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Interest Rate - customer proposing different?

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10 years 6 months ago - 10 years 6 months ago #1044 by SimonV
Hi

Firstly, great site! loads of very useful information and I have already passed the link on to a few others I know.

I have a customer who has sent back our T&C's with lots of ammendments including striking through our standard 30 days and adding 45 which I can live with (we are getting days from our suppliers on this project).

However they have changed our quoted late payment interest rate of 8% per year above base rate to 3% - I am uncertain if the interest rate is open to negotiation?

My gut reaction is these two amendments indicate they are going to be late paying.

Thanks
Simon

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10 years 6 months ago #1045 by David J
Hello Simon

Thanks for the compliment and passing on the sites details.

The legislation sets a default of 30 days before an invoice becomes overdue. You are of course entitled to agree your own terms and you can agree 45 days.

Interest under the legislation is set at 8% plus the current interest rate within a 6 month period. Currently it is 8.5% and is calculated on a daily rate as follows.

Debt times interest rate divided by 365 times the number of days late

Plus of course to that you can add a compensation fee of £40.00, £70.00 or £100.00 depending on the size of the debt.

To deviate away from that could be classed as unfair and challenged through the courts but that is ridiculous as no one is going to do that. So it is going to be down to you to negotiate. I would use the legislations rate as that has become the standard. Though again, you can agree your own terms.

If you feel that they may be late payers then make sure you make the correct credit checks first and perhaps limit their credit until they have proved themselves. Also make sure your terms are the the ones that are agreed and signed. If you are confident in your service and products (which I'm sure you are!) stick by the terms that you want. Only you can make that call though.

Regards

David

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10 years 6 months ago #1046 by john@termsandconditions.co.uk
Difficult to interpret this behaviour by your customer. It could mean that he's preparing to reduce anticipated charges to his firm when he pays late. Or, could his meticulous attention to your terms and conditions reflect a meticulous attention to paying you on time.

David's right. You need to get a credit report on this customer to gauge which way he's going to go. The credit report results may point you to avoid giving any trade credit at all or only trade with his firm based on a large cash deposit ..or with a personal guarantee if his limited company hasn't been trading long.

His proposed penalty interest rate is much lower than your statutory rights which I personally wouldn't accept no matter what. You should reply and ask if he means 3% per month as 3% per annum is clearly ridiculous. Whatever you agree though, just make sure that this toing and froing over your terms clauses is not distracting you from a potential bad credit risk.

Best Regards
John Hackwood
TermsandConditions.co.uk Ltd

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10 years 6 months ago #1050 by Safe_UK
In this instance we would be tempted to allow the change in payment terms and completely remove any mention of late payment penalties.

You will be covered by the law in the event of late payment anyway, irrespective of its inclusion or not in any terms.

Reducing statutory interest is not something we recommend given the way the act states collections costs are only claimable after the statutory interest starts.

"Once statutory interest begins to run in relation to a qualifying debt, the supplier shall be entitled to a fixed sum (in addition to the statutory interest on the debt."

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