What costs can you charge in cases of late payment, and how much?
If your customer does not pay an invoice, you may charge interest and dunning fees. But how much exactly? And what are realistic rates?
Dunning fee
You will be charged a reminder fee or administration costs for the preparation and sending of the reminders. In a business-to-business context, you as a company decide for yourself how much these dunning costs amount to. However, you must include them in your invoice terms and conditions because otherwise you can only charge the real cost of the formal notice. For example, the cost of the registered letter you sent.
Interest
If your customer pays too late, you can increase the invoice amount by a certain percentage. This can vary from 10% to 12% on the invoice amount, sometimes even more. If you do not agree on a percentage in advance, the interest rates for late payment in commercial transactions apply. Currently these are 12,5% (updated on 13/02/2024).
Damage/Compensation clause
With a damage/compensation clause, the supplier can demand an extra sum on top of the standard invoice amount. It is independent of any interest on arrears and you lay it down in your general terms and conditions and invoice terms and conditions. In the event of a dispute about the percentage of the compensation clause, the court will decide whether it is reasonable. For one court 10% is reasonable, another accepts 12%. So again: fix the costs in advance to avoid disputes.
Enable Unpaid
With Unpaid, we no longer send dunning letters to your customer. We take immediate action. You submit your file online and within 5 working days there will be a bailiff with your customer with a payment reminder. Your customer then has 38 days to pay your unpaid invoice.
Good to know: within the IOS (collection of undisputed claims) procedure that we initiate, the compensation clause may amount to a maximum of 10% of the invoice amount. So, if your general terms and conditions provide for a higher indemnity clause, we are obliged by law to automatically reduce it to 10%.
Do you have an unpaid invoice or do you have questions about how Unpaid works? Call +32 9 396 34 00 or let us know when you want to be called.