A debt collection message is the notice a company sends a customer to remind them of an upcoming or overdue payment and make it easy to pay. Over SMS it arrives before the due date, gets read within minutes and costs cents. Below you will find message examples for every stage (preventive, early arrears, out-of-court and pre-legal), the recommended sequence and the rules to follow in Mexico. These debt collection messages are ready to adapt to your brand and tone.
Why preventive collections works better over SMS
Most late payments are not down to unwillingness but to forgetfulness or disorganisation. A reminder that arrives before the due date, with the amount and a simple way to pay, solves a large share of the problem with no calls and no agents. SMS is the ideal channel for this: it is read within minutes, needs no app and costs a fraction of a phone call.
Banks, lenders, insurers, utilities, schools and subscription businesses use automated SMS sequences as their first line of collections. The key is tone, timing and personalisation.
The recommended sequence
A typical preventive sequence has five steps: five days before the due date, a friendly reminder with amount and date; one day before, a notice with the payment options; on the due date, a message with a link or reference to pay today; three days later, a pending payment notice mentioning late fees; and around ten days later, an invitation to bring the account up to date or to contact an adviser about a plan.
For the notice before the due date, there are 20 ready-made templates in payment reminder SMS: examples and templates.
Every step stops automatically once the payment is registered in your system. That condition is essential: nothing damages the relationship more than chasing something already paid.
Collection message and payment reminder examples
- Preventive: “Financiera Sur: Hi Carlos, your payment of 1,250.00 MXN is due on 15 March. Pay in the app, at OXXO or by transfer. Thank you.”
- Due date: “Financiera Sur: your payment of 1,250.00 MXN is due today. Reference 883421. Avoid late fees by paying before 23:59.”
- Pending: “Financiera Sur: we have not registered your payment of 1,250.00 MXN. Settle today and avoid default interest. Questions: 55 1234 5678.”
- Arrangement: “Financiera Sur: we can help you get back on track. Reply PLAN and an adviser will call you today.”
Note the pattern: clear identification, a concrete data point, one action, a respectful tone. Never threats, capitals or false urgency.
More debt collection message examples by stage
Each stage of the portfolio needs a different tone: friendly before the due date, clear in the first days of arrears and formal, yet always respectful, once the account moves to out-of-court collection. These texts are written to fit a single 160-character SMS; if your platform replaces accented characters, the message will not switch to UCS-2 encoding and cost twice as much. In Mexico, send them in Spanish.
Preventive collection (before the due date)
- 5 days before: "Financiera Sur: Carlos, a reminder that your $1,250.00 payment is due on Friday the 15th. Pay in the app, at OXXO or by transfer. Thank you."
- Due date: "Financiera Sur: your $1,250.00 payment is due today. If you have already paid, thank you and please ignore this message."
For this stage there are 20 more templates in payment reminder SMS.
Early collection (1 to 30 days past due)
- Day 1: "Financiera Sur: Carlos, your $1,250.00 payment was due yesterday. If you already paid, ignore this message. To pay today use reference 883421."
- Day 7: "Financiera Sur: your $1,250.00 payment is 7 days overdue and is accruing interest. Pay today in the app or at OXXO. Questions: 55 1234 5678."
- Day 15: "Financiera Sur: Carlos, we want to help. If you cannot pay the full amount, reply PLAN and we will offer you payment options."
Out-of-court (extrajudicial) collection message
Out-of-court collection is any collection effort made outside a lawsuit: calls, messages, emails, visits and negotiating payment agreements. It is legal as long as it does not use violence or intimidation; Article 284 Bis of Mexico’s Federal Criminal Code punishes unlawful out-of-court collection with prison and fines. If an agency handles it, the message must identify both the agency and the creditor.
- Agency notice: "Ruiz Agency, on behalf of Financiera Sur: your account is 45 days past due. Call 55 1234 5678, 9am to 7pm, to agree on a payment plan."
- Settlement offer: "Financiera Sur: we have an offer to settle your balance at a discount until 30/04. Reply YES and an advisor will call you."
- Agreement confirmation: "Financiera Sur: we confirm your agreement: 3 payments of $420.00 on the 5th of each month. Thank you for bringing your account up to date."
Pre-legal notice
The law allows you to inform the debtor of the real legal consequences of non-payment, such as the possibility of legal action. What it does not allow is faking court documents, naming courts or authorities that are not involved, or threatening something that will not happen. Send this notice only if the action is real and decided.
- Formal notice: "Financiera Sur: your account is 90 days past due. Without payment or an agreement before 30/04 it will be referred to our legal department. Call 55 1234 5678."
Asking a client to pay, politely
In business-to-business collection (invoices, services, subscriptions) the relationship matters as much as the payment. A friendly tone, the exact figure and an easy way out if the client already paid work best.
- Overdue invoice: "Servicios Delta: hi Ana, invoice F-1023 for $8,900.00 was due on 10/03. Could you confirm the payment date? Bank details are in your email."
- Regular client: "Servicios Delta: Ana, thank you for your business. Invoice F-1023 is still open. If you already paid, send us the receipt and we will apply it."
- Subscription: "Gimnasio Norte: we could not charge your $599.00 monthly fee. Update your card at [payment link] to keep your access."
Aggressive collection: what a message must never say
Aggressive collection does not just damage the customer relationship: it is also penalised. The rules for collection agencies set fines of 13,458 to 134,580 pesos, and the financial institution is liable even when an outside agency commits the abuse. In a collection SMS, avoid:
- Threats, insults, ALL CAPS or false urgency.
- Writing to relatives, co-workers or references who are not guarantors.
- Faking court documents or using names that resemble public authorities.
- Sending outside permitted hours (7:00 to 22:00).
- Exposing the debt to third parties or asking for payment to an account other than the creditor’s.
- Generic short links or unknown senders: besides eroding trust, they make the message look like smishing. An alphanumeric sender with your company name helps customers recognise it.
- Don’t: "FINAL NOTICE: your case has been sent to court. Pay TODAY or we will seize your assets."
- Do: "Financiera Sur: your account is still pending. We would like to agree on a plan with you before 30/04. Reply PLAN or call 55 1234 5678."
Personalisation and data
The effectiveness of SMS collections depends on data quality: name, exact amount, date and payment reference. Those fields live in your loan management system; the most robust way to use them is to have that system fire the messages through the API according to each account status. Without an integration, the console lets you upload a daily file with the accounts falling due and their variables.
One tip: include the payment reference and the simplest payment channel in the message. Every step you save the customer increases the probability of collection.
Legal and fair-treatment rules in Mexico
Debt collection in Mexico is regulated, among other rules, by the Federal Consumer Protection Law and, for the financial sector, by CONDUSEF provisions on collection agencies, which prohibit practices such as harassment, threats, contact at unsuitable hours or with third parties, and require identifying the creditor. Translated to SMS: respectful messages, within permitted hours (between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.), only to the debtor, carrying the creditor name and free of intimidating language.
The Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data also applies: the phone number is used for the purpose stated in the privacy notice. It is also worth offering a contact channel for queries. Delivery reports and the log of every message are your evidence of fair treatment.
What to measure
Three indicators: message delivery rate (to know they arrived), payment rate in the 72 hours after each message (to know which one works) and the reduction in 30-day delinquency against the previous period. With that data you can tune the timing and copy of each step. The console reports by campaign and operator cover the first metric; the other two come from your loan system.
If your collections team wants to automate this sequence, take a look at the banking and finance solution or write to us from the contact page.
Related: with two-way SMS customers can reply to confirm a promise to pay or ask for clarification.
See also: SMS for collections · SMS regulations in Mexico · Bulk SMS pricing in Mexico · SMS for call centers · SMS as a critical channel for banking and fintech: OTP, alerts and fallback
If you plan to text your whole customer base at once, read our guide to bulk SMS in Mexico first: legal requirements, recommended hours and examples by industry.
Sources
- CONDUSEF, “Se publican nuevas reglas para los despachos de cobranza” (in Spanish). gob.mx/condusef
- “Si recibes llamadas de cobranza en México, estas son las nuevas reglas oficiales…”, El Imparcial, April 10, 2026 (in Spanish). Read article
- Federal Consumer Protection Law, current text, Chamber of Deputies (in Spanish). diputados.gob.mx
- Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties (DOF, March 20, 2025), current text, Chamber of Deputies (in Spanish). diputados.gob.mx
- Código Penal Federal (Federal Criminal Code), Article 284 Bis, current text, Chamber of Deputies. diputados.gob.mx
- “A partir de hoy meten en cintura a los despachos de cobranza”, El Financiero. elfinanciero.com.mx
Frequently asked questions
Industry solution: see how Grupo Tecnophone supports this use case in SMS for Collections.
Need an enterprise SMS platform?
Grupo Tecnophone provides enterprise SMS messaging in Mexico, an API with sandbox and encryption, per-message delivery reports and a console for campaigns. Talk to an expert or read the developer documentation.