Interest on Late Payments

7. What if a Customer Objects?

Despite the law, your customer may be unwilling to pay interest on late payment - but they cannot 'opt out' of doing so. In the interests of customer relations, try other ways of obtaining your money before considering legal action.

7.1 Make it clear that you would prefer to come to an agreement regarding the debt.

• If you cannot reach agreement with your customer, you can follow several approaches to obtain the money.

7.2 Consider applying pressure by placing this customer on a stop list until the debt has been paid. (See Credit control.)

7.3 Consider selling or passing the debt (or part of it) to a third party, such as a debt collection agency (see Debt recovery).

• The purchaser of the debt can use the courts to obtain payment of the debt and the interest.

7.4 You may ultimately want to pursue your claim for the original amount and interest through the court.

See Suing for more information on how to pursue a case.

• Your claim will be helped if you can provide written evidence that you delivered the goods or completed the job, and that the customer was satisfied.
• If you have legal expenses insurance, this should encourage a non-payer to pay up when threatened with legal action.