A formal notice is a letter through which the Judicial Officer appointed by your creditor invites you to pay your debt. You must know that your creditor is not required to go through this step before initiating court proceedings. He is just giving you one last chance. It is therefore up to you to take the opportunity.
Provided you meet the conditions of the law of 20 December 2002 on the amicable recovery of consumer debts, the formal notice will be free of charge for you. In other words, if the formal notice states that it concerns an amicable recovery of debts and not a judicial one, no expenses will be charged.
If you do not meet the conditions of the law of 20 December 2002, the cost of the formal notice may be added to the amounts due.
As the case may be, the formal notice can be followed by various proceedings ((telephone) reminders, SMS, …).
These different proceedings make up the amicable procedure, but are not at all mandatory before initiating the judicial procedure.
Why should you react?
If you do not react to the formal notice, your creditor might summon you to appear before a judge in order to have the latter pronounce a decision against you.
In such case, you must know that you not only will have to pay the principal amount of your debt, but also the default interests, flat-
How to react?
After having received this letter, you can either :
pay immediately your complete debt by making use of the account number and the reference referred to in the formal notice. Thereto, you can either make a safe online payment or appear at the counter of the office equipped with a Bancontact payment terminal (without transaction expenses for you) ;
propose a repayment plan in order to spread the repayment of your debt if you are not in a position to pay it at once. This proposal will be analysed in the light of the amount of the debt and of the instructions of your creditor. Various options are also available to you: either per telephone, or at the counter, or via the contact form;
challenge the debt in writing via the contact form or by letter. This challenge will in any case be analysed carefully and it will be followed up promptly.