not check limitation by itself; a party must raise it (§ 1501 ABGB). And the clock restarts if you acknowledge the debt, expressly or by conduct, before it runs out (§ 1497). A part payment, a signed instalment agreement or a written “I will pay next month” can all count as acknowledgment. If a letter arrives for a bill more than three years past due, answer that the claim is time-barred, and pay nothing.

A lawsuit also interrupts the clock, as long as the creditor pursues it properly (§ 1497). That is why agencies sometimes file a Mahnklage just before the three years end. The resulting Zahlungsbefehl is where you raise limitation, inside the 4-week objection window.

Will an Inkasso Case Show Up at the KSV1870?

It can. The KSV1870 is both Austria’s largest credit bureau and a debt collector, and payment defaults reach its consumer database. The bureau does not publish a binding deletion schedule; secondary sources consistently report that a default stays 5 years after it is settled, so a late payment does not shorten it. Check your file for free under Art. 15 GDPR. Every bank checks it before lending (§ 7 VKrG).

The free self-disclosure is a legal right, not a product. The KSV1870 also sells a paid information package, and consumer groups have criticised how prominently it is placed next to the free request. Ask expressly for the free disclosure under Art. 15 GDPR. If an entry is wrong, for example a claim you disputed or one caused by identity misuse, demand correction in writing. A refusal can go to the Datenschutzbehörde, which charges nothing.

The stakes rise on 20 November 2026. From that date the Verbraucherkreditgesetz 2026 makes buy-now-pay-later a consumer loan with a mandatory credit check, so a small Klarna default can block the next purchase as well as the next mortgage. Our loans guide covers how the KSV1870 score feeds into lending decisions.

How Much of Your Income Is Protected From Garnishment?

Our calculation from § 291a EO on RIS (12 October 2026) and the 2026 Ausgleichszulage rate of €1,308.39. The exact seizable amount for a given income comes from the Ministry of Justice’s annual Existenzminimum tables, which round slightly differently.

If a creditor garnishes your wages in Austria, at least €1,308.39 a month stays with you in 2026. That basic amount equals the single-person Ausgleichszulage rate (§ 291a Abs. 1 EO). It rises by one sixth, to about €1,526, if you receive no separate 13th and 14th salary, and by 20% for each person you support, up to five. Part of any income above these amounts stays protected too.

Garnishment needs a court title first. After a judgment or an unchallenged Zahlungsbefehl, the creditor applies for Exekution, and the court orders your employer, as third-party debtor, to pay the seizable part directly to the creditor. Your employer calculates that part from the official tables, so the protection works without an application in the normal case. Check the first garnished payslip against the tables anyway: the dependant supplement only applies if the employer knows about your dependants.

An account garnishment works differently from a wage garnishment, and the rules for protected balances depend on where the money came from. If your account is frozen, contact the Schuldenberatung or the court that issued the order on the same day, because the protection on an account usually has to be asserted rather than applied automatically. We could not confirm the current procedure against the primary text, so treat this paragraph as a prompt to ask, not as a rule.

How Do Debt Counselling and Privatkonkurs Work After July 2026?

Read against the Insolvenzordnung on RIS (§§ 183, 199, 283), 12 October 2026. Applications for a Tilgungsplan that reached the court before 17 July 2026 still follow the old rules.

If you cannot pay your debts in Austria, start at a state-recognised Schuldenberatung: free, confidential, and in every federal state. In 2025 these offices supported 61,221 people. If creditors refuse an out-of-court deal, the Privatkonkurs follows. Since 17 July 2026 consumers no longer have the 3-year Tilgungsplan (§ 283 Abs. 9 IO). What remains is a creditor vote on a payment plan or the 5-year Abschöpfungsverfahren.

The change matters for anyone who planned around the faster route. Under the 2021 reform, a consumer could be discharged after 3 years on a Tilgungsplan. That provision was time-limited for consumers and ran out at the end of 16 July 2026. An Abschöpfungsverfahren now takes five years, during which the seizable part of your income goes to a trustee (§ 199 Abs. 2 IO). The Zahlungsplan, where creditors accept a quota, is unchanged and often the faster exit.

The numbers show how common this is. According to schuldenberatung.at, the offices recorded 21,599 first contacts in 2025, and 205,031 personal insolvency proceedings have opened in Austria since 1995. The average debt of their clients was €63,354 for men and €46,284 for women. Most of that is not one large loan but many small claims, each carrying its own Inkasso fees.

Which Laws and Authorities Stand Behind These Rules?

Four pieces of law decide almost every Inkasso case in Austria: the ABGB for what a creditor may claim and when it expires, the Inkasso fee regulation for the ceilings, the Exekutionsordnung for what is protected, and the Insolvenzordnung for the way out. The block below gives the statute, the authority, the free tool and the concrete right.

Frequently Asked Questions