I'm just kind of curious how many of you charge fees if people pay late. I was under the assumption that every company on the planet (including webhosting) charged late fees, but as of late, I've been getting some raised eyebrows when I mention anything about it. Just curious to your input. :)
On a sidenote, try not to turn this into a "if you love your customer, you'll let some late fees slide" convo. I understand the need for keeping customers happy, and sometimes offering credits in the name of customer satisfaction. This thread is more just about if you even have a policy for late fees, or if you just ignore them all together and shut down a customer once they're x days late.
Cheers! :beer:

We do.
The reason:
So that they will pay on time next time.

Another question, how much of a late fee do you charge (if you answer yes to charging one). Flat rate, or percentage? It's cool if not everyone is comfortable with disclosing that info, I'm just curious. :)

I charge a $10 late fee.

If they are paying by check or PayPal, we give customers 15 days from date of invoice to pay. Then we charge the higher of $1.00 or 15% APR.
If they are paying by credit card, payment is expected at the time of invoice. If their credit card fails three or more days in a row, then we charge them $0.65 for each day. This covers the cost of processing the authorizations.
The bottom line is that we need the money when we expect it - just like any other business. Late fees have to be large enough to mean something to the customer, but not so large that they seem excessive. We've never had a customer complain about late fees because we're reasonable about them and they are a standard part of any business.

I charge a $10 late fee.
Wow that's a lot of money for a late fee. I would charge like 2$ a day basicly I would charge half the price they pay for there service.

We also charge late fees, as every company does. Its the norm.

You can only charge a maximum of 15% late fee on an invoice and you can only charge that once. So you could charge 5% per month but after 3 months you can not charge any more (this applies to the UK) - and this amount is only on the original invoice amount.
I charge the full 15% straight off after an invoice is 5 days past due - they soon learn to pay their invoices in a timely manner ;-)

We don't charge late fees. However, if the account is 3 days overdue we automatically suspend them. If they're 7 days overdue, then we terminate the account. However, we leave backups on our sites incase the customer ever wanted their site back.

We charge 10% of the last invoice, that shows that were a serious company, and makes sure people stay on time with their payments.

We do, but first we warn them 2 or 3 times. And our better (big fish) customers, well... We know they will pay eventually anyway. (This is in The Netherlands by the way)
(Edit: 5% of the amount they are behind in payments)

Charging a late fee is good to make some extra money, and to make your customers pay on time. Works well for me.

Charging a late fee is good to make some extra money ...
It is (or can be), and for programming jobs we add 10% 'administrative fee' at a quote (and bill), and if they pay BEFORE or ON time, they get a 10% discount. In this way the customer feels like 'getting a discount' and we have our money on time, and if they do not pay... Well, 10% to cover the work getting it :P

Seems harsh to me.
We do not charge any late fees.
If we cannot contact a customer thats overdue payment after a month we suspend the account. If its not paid after the following month its deleted from our systems.
Customers sometimes do not read emails as often as they should. Or they may just have a temporary card or bank issue. Financially punishing them for that is not good customer relations in my opinion.

Thanks for all of the input! :)

We don't charge any late fee's. If a client doesn't pay on time their account is suspended and that's usually sufficient if they rely on their website being online.

We charge a 15% late fee of their invoice price if latter then 3 days. We believe this makes clients try a bit harder to pay on time and makes it easier on us to pay our bills :)
John;5505387']We don't charge any late fee's. If a client doesn't pay on time their account is suspended and that's usually sufficient if they rely on their website being online.
With our business model, it would be impossible to implement something like this. If a client missed a invoice by a few days and we suspended their website, we would never hear the end of it. We rather tack on a "small" late fee and if they contact us before the invoice is due, that can possibly even be waived.

You can only charge a maximum of 15% late fee on an invoice and you can only charge that once. So you could charge 5% per month but after 3 months you can not charge any more (this applies to the UK) - and this amount is only on the original invoice amount.
I charge the full 15% straight off after an invoice is 5 days past due - they soon learn to pay their invoices in a timely manner ;-)
The rules for what you can legally charge vary according to your jurisdiction (country, state, etc).
Kevin

We dont charge late fees but we disconnect your service within 5 days of non payment, usually when that happens we receive payment within a few hours of suspension of account.
It hurts but it is effective. I cant be late on my Hosting reselling bill why should the consumer?

I am still making up my mind to see if i should charge a late fee