LATE PAYMENT AGAIN ! I'M REALLY UPSET...

[DoIreallywantanotherbaby]

Payment was due on friday, it's vouchers so it take 3-4 days to go in my accounts, I cant reach the family as they are abroad. I have texted them and didnt get any answers. We agreed on payment every 2 weeks so they didnt have to give me a big lump in one go and they also promised they wouldnt be late for payment anymore..I really need this money, I had swine flu at the beginning of the month so I have lost a lot of money, things are pretty tight here..What else can I do, I cant call them, its going to cost a fortune...

bump

can you text and say if they don't call you, and you have to call them you will pass the cost on to them?

and for the future, as they are late payers, then you will have to make them pay in advance.

good luck

My Parents pay by vouchers, but I have a policy, that they hold a months vouchers in hand, so that they release the vouchers around the 28th of the month so they are in my bank by the 1st.

But that dosnt help you now, it does sound as if they have gone abroad without releasing them, and unless you can speak to them it wont be till they get back.

I would be writing up a late payment policy, charging for each day late and getting them to sign it.

And then charge them everytime they are late.

they pay in advance, Im going to do text them again! thnk u

maybe they think if they are away then, they don't have to pay??

no idea why people think like that, mind you!

Shoshe - I didnt know you could do that, so what I should have done is taking a normal payment the first month while they hold the vouchers and then make them pay the 28 and get the money each 1rst ? We agreed with this mum as she is paid on the 15 th of each month (except this time as the 15 is a saturday so she got paid on the 14) she releases the vouchers on payday so I can get paid...They have been late almost every month since they have started with me, 7 months, always came up with excuse "Sorry I forgot" last month we had a chat, and I told them it was not on, I proposed the pay me every forthnight, wrong move as twice the stress...:-(

They do not pay for my holidays but they pay for theirs and they know that as they have the contract..How much should I charge them by late days ? Thank you for help ladies !!!

Well if their holidays fall on a payemnt date I would think its reasonable to ask for payemnt in advance of their holiday, maybe a cash lump sum or a post dated cheque which you can then use against the late payment and any late charges.
Also if they continually pay late could you ask for a weeks payemnt as a rolling credit balance which you could then use if they were late again.

Perhaps you could write it into your contracts?

I am not a childminder but I cant see why you should be continuously inconvenienced by their lack of timely organisation of thier finances.

Sorry just to add I notices that they are abroad, they may well have their mobiles turned off to avoid roaming charges. So your texts wont have got to them. Also I am not sure how vouchers work but do they need phone/ internet to access them? If so that is going to cost them too, much better to have sorted it out before they went.

I'd insist on a direct debit. Don't know what the procedure is in the UK, but here it's the account holder who gets slugged if the balance is inadequate.

I know it's my fault I should have sorted it out before they went but I have assumed we'll be alright this time as previous payment was on time, so I have assumed we were back on track..Not being paid is a disaster for me, we had a couple of big bills non expected, I was sick for 1 week, DH is going to be sick with worries..we have no money to finish the month ..I have been stupid to trust them..

When they get back I would suggest that you take over activating the vouchers on their behalf you can print out a reciept when you have done this and give it to them as a record. You can do this with accor or busy bees you just need the access code.

It will save you a lot of trouble in the long run, failing that say you won't take vouchers from them anymore if they don't ensure that you get the payment cleared by the due date. This might stir them into action if they think that its going to hit them in the pocket.

As to what you can do now, not a lot I'm afraid, even if you manage to get in touch with them I doubt that they will have their account details with them so that they can contact the voucher provider, they might be able to do a bank transfer for cash to you though.

Just feel for you that you are in this position.

thanks notworking, I'm going to ask them to do a standing order from now on and the full amount each 1rst of the month and if they are not happy, they can go..I have been patient enought.

I think you are doing the right thing I had a similar problem with not being paid on time, 2 - 4 wks late all the time and this was for 1 family with 2f/t and a p/timer, I kept thinking somethings better than nothing but when i actually added up what i had been paid over the year it was peanuts and not worth all the other agrivation that went with it, so insisted that I be paid up to date by a certain date, obv didn't get it so terminated contract, got paid in the end though.

I'm a lot more strict now and it's working a lot better.

Good luck, sorry I can't be of more help.

This doesn't solve your immediate problem, but it is possible with both Accor and Busybees (at least - I don't know about any other voucher services) for the vouchers to be set up to be automatically paid on a set date - so the 15th of every month, for example. If you insisted on that, they wouldn't be able to 'forget' to authorise the transfer each month... Would that be an acceptable solution to you, moving forward?

This doesn't solve your immediate problem, but it is possible with both Accor and Busybees (at least - I don't know about any other voucher services) for the vouchers to be set up to be automatically paid on a set date - so the 15th of every month, for example. If you insisted on that, they wouldn't be able to 'forget' to authorise the transfer each month... Would that be an acceptable solution to you, moving forward?