Do you need to send out a letter to remind defaulters about the payments that they are overdue on? Well this article that provides you with a sample should help you draft this type of letter.
Collecting debts is never an easy task and most people find it very difficult to constantly contact people in order to collect payments that they are defaulting on. This is where letter writing can come to the rescue. A properly drafted late payment letter is a polite but persistent way of reminding a person that they are overdue on their payment and need to send the money in as soon as possible.
Also, a payment letter is a valid document that can act as a proof that the person concerned has been informed of his misdemeanor on previous occasions and has still failed to make the payment. In this article, we explain how you can write late payment letters with the help of a sample and a format of the same.
Format
Before we take a look at a sample of a late payment letter, we will try and understand how to draft a payment letter with the help of a format for the same.
| Your Name Your Organization Organization’s Address Date Name of Addressee Reference: In a brief and concise manner, mention the subject of this letter. Salutation/Greetings In the first introductory paragraph, mention why you are writing this letter which is to remind the addressee that their payment is overdue for the bill that your firm has sent across on an earlier date. Do mention the date on which your firm had sent the invoice to the addressee. Also remember to send another invoice as an enclosure with the letter with the updated overdue amount. The second paragraph should have a request for the payment of the amount by the date as specified by the company. Mention both the amount and the date by which the addressee has to make the payment. Mention that your organization will be forced to take legal action in case the addressee does not make the payment in the time period specified. In the third paragraph, mention that you believe that legal action would be unnecessary. Also mention that the letter should be ignored in case the payment has been made already. Give your contact details in case the addressee needs to contact you for anything. Valediction/Goodbye |
Sample
The example given below follows the format of the late payment reminder letter given above. The example of payment letter just serves to elucidate the format better so there is no doubt in your mind about how the letter should be drafted.
| Carla Dorian Accountant, Mssrs. Samson and Lithgowe Oak Street, Devon California – 242527 Date: September 20th 2011 Ashley Hamilton Reference: Late Payment Reminder, Invoice # 548520 Dear Ms Hamilton, This letter serves as a reminder that you have an outstanding payment of USD 2500 on the invoice # 548520 which was sent to you on the 14th of August, 2011. We are yet to receive this payment from you. We have enclosed another copy of the invoice with this letter for your reference. I request you to make full payment for the amount of USD 2500 by the 1st of October 2011. In case the payment is not made by the first of next month, the company will be forced to take legal action against you to recover the debt incurred by you. We believe that legal action would be completely unnecessary and therefore, request you to make the payment as soon as possible. Please disregard this letter in case you have already made this payment. Thank you for your cooperation. We hope that your association with us continues in the future. Thanking you, |
In case you have received a late payment letter and need more time to make your payment to the concerned firm, then you should send out a letter to explain your situation to them. Even though the letter will have personal reasons, it is a form of business writing and needs to be professionally drafted. The sample given in this article is a very generic letter format. Depending on how many reminders have been sent previously, the tone of the letter can range between polite and authoritative. Defaulting on a payment is generally because of either some form of misunderstanding or due to a financial crisis, so do try and maintain some sort of politeness in the letter.