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Found the exact law that forces late payment interest in my state
I dug through my state's business code last night and found a statute that lets me charge 1.5% monthly interest on invoices over 30 days past due. Has anyone else actually used one of these laws to get a slow payer to finally send a check?
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brian_hart11d ago
Used the same statute last year on a deadbeat who was 60 days late. Sent them a revised invoice with the 1.5% interest broken out line by line and a note saying they had 10 days before I filed in small claims. Check showed up three days later with no complaints.
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the_jessica12d ago
Oh, I've definitely been there. I actually used a similar 1.5% monthly interest law to get a client to pay a chunk that was 90 days late, and they sent the full check within a week after I included the penalty line. Your mileage may vary, but citing the exact statute felt like holding up a mirror to them, they didn't want to test it in small claims court.
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That "1.5% monthly" part is actually the monthly rate, not annual, so it adds up fast. I had a client try to argue it was 1.5% per year until I showed them the wording. @cora813's friend got lucky with that quick payment, but most folks will drag their feet until you actually tack on the fees and send a new invoice showing the total. The statute I found in my state lets me add a $25 late fee on top of the interest too, which gets their attention.
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