How can we help?

Please do not ignore our contact anyway. You are welcome to send us an e-mail or discuss the situation on the phone with our customer service team to avoid further reminders. We will clarify the matter with our client and will of course stop the proceedings if it turns out that the claim against you has been settled.

If you do not know our client, the claim may still be justified, for example if you have used the services of a payment service provider as part of your order from a shop. This service provider, which enabled payment by invoice, for example, has become the owner of the claim after your order, is our client and can now expect payment from you. If you are unsure of the details on our payment request and cannot allocate the claim, you can also request further information from us, e.g. on the "original creditor" (your contractual partner).

If, even after a thorough check, it is not clear to you why this claim exists and you have never received the underlying order or service, please also check whether your data may have been misused. You can find out more, for example, on website of the Federal Office for Information Security. This is important: contact us in any case, we will be happy to help you!

The company from which you have an outstanding claim has commissioned PAIR Finance to protect its interests by collecting the claim, including, if necessary, agreeing a payment solution in relation to the outstanding claim in extrajudicial, judicial and postjudicial proceedings. We will endeavour to work with you to find the best solution for the outstanding debt.

Our client and we also want to keep the costs of the process as low as possible for you. To this end, you should always contact us by e-mail or telephone, even if you have any objections. This will enable you and us to clarify any questions as quickly as possible before further costs can be incurred by initiating further measures.

The judicial dunning process

If, despite all our efforts, we have not found a joint solution in the out-of-court procedure, we can initiate the judicial dunning procedure. In this case, PAIR Finance will apply to the competent court for a judicial order for payment against the debtor in accordance with the debt collection order. The court will then send the order for payment by post. This will incur court fees as well as additional costs incurred by our processing, which are to be reimbursed as damages caused by default. The debtor now has two weeks to lodge an objection to the order for payment. The objection does not have to be substantiated. However, if the objection is raised without objective reasons justifying the objection, this can significantly increase the costs for the debtor in any subsequent court proceedings (before a judge). However, the debtor can also settle the outstanding claim in full within these two weeks and thus end the proceedings. If, after two weeks, neither full payment has been made nor an objection lodged, an enforcement order will be issued upon further application (there is also the option of lodging an objection against this, for which the same explanations apply as for the objection to the order for payment). The enforcement order is the basis for possible further enforcement. The claim enforced by the enforcement order (or by court ruling judgement in contentious proceedings) is subject to the 30-year limitation period.

The post-judicial procedure

The enforcement order allows the creditor to apply for enforcement measures, such as an application of enforcement (“Vollstreckungsauftrag”) or attachment order and transfer of garnished claim (“Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss” e.g. to seize a bank account). If an application of enforcement has been issued, the responsible bailiff will carry out the application in accordance with our instructions. For example, the first step may be to obtain a declaration of assets from the debtor, listing all assets belonging to the debtor and payments due, such as wages. It is also possible to obtain information from third parties, e.g. via the bailiff, which can be used to obtain all the debtor's bank details in order to initiate further legally permissible enforcement measures. Each enforcement measure applied for gives rise to additional costs, which are to be borne by the debtor in accordance with the bailiff's examination, since a title has already been issued.

Every enforcement measure causes the limitation period to start anew. This means that if a claim against you has been enforced, the debtor can demand and collect payment of their claim for a very long time at regular intervals using state assistance, either themselves or through a debt collection service provider such as us.

Don't let it get that far. It is important to our client and to us to resolve the matter as simply as possible according to the circumstances at hand – in everyone's (cost) interest!

We are sorry that you are not satisfied with our service. Every day, our team does everything to make debt collection easy for consumers and companies. You can submit a complaint on this page.

Firstly, under the Legal Services Act, every debt collection service provider in Germany must be registered as a legal services provider with the competent authority, usually the local district court or higher regional court, and entered in the Legal Services Register. Approval as a registered legal services provider is linked to, among other things, the suitability, reliability and theoretical and practical expertise of the persons acting in the company, and you can check this approval at any time on the at Legal Services Register on the Internet. You will, of course, find us there too!

On the other hand, the majority of German debt collection companies are organised in the Federal Association of German Debt Collection Companies (BDIU). The BDIU sets high standards for all its members in terms of lawful conduct, professionalism and transparency in their dealings with consumers. Further information and a list of all members can be found at www.inkasso.de.

Yes, PAIR Finance is registered in Germany under the Act on Out-of-Court Legal Services. You can also find this information in the Legal Services Register. We are also an active member of the Federal Association of German Debt Collection Companies (BDIU).

If you have been contacted by us, then we, as a debt collection service provider, have been commissioned by a company to work with you to find a solution for an outstanding payment. You should have originally made this payment to this company or the original creditor with whom you concluded a contract.

In order for us to remind you of the outstanding debt and facilitate an amicable repayment, we need to be able to contact you. Therefore, our client can and must provide us with your personal details, such as your name and contact details, the basis and amount of the claim, etc. Only with this information it is possible for us to contact you and assert the claim. We also need this information so that we can present the claim to you as transparently as possible, in accordance with professional regulations.

It may also be the case that we have been asked to mediate a claim not against you, but against a third party, and we contact you in this context. This may be the case if you have been appointed as an agent or guardian, or if you have been instructed as a solicitor. In these cases, your contact details will be kept as the correspondence address for the claim file and you may also receive information about the processing of your personal data.

As a registered debt collection service provider, PAIR Finance is generally authorised to process all data required to collect a claim in accordance with the debt collection order of our respective client. This regularly requires personal data of the debtor, e.g. name, contact details and details of the claim to be collected, i.e. in particular the reason for the claim, amount and due date.

PAIR Finance may also collect, store and use information itself if this is necessary for the processing of the respective case or for receivables management. This includes, for example, obtaining creditworthiness information and researching addresses.

Every company is free to seek the help of a lawyer or a debt collection service provider in relation to an outstanding claim, even if it is only alleged. In the event of an outstanding claim, a company can and must provide PAIR Finance with personal data, in particular name and contact details, the reason for the claim, the amount and the due date of the claim. It is only with this information that we can contact you and offer you a solution to your outstanding claim.

You do not need to consent to the transfer of your data to us to process it. The activities of PAIR Finance are covered by the legal provisions of Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 letter b) and f) of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (data processing for contract fulfilment, data processing based on legitimate interest). In addition, depending on the status of the process at our company, there may be other legal bases for the necessary data processing, including due to statutory retention obligations.

As a so-called "data subject", you have the right to have your personal data deleted in accordance with Art. 17 para. 1 GDPR under the conditions specified therein. This right is taken very seriously by PAIR Finance, as are the other rights under the GDPR. We review individual requests in this regard and act in accordance with our blocking and erasure policy.

However, the legislator has also taken into account that the other party's consent to data processing cannot always be required for the purpose of asserting outstanding claims. Therefore, there is no right to erasure if a company processes your data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. This follows from Art. 17 para. 3 letter e) GDPR. Personal data may therefore continue to be stored as long as there are outstanding claims and are processed as part of the debt collection process. Once the debt collection process has been completed, the data is no longer needed to fulfil the contract. However, the need for continued data storage is generally due to the need to comply with legal retention obligations.

However, once the debt collection process is complete, the data will only be processed to a limited extent ("blocked") and only for the duration of the relevant legal retention period. The German Fiscal Code (AO) and the German Commercial Code (HGB) provide for deletion periods of up to 10 years. If data is not needed for this maximum retention period, it will be deleted before this time. This complies with the requirements of Art. 17 para. 3 letter b) of the GDPR in conjunction with Section 35 (3) of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

The exercise of the right to object to the processing of data on the basis of a balancing of interests (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR) in accordance with Art. 21 (1) GDPR requires that you provide PAIR Finance with specific reasons arising from your particular situation. This means that you must demonstrate that and why your particular case is an atypical constellation that lends particular weight to your interests. It is not sufficient, for example, to dispute the claim ("I have not concluded a contract") or to state that the creditor's performance was incorrect or did not take place.

However, the right to object does not apply under Art. 21 para. 1 GDPR if the processing of the data serves the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims. In the typical case constellations in the context of debt collection processes (collection of outstanding receivables), your objection to our data processing will therefore ultimately come to nothing and there will be no data erasure. How else would it be possible to collect receivables if the processing of the information could be prevented?

PAIR Finance may generally obtain credit information from credit agencies on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 letter f) GDPR, if there is a legitimate interest in this data collection. Such an interest is to be confirmed by us, for example, if a decision to initiate further measures is associated with a financial default risk - also with regard to the further costs that would arise from the initiation of legal measures.

Credit agencies also provide information on current address data. If necessary, PAIR Finance will also obtain address data from credit agencies or address service providers, as these provide information at a fraction of the cost of an enquiry at the residents' registration office - this procedure must be taken into account from the point of view of the duty to minimise losses, as the costs of an address search must be reimbursed by the debtor.

The so-called registration of unpaid claims with a credit agency, such as Schufa Holding AG, is possible under the conditions of Art. 6 para. 1 letter f) GDPR in conjunction with the more detailed requirements for registration from the BDSG. This is permitted, for example, if the claim is recognised by you, for example if it has been titled in the context of judicial dunning proceedings or if the conditions for termination without notice due to payment arrears existed in the case of an ongoing contract. In addition, registration is possible if the claim has not been paid despite being due and if the debtor has received at least two written reminders after the claim became due, the first reminder was sent at least four weeks ago, the debtor has been informed beforehand, but at the earliest at the time of the first reminder, of possible consideration by a credit agency and the debtor has not disputed the claim.