Repayment Plan: How to Set Up a Payment Agreement for Your Debt

A repayment plan is an agreement to pay off a debt in fixed instalments over a period, instead of paying the full amount at once. The agreement can be made with a private creditor (a bank, a telecom provider, a landlord, or another company you owe money to) or with a public authority, typically Gældsstyrelsen (the Danish Debt Collection Agency), which collects debt owed to the state and municipalities.

The two types work differently. A private creditor can accept or reject your proposal, and the terms are negotiated between you. A public repayment plan through Gældsstyrelsen is set according to fixed rules based on your income, and you can often set it up yourself online. Both are different from formal debt relief (gældssanering), a court process where the probate court (skifteretten) can reduce or write off your debt across all creditors at once.

• Can be made with private creditors, banks, telecom providers, landlords, and public authorities
• Should always be in writing, so both parties can document the amount, instalments, and due dates
• Is not the same as formal debt relief. It typically covers only one creditor or debt at a time
• Can help you avoid reminders, debt collection, and a registration in RKI (the Danish debtors' registry)

A repayment plan is typically the right step when you can genuinely pay the debt back over time, just not all at once. That includes situations where:

• You've received an unexpectedly large bill (a tax back-payment, an insurance claim, or a deposit demand) that's more than you have on hand
• You've fallen behind on one bill, but your finances otherwise add up month to month
• You want to avoid a single bill ending up with a debt collection agency or leading to an RKI registration
• You've received a reminder letter or a notice of arrears and want to act before the case escalates

If you have several creditors at once and can't see how you'd pay them all, the picture is different. Then it's worth looking at formal debt relief or free, independent debt counselling instead of negotiating with each creditor separately.

A private creditor cannot be forced to accept a repayment plan, but most prefer a realistic proposal over the risk of getting nothing at all, or having to send the case to a more expensive collections process. A proposal a creditor can say yes to usually includes:

• What you can actually pay per month, based on your real disposable income, not a round number you've guessed at
• How many instalments you're proposing, and when the first one is due
• A brief explanation of why you can't pay the full amount right now
• A commitment to get back in touch if your situation changes along the way

Reach out to the creditor as early as possible, ideally before the case is sent to collections. Most creditors are more flexible with someone who reaches out and flags a problem early than with a case that only surfaces after an instalment has already been missed.

These three concepts solve different problems. A repayment plan is an agreement with one creditor to pay over time. RKI is a registry of poor payers that banks and landlords check. It isn't a debt arrangement in itself, but a consequence of a bill going unpaid. Formal debt relief is a court process where the probate court can reduce or write off all your debt across every creditor, if you meet the conditions.

If you're only behind on one or a few bills, a repayment plan is often enough. If you have multiple creditors, a debt load you can't get a handle on, or you're already registered in RKI, it's worth reading further about the broader options.