Late payment penalty

[yesjack]

Do you charge a late-payment fee to your client? And what is the reasonable penalty fee?

 

[HostOX]

Indeed, we try to keep it low but sometimes it can be at £10 if you fail for such a long time.

We have to pay on time to keep providing, so why shouldn't they?
I have had late fees from providers when I paid late, I seem to be understanding about it now compared to the past.

 

[easyhostmedia]

we charge a flat late fee of £10 and when this has been applied clients have paid without issue. Only twice have we removed the late fee when a client has produced a valid reason for being late with evidence.

 

[HC-Ro]

$5 or 10% is what we charge after 5 day grace, 7 days suspended, 15 terminated.

 

[easyhostmedia]

the below is within our TOS etc.

For existing clients

An invoice will be generated and sent 14 days before the due date

A reminder will be sent 1 day before the due date

Invoice then resent on due date and then if unpaid

After 1 day a First Overdue reminder is sent.

After 2 days a Second Overdue reminder is sent.

After 3 days a £10 late fee is added to the invoice.

After 4 days a Third and Final reminder is sent

After 4 Days your account will be suspended (if you have a reseller account all you clients accounts will also be suspended) A £10 fee will be charged to unsuspend upto 3 accounts and £2 per account after that.

After 14 Days you account will be terminated, you will also be issued with a Letter Before Action at a cost of £12.50.

so basically from issue to termination you have had 28 days to pay the invoice or contact us

7 days after that if still unpaid then this will be passed to a collection agency where further charges could apply, also if you are registered with us as a business then under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (interest) Act 1998 we will also collect late payment interest at the rate of 8% over Bank of England Base Rate together with compensation for late payment on all overdue invoices where the contract was entered into after the 7th August 2002

 

[VMhosts-Gordon]

No late fee although this is something we may consider in the future. We get a variaty of interesting reasons why clients payments are sometimes late though!

 

[easyhostmedia]

No late fee although this is something we may consider in the future. We get a variaty of interesting reasons why clients payments are sometimes late though!

since we introducted our listed procedure we have seen a major drop in late payments.

normally the letter before action does the trick, but very rare we havebto take it this far. normally at this stage if they dont pay then we just write it off, only once did we take it the ful way to debt collection/small claims court and this was because the client become very abusive and threatening to why his account was terminated and why he receive an LBA. we won and with all charges/legal costs his £50 become £275 which he paid through the courts before bailiffs were appointed. then he started to spam us (300+ a day) so he was reported to his ISP and the police as he was daft enough to use his ISP email address and IP, the same he used to sign up with us.

 

[daddy_yankee]

We don't charge them any fee. We suspend their accounts, after 7 days grace period, and fully terminate it after 15 days of non-payment.

 

[easyhostmedia]

We don't charge them any fee. We suspend their accounts, after 7 days grace period, and fully terminate it after 15 days of non-payment.

you will find by charging a late fee, you will have less clients getting suspended/terminated for non payment as most do not want to end up paying extra.

 

[daddy_yankee]

you will find by charging a late fee, you will have less clients getting suspended/terminated for non payment as most do not want to end up paying extra.

I think you are right. But changing the policies out of the blue will not be feasible for us. Atleast until this financial year ends.

 

[easyhostmedia]

I think you are right. But changing the policies out of the blue will not be feasible for us. Atleast until this financial year ends.

You just need to message all your clients at least 14 days before making a change to TOS etc.

 

[HC-Ro]

you will find by charging a late fee, you will have less clients getting suspended/terminated for non payment as most do not want to end up paying extra.

This may be true to some extend but I see some of the same people that push the 7 day limit before suspension almost every month and even handful that often go the full 15 days into the next month before being terminated and then pay. I also have never seen a complaint about the late fee.

Though I get so aggravated when a new client does not pay and then half the new month goes by and they get terminated. Then they complain about paying a small fee about having us go into S3, grab a backup and re-open the account after paying the overage. To top it off they then get a new bill a week later. Or the alternate scenario when they pay the bill, get a backup, cancel the account and leave. Then come back with threats because they get a new bill which includes the 15 days we kept their account open. :crash:

 

[AuniqueHost-Jr]

We charge a $5 late-payment fee. If client asked us to removed the late fee we only give them 1 chance of removing the late fee no question ask.

 

[kevin8008]

I give them a week to pay with no penalty. After that their website is suspended for 3 weeks (Fee is the price of the hosting and 2.99 reactivation fee) But if they dont pay after the 1 week grace and 3 week suspended. Terminated!

But sometimes if its a loyal customer i will kick the extra 2.99 fee, as long as there was a legit reason they were late.

 

[Brian_R]

In the UK, the late payment charges regime is codified in law - https://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legislation-interest-calculators. Basically £40 per invoice under £1000 plus 8.5% interest.

 

[easyhostmedia]

In the UK, the late payment charges regime is codified in law - https://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legislation-interest-calculators. Basically £40 per invoice under £1000 plus 8.5% interest.

you are talking about The late payment of commercial debts (interest) Act 1998 which is if a debt is owed by a business and not a consumer. This ios usually applied once you issue a letter before action (LBA)

 

[Brian_R]

you are talking about The late payment of commercial debts (interest) Act 1998 which is if a debt is owed by a business and not a consumer. This ios usually applied once you issue a letter before action (LBA)

Yes, you are absolutely right, it doesn't apply to consumers, I forgot about that. IANAL but I don't believe the LBA is required, the debt can be automatically added, unless the letter notifying of the amount is the LBA???

 

[easyhostmedia]

but I don't believe the LBA is required, the debt can be automatically added, unless the letter notifying of the amount is the LBA???

thats why i said "This is usually applied once you issue a letter before action (LBA)" because it has more effect this way. also if you are going to add fees under The late payment of commercial debts (interest) Act 1998 then the debt has usually esculated past the normal timeframe, so 9/10 it will be at the LBA stage

 

[Brian_R]

thats why i said "This is usually applied once you issue a letter before action (LBA)" because it has more effect this way. also if you are going to add fees under The late payment of commercial debts (interest) Act 1998 then the debt has usually esculated past the normal timeframe, so 9/10 it will be at the LBA stage

Fair enough, makes sense.

 

[TmzHosting]

We charge around $10 if it's late more than 15 days after the due date. You don't want to hit your clients with late fee right away, they will not appreciate that.

- Daniel