How to ask for payment politely: 15 messages under 60 words, by days overdue

When do you send each payment reminder?

Send five: on the due date, then at 3, 7, 14 and 30 days overdue, and change one thing each time (the question, then the deadline, then the consequence, then the interest). Page one disagrees with itself on the gaps: Rippling spaces its templates at the due date, one to three weeks and one month, Neat at one day, one week and one month, Adobe says wait three to five days and then a week, and Garfield runs days 1 to 7, 7 to 30 and 30 to 60. Every version agrees on the two ends, so the schedule below keeps a message on the due date and one at day 30 and fills the middle with the three dates a client can act on inside a normal payment run.

The word caps come from counting what ranks. Of the 9 pages our search returned on 27 September 2026, 4 (Moxo, ProZ, Adobe and the Quora thread) carry no copyable message, and the other 5 carry between 1 and 6 complete message bodies (each copyable message counted once, with or without a subject line), so the page one median is 5 where a page has any. Neat's one week reminder runs to 135 words with its two optional lines in, Rippling's day 30 email to 89, and Remitly's six texts to friends run 25 to 33. A reminder is read on a phone between two other things, so the 15 below stay under 60 words with the sign-off and most under 40.

Day 30 is where the money changes, and in the UK it changes less than people expect. Statutory interest on a £2,500 invoice is 80p a day at the current 11.75%, so for the first 86 days the fixed £70 recovery fee is worth more than all the interest put together. The day 30 email names the fee first for that reason.

15 payment reminder messages, each under 60 words

Every message carries the invoice number and the amount, asks at most one question, and never apologises for asking. Swap the bracketed parts and send. The email set is for a client; the text set works in SMS or WhatsApp; the friend set is for money between people, not businesses.

Email, on the due date:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is due today. The bank details are on the invoice, attached again here. If it is already in your payment run, no reply needed. Thanks, [Your name]

Email, 3 days overdue:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] was due on [date] and has not reached my account yet. Could you tell me the date it will be paid? Invoice attached. Thanks, [Your name]

Email, 7 days overdue:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is now a week overdue. Is there anything you need from me to release it, such as a PO number or a different invoice format? If not, please pay by [date three working days out]. [Your name]

Email, 14 days overdue:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is 14 days overdue and I have had no reply to my emails of [date] and [date]. Please pay by [date]. After that I will pause work on [project] until the account is settled. [Your name]

Email, 30 days overdue (UK):

[Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is 30 days overdue. Under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 I am entitled to statutory interest at 8% over base rate, currently [rate], plus a fixed £[40, 70 or 100] recovery fee. Pay the [amount] by [date] and I will waive both. [Your name]

For a US client, swap the second sentence for the late fee clause in your contract ("Per clause 6, a late fee of [amount] applies from [date]"), and if the contract has none, state the next step instead: a collections agency, or a small claims filing on [date]. The US section below says why there is no statutory sentence to borrow.

Text or WhatsApp to a client, on the due date:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is due today. The details are on the invoice I emailed on [date]. Thanks!

Text or WhatsApp to a client, 3 days overdue:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] ([amount]) was due on [date]. When can I expect it? Happy to resend the invoice if that helps.

Text or WhatsApp to a client, 7 days overdue:

Hi [Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is a week overdue now. Can you pay it today, or tell me the date it will go out?

Text or WhatsApp to a client, 14 days overdue:

[Name], invoice [number] for [amount] is two weeks overdue and I have not heard back. I need it paid by [date]. I have sent the same by email so you have it in writing.

There is no day 30 text. A message that names interest, fees or a court goes by email, to the person who signs the payments, so it exists as a record if you ever need one.

To a friend or family, the first ask:

Hey [Name], can you send me the [amount] for [the dinner or the tickets] when you get a sec? [Payment app handle] works, or a bank transfer. Thanks!

To a friend, a week later:

Hey [Name], nudging you about the [amount] for [thing]. Could you send it today? [Payment app handle].

To a friend, the firm one:

[Name], I still have not had the [amount] from [date]. I do not want it sitting between us, so please send it by [day]. If money is tight right now, tell me and we will sort out a date.

Before the work starts (a deposit):

Hi [Name], thanks for confirming. To book the dates I need the [50%] deposit of [amount] by [date], invoice attached. Work starts once it lands, and the balance is due [terms]. [Your name]

When they say it has been sent and nothing has arrived:

Thanks, [Name]. Nothing has arrived yet for invoice [number]. Could you send the remittance advice or a screenshot of the transfer, with the date and the account it went to? That lets me trace it from my side. [Your name]

When they ask for more time:

Thanks for telling me, [Name]. I can take [amount] by [date] and the remaining [amount] by [date]. If that works, reply yes and I will hold the account there. If either date is missed, the full balance is due at once. [Your name]

Three of these do the most work. The deposit message removes most late payment before it exists, which is why how to write a quote for a job puts the deposit in the quote. The remittance message answers the oldest excuse in the trade without calling it one. And the friend set asks in the first sentence, because the "hope you are well, how was the weekend" opener that Remitly's six templates all use is the part the other person reads as a wind-up to the ask.

How much interest can you charge on a late invoice in the UK?

A UK business can charge another business "8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions", in the words of gov.uk's late commercial payments guidance, and the base rate has been 3.75% since the Bank of England held it on 17 September 2026, so the statutory rate is 11.75% a year as of September 2026. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 makes it "an implied term in a contract to which this Act applies that any qualifying debt created by the contract carries simple interest", so you do not need a clause in your contract to claim it. You do need a business customer: the Act covers business to business debts, not a private individual who owes you for a wedding shoot.

The fixed recovery fee is the part most reminder templates leave out, and on small invoices it is the bigger number. Gov.uk sets it by the size of the debt and says "You can only charge the business once for each payment."

The interest is simple, not compound: the invoice amount times 11.75%, divided by 365, times the days late. Gov.uk's own worked example runs a £1,000 debt at a 0.5% base rate to 23p a day. When the clock starts depends on your terms. If you agreed a payment date, the debt is late the day after it. If you agreed nothing, gov.uk says "the payment is late 30 days after either: the customer gets the invoice or you deliver the goods or provide the service (if this is later)", and an agreed period "must usually be within 30 days for public authorities or 60 days for business transactions".

So the day 30 email above states what the invoice already carries under the Act. Most freelancers who send it never collect the £24.14; they collect the £2,500 within the week, which is the point of writing "and I will waive both".

Can you charge a late fee on an invoice in the US?

Yes, if your contract says so, and no US law hands a private business the automatic interest the UK gives. The Prompt Payment Act covers the federal government paying its contractors, not one business paying another: 31 U.S.C. 3903 makes an agency's payment due "30 days after a proper invoice for the amount due is received if a specific payment date is not established by contract", and the Treasury sets the penalty rate twice a year. Fiscal Treasury sets the Prompt Payment interest rate at 4.75% for 1 July to 31 December 2026. If your customer is a federal agency, that is your rate. If it is a dental practice in Ohio, it is not.

What a private client owes you past the invoice amount comes from state law and your contract, and the state rules vary from nothing to double damages. New York is the strong end. Its Freelance Isn't Free Act, statewide since 28 August 2024 as Article 44-A of the General Business Law, applies to a freelancer hired for $800 or more (by itself, or added up over 120 days with the same client). Section 1411 says that where the contract sets no date, compensation is due "no later than thirty days after the completion of the freelance worker's services under the contract", and section 1414 gives a freelancer who wins a claim under it "an award of double damages", plus attorney's fees. Illinois has its own version for contracts from 1 July 2024, at a $500 threshold over 120 days, with the same 30 day default. Most states have nothing like it, and there the only late fee is the one in your contract.

That is why the US day 30 email cites a clause, not a statute. Put the clause in every contract before the work starts ("Invoices unpaid after 30 days carry a late fee of 1.5% per month"), keep it under your state's usury cap, and then the day 30 email has something true to say. Without it, the honest day 30 message names the next step you will actually take. We are not lawyers, and a client who disputes the debt rather than delays it is a question for one; the templates on this page are for the far more common case where nobody disputes anything and the invoice is simply sitting in a queue.

Which prompt writes the reminder sequence for your own invoice?

A prompt that gives the model the invoice facts, the channel, the country and your late fee terms writes all five reminders in one pass. Paste this into any model, fill the brackets, and read the day 30 message twice.

```

Write five payment reminders for this invoice, one for each stage: due date, 3 days overdue, 7 days overdue, 14 days overdue, 30 days overdue.

Invoice: number [number], [amount], due [date], for [the work], payable by [method or link].

Client: [name], [how long we have worked together].

Channel: [email / text / WhatsApp].

Country: [US / UK].

Late fee terms in my contract: [the clause, or "none"].

Rules: under 60 words each, the amount and the invoice number in every message, one question at most per message, no apology, no "just checking in", no "I hope this finds you well". From day 14 state the next step. At day 30 state the interest and fee I am entitled to under my contract or the law of my country, with the figures worked out and the rate you used named.

```

We ran it on 27 September 2026 on Claude Sonnet 5 with web search off, filled in for a £2,500 UK invoice, number 2026-118, due 1 September 2026, first project with the client, no late fee clause. The shape came back right: five emails, subject lines included, at 29, 28, 29, 36 and 61 words, one question each, the day 14 email pausing future work if payment was not in within seven days. The money came back wrong in two places. The model wrote that it could not verify the base rate with search off and "used 4.25% as a placeholder", giving 12.25% and £25.17 of interest, when the base rate has been 3.75% since 17 September and the interest is £24.14. It then added "a fixed £100 compensation fee", the band for debts of £10,000 or more, where a £2,500 debt carries £70. Its day 30 total was £2,625.17; the correct figure is £2,594.14, £31.03 less, and the one email in the set that cites the law was the one that broke the word cap.

Two fixes, and the first is enough. Type the current base rate and the fee band into the prompt yourself ("base rate 3.75%, fixed fee £70") and the model has nothing to guess. Or leave web search on, which turns the placeholder into a lookup; the model told us the placeholder was a placeholder, which is the behaviour you want, but only if you read the note. We ran it through Whizi, which publishes this page, and Whizi is no better than any other chat window at this: the model supplies the rate, not the wrapper, so the check is yours either way.

Read the output for three things: the word count on the day 30 message, whether every message carries the invoice number and amount, and whether any message apologises. Then cut the subject lines down to "Invoice [number]: [stage]" and send them from the thread the invoice went out on, so the client sees the history above your reminder. The sibling page on how to politely decline an email uses the same prompt shape for the opposite job, and AI for email writing covers the method for every other email in the queue.