Late fees for overdue payments

Always make sure you add in any agreement something similar to:

"Customer/client shall be responsible for reasonable collection fees, attorney fees, and court costs resulting from non-payment."

That way you get your customer to pay for your collection fees.

In addition, I would also consider a credit report on companies from D&B and learn how to report delinquencies. Nothing stings like getting their paydex score zapped.
 
I've got one of those things on my invoices also.. It's real long and I don't know if it would work outside of maryland or not but here it is.

payment due upon receipt​
(late fee will be assessed after 30 days)​
Past Dues, or any part therof, including prior service charges, are suject to a 2% per month (24% per annum) Service charge. Service charges are computed on an average daily balance. Collection costs and/or reasonable attorney's fees are the responsibility of the customer/client. As payments received are applied in the order of: collection costs, attorney's fees, service charges, and past due amounts. Any remaining funds are then applied to current amounts due.

This was typed up by my accountant a few years ago and has worked wonders for us in the past. I also have a collection company now that I turn clients over to after they are unpaind 45 days after service. Their charge is 9-15 dollars per reciept.
 
Henry Bockman said:
I've got one of those things on my invoices also.. It's real long and I don't know if it would work outside of maryland or not but here it is.

payment due upon receipt​
(late fee will be assessed after 30 days)​
Past Dues, or any part therof, including prior service charges, are suject to a 2% per month (24% per annum) Service charge. Service charges are computed on an average daily balance. Collection costs and/or reasonable attorney's fees are the responsibility of the customer/client. As payments received are applied in the order of: collection costs, attorney's fees, service charges, and past due amounts. Any remaining funds are then applied to current amounts due.

This was typed up by my accountant a few years ago and has worked wonders for us in the past. I also have a collection company now that I turn clients over to after they are unpaind 45 days after service. Their charge is 9-15 dollars per reciept.
Click to expand...

Be careful on this one. You may be crossing over onto usury territory. Usury is charging too much interest, and the penalties can be up to 3x the amount of interest charged and the court ordering forfeiture of the debt depending on the state your in.
 
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