A hardship must be something that has been out of your control and has forced you into a financial corner. Medical issues, job loss, and death in the family are examples of hardships. If you are searching for the answer to the question “how to write a hardship letter” we shall provide you with all the necessary information regarding it. Some sample hardship letters are also given below that will help you customize your hardship letter according to your own needs. Following are the important tips for writing a hardship letter;
- Determine the tone of the letter first of all.
- Consider that you are writing to a person who has not committed any mistake, the mistake was from your end so you need to write a letter in a friendly tone.
- A reality that you need to keep in mind is that lenders do not care about any person’s situation. They care for their money and nothing else.
- Simply stating that you have gone through some financial problems is not enough.
- The basics of the letter are anything out of the ordinary that would be causing you financial distress.
- Explain why it is not possible to comply with the original terms of the agreement and request modification of the obligatory terms until your financial situation improves.
- You also must convey that the hardship you went through is in the past and now you can afford it.
- Your letter needs to be sent to the collection agency and convince the original creditor to cut you some slack.
- You need to consider the following approach in writing a hardship letter;
- Your hardship
- Your offer to resolve your debt
- Thanking them for their time
- Your current contact information
- Your name, address, and postal code should be mentioned in the start.
- The date of the letter should also be there at the top.
- Words like “Dear Sir / Madam” should be used in formal letters.
- State the main line clearly in a direct approach.
- Requirements of all Seven C’s of business communication should be considered when writing a Cancel Service Letter.
Free Sample Hardship Letters
Here are 3 Free Sample Hardship Letters in MS Word format,
Download this Sample Hardship Letter 01 as a ZIP file containing an MS Word DOCX file.
Download this Sample Hardship Letter 02 as a ZIP file containing an MS Word DOCX file.
Download this Sample Hardship Letter 03 in MS Word format inside a ZIP file.
Conciseness and Clarity
The beauty of writing is hidden in conciseness. The letter should be stated in as few words as possible but it should communicate the whole message as well. Conciseness does not mean that in trying to write a short letter, you forget to include the theme of the message. Your letter should be written in simple and easy language that can be understood by a normal person having no specialized background. Technical jargon should not be used in a business letter.
Completeness and Concreteness
Your letter should be complete enough to provide all necessary information to the recipient to take action. Make sure you have included the answers of all W’s in your letter i.e. Who, What, Why, Whom, and How. All the facts and figures should be included in the letter. For example, it is better to say that “oil prices increased by 15% in last year”, rather than saying “oil prices increased rapidly last year.”
Courteousness
In business communication, you cannot give away courteousness. So you need to be courteous and polite in your approach irrespective of the fact that your recipient is your customer or your service provider, your employer, or your employee. But politeness does not mean you accept everything of the other person. You should be firm on your points.
Consideration and Correctness
Consideration means considering the recipient of a letter in a letter. You need to focus on the “You” approach. It is better to write “you will be pleased to know that” rather than writing “we are pleased to inform you that”.
All the information provided in your letter should be correct. There is no margin for mistake in business. Mistake means you are losing some monetary value. It also has a bad impact if you say something wrong. Wrongly adding something to your letter has a negative impact on your goodwill as well.
- At the end mention your name along with signatures.
- A handwritten signature should be there in your letter.
- Proofread your letter at least once.
- Be sure you have spelled everything correctly.
- Check the punctuation used carefully.