Payment > Payment obligation

1. You’re right to be paid
2. Statutory demand
3. Liability for disputed card payments
4. Regulation
5. Protecting customer data

You’re right to be paid

 

You can set your own payment terms, such as discounts for early payment and payment upfront. Unless you agree a payment date, the customer must pay you within 30 days of getting your invoice or the goods or service.

 

You can use a statutory demand to formally request payment of what you’re owed.

 

You have the right to charge interest for late payment, but you can choose not to.

 

Statutory demand

 

A statutory demand can be used to ask for payment of a debt from an individual or company. When an individual or company gets a statutory demand, they have 21 days to either:

 

• Settle the debt or
• reach an agreement to pay.

 

If there’s no agreement, whoever issues the statutory demand can start:

 

• Bankruptcy proceedings (against individuals who owe £750 or more) or
• winding up a limited company that owes more than £750.

 

Choose the form for your circumstances and deliver it to the individual or company that owes you money. Use one of these 3 statutory demand forms:

 

• Statutory demand form for a specific amount payable now (for individuals). Download ‘Form 6.1 – for a specific amount payable now’ (DOC, 50KB)here!

 

• Statutory demand form for a specific amount payable now following a judgment or a court order (for individuals). Download ‘Form 6.2 – for a specific amount payable now following a judgment or a court order’ (DOC, 50KB)here!

 

• Statutory demand form for debts payable in the future (for individuals). Download ‘Form 6.3 – for debts payable in the future’ (DOC, 49KB) here!

 

• Statutory demand form for LTD’s. Download ‘Form 4.1’ (DOC, 63KB) here!

 

 

To read more about statutory demand please visit www.gov.uk/statutory-demands/overview.

 

 

Liability for disputed card payments

 

 

If a customer asks their credit or debit card issuer to reverse a transaction, they can reclaim the value of the transaction from you. This is known as a ‘chargeback’.

 

Chargebacks can be made when:

• The purchased item never arrived,
• the item wasn’t as described,
• a customer’s card was used without their permission to purchase the item fraudulently.

 

You can be charged up to 120 days after the transaction has been debited or from when the goods or services were due to be received.

 

Minimizing chargebacks

• If a customer uses their PIN, you won’t be liable for a chargeback unless the goods aren’t as described or faulty.
• Where you cannot accept a PIN, a clear signature will help but there is no guarantee against a chargeback.
• For card-not-present transactions, such as online sales, the risks of chargeback will be higher.

 

Regulation

 

If you want to set up a business that takes a sum of money from a customer every time they use a service, for example, online trading, you may need to be authorized by the Financial Services Authority.

 

If customers pay you in large amounts of cash, your business may need to be registered for an anti-money laundering scheme.

 

Protecting customer data

 

You must follow the rules on storing customer data to protect their financial information.

 

 

To learn more about data protection please read our Privacy policy and Terms and conditions.

To read more about payment obligations in general please visit https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/payment-obligations