Portugal runs every payment order through one national office — and commercial late-payment claims have no upper limit at all. First results typically within 20 days. You pay only when money moves.
Este escritório representa o vosso credor relativamente ao crédito comercial acima indicado, atualmente vencido e não pago.
Solicitamos o pagamento integral do montante em dívida no prazo de sete dias a contar da data desta carta, acrescido de juros de mora nos termos do Decreto-Lei 62/2013. Na ausência de pagamento, estamos instruídos a apresentar, sem aviso adicional, um requerimento de injunção junto do Balcão Nacional de Injunções.
O nosso advogado correspondente em Portugal já dispõe do processo completo.
This is what your Portuguese debtor receives — and because commercial late-payment claims have no upper limit under Portuguese law, the same electronic injunção route works whether your invoice is small or substantial. Hover the black bars — that is where your debtor's name goes.
Ordinary payment orders in Portugal cap at €15,000 — but claims for late payment in commercial transactions have no ceiling at all, and every single one runs through the same national office. Tap a stage — see what the debtor receives, what it costs them, and what the law hands you next.
«Os nossos registos indicam que a fatura ████ no valor de € ██.███ permanece por liquidar…»
«Solicitamos o pagamento integral no prazo de sete dias…»
«Requerimento de injunção apresentado ao Balcão Nacional no valor de € ███,███…»
«Notificado, o requerido dispoe de 15 dias para apresentar oposição…»
«Fórmula executoria aposta; execução instaurada contra ██████ Lda.…»
Cosmodca runs this ladder for overseas creditors every day — a debt collection agency for Portugal that files, serves, and enforces locally while you follow the case in one dashboard. Portugal is one of the few jurisdictions on this site where the fast-track scales to the size of claim an overseas creditor actually cares about: a genuinely large B2B invoice uses the exact same cheap, centralized electronic filing as a small one. Debtor elsewhere in Europe? See European debt collection or the international debt collection agency desk.
Creditors in the US, UK, Germany, and beyond place Portuguese cases with one desk — correspondents on the ground, one dashboard in your language.
No Atradius barometer covers Portugal — it's one of the few Western European gaps in their published index — so this page leans on official insolvency and trade data instead of an aggregated payment-delay statistic:
Atradius publishes no Portugal barometer — its Western European coverage runs to the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, the Nordics, Austria, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, but not Portugal — so no payment-delay card is shown here. The DGPJ insolvency figure is the correct official Ministry of Justice statistic; a separate, larger figure sometimes circulated (3,640 companies registered as insolvent in 2025) measures something different and shouldn't be read as the same thing. Sources: DGPJ via GEE · US Census Bureau, Trade in Goods with Portugal
Debt collection in Portugal is the recovery of overdue invoices from Portuguese businesses on behalf of the creditor — formal demand, then, where unresolved, an injunção filed electronically with the Balcão Nacional de Injunções (BNI). For an overseas creditor, a debt collection agency for Portugal runs the entire ladder locally while you keep one contact.
Your case reaches a Portuguese collector the same day.
Live entity confirmed against the Portuguese commercial registry.
Interpelação admonitória citing Decreto-Lei 62/2013. Most Portuguese commercial cases settle here.
Filed electronically with the Balcão Nacional de Injunções — no upper limit for commercial late-payment claims.
The debtor can oppose within 15 days of notification, sending the case to ordinary proceedings.
No opposition attaches an enforceable formula directly; execution follows. Or funds transferred with a full report. No recovery, no fee.
Three models cover nearly every Portuguese commercial case. The percentage depends on claim age, size, and complexity. Legal costs are quoted and approved by you before any filing.
A flat-fee Portuguese demand sequence under your name — interpelação admonitória. Escalates only if the debtor stays silent.
A success fee on the amount actually recovered. Nothing upfront. Nothing on failure. Statutory interest under Decreto-Lei 62/2013 often offsets part of the cost.
Injunção and enforcement through correspondents in the debtor's district. For urgency, the fast debt collection service; for contested claims, attorney-based debt collection from day one.
Ordinary injunções in Portugal are capped at €15,000 — but claims for late payment in commercial transactions carry no upper limit at all, and every single one runs through the same centralized Balcão Nacional de Injunções rather than a local court registry. That combination is genuinely rare: most of our other European pages have a fast-track that only works for smaller invoices. Portugal's scales to the claim size an overseas creditor actually has. Specialist B2B debt collection puts that machinery behind your receivable on a success-fee basis, with industry desks for manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, aviation, maritime, and technology.
Debt collection in Portugal escalates from a reminder to an interpelação admonitória that formally places the debtor in default, then to a requerimento de injunção filed electronically with the Balcão Nacional de Injunções (BNI) — Portugal's single national payment-order office. If the debtor doesn't oppose within 15 days, an enforceable formula attaches automatically.
A Portuguese business that ignores an injunção faces direct execution once the fórmula executoria attaches — there's no separate judgment step for an unopposed claim.
Ordinary contractual injunções are capped at €15,000, but claims for late payment in commercial transactions carry no upper limit under Decreto-Lei 62/2013. That means a large B2B invoice uses exactly the same cheap, centralized electronic filing as a small one — one of the few jurisdictions on this site where the fast-track scales to the claim size an overseas creditor actually has.
The debtor has 15 days from notification to oppose, under Article 12(1) of the injunção procedure. Opposing sends the matter to ordinary civil proceedings, argued on the merits.
On the contingency model, nothing upfront: the success fee is a percentage of the amount actually recovered, quoted in writing before you place the case. Decreto-Lei 62/2013 entitles a B2B creditor to statutory late-payment interest, which we cite in the interpelação admonitória and which often offsets part of the fee.
Yes, directly. An injunção doesn't require a prior US or UK judgment — it's filed straight with the Balcão Nacional de Injunções. Where you already hold a foreign judgment, our Portuguese correspondents assess whether recognition changes the strategy.
The longer read for creditors doing their homework: how Portuguese collection actually runs, the BNI's no-ceiling advantage as the real signature, the injunção procedure in detail, what Portuguese law already gives you, and when placing a case is the wrong move. Open what matters.
A debt collection agency working Portugal for an overseas creditor does four things you cannot efficiently do from abroad. It verifies the debtor against the Portuguese commercial registry. It applies pressure with an interpelação admonitória citing Decreto-Lei 62/2013. It escalates through an injunção filed with the BNI. And it enforces via the resulting fórmula executoria.
Portugal is also where Cosmodca already has solid existing footing: the static page alone draws 399 monthly impressions with a query already sitting at position 9.0, alongside four other pages contributing smaller amounts. This page consolidates that footprint rather than starting cold.
Most European jurisdictions on this site cap their documentary fast-track at a modest sum, which pushes larger B2B invoices into slower, more expensive ordinary litigation. Portugal doesn't: while ordinary contractual injunções are capped at €15,000, claims for late payment in commercial transactions have no upper limit under Decreto-Lei 62/2013.
Combined with the fact that every single injunção in the country — regardless of size — runs through the same centralized Balcão Nacional de Injunções rather than a local court registry, this is one of the few genuinely scalable fast-tracks in our entire coverage.
The requerimento de injunção is filed electronically with the BNI. The debtor is notified and has 15 days under Article 12(1) to file an oposição. Where no opposition is filed, an enforceable fórmula executoria attaches to the claim automatically, and it proceeds directly to execution.
Where the debtor opposes, the matter converts to ordinary civil proceedings, argued on the merits rather than resolved through the injunção process.
Decreto-Lei 62/2013, Portugal's transposition of the EU Late Payment Directive, entitles a B2B creditor to statutory default interest once a commercial debt falls due, which we cite in the interpelação admonitória as a matter of course.
No Atradius payment-behavior barometer covers Portugal, so this page runs on official insolvency and trade data instead — 2,015 insolvencies were decreed in 2025, down 2 percent year on year, a genuinely encouraging trend by the standards of this wave.
Candor is cheaper than a wasted mandate. If the debtor is already in insolvency proceedings, an injunção is the wrong tool, and we will tell you so at assessment. If the debtor genuinely disputes what you delivered, an oposição is likely, and the file needs to be built for ordinary proceedings from the outset rather than an uncontested filing. And if the claim is past the applicable limitation period, no collector revives it.
Everything else — the silent Lda., the debtor who "never received" the invoice, the customer betting an overseas creditor won't instruct Portuguese correspondents — is exactly what this desk exists for. The assessment costs nothing and tells you which category your case is in. Debtors elsewhere belong with the European debt collection desk or the global coverage hub.
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