I'm glad to have stumbled across this thread, my company are having similar problems too and I was wondering if any of you could shed light on the matter.
My company, who are UK based, are currently having a problem with a US company regarding a late payment. In line with UK legal practice, after a month of having not received payment we sent them a second invoice with an 8% interest charge added. The US company in question have subsequently contested the amount and claim that the interest on late payment that we have charged is too high. As I understand, it is standard practice in the UK to charge 8.5% at present, a fixed 8% rate on top of the existing bank of England interest rate which is 0.5%.
As far as I'm aware, after researching the US government website and various business related departments, the US don't have a federal law similar to ours which established a clear guideline for late payments interest. I'm intrigued, however, by ricklecoats comment above that suggests that the American practice is to charge 1.5% interest per month on late payments, indeed far lower than our rate in the UK. Can anybody confirm whether or not this is standard practice across the Atlantic? After finding no federal law relating to late payments I then wondered if rules relating to this were state specific, but have also found no evidence of this.
Any information you guys could give me as to the general trend or practice with regards to late payments in the US would be much appreciated. Also, If any of you have had experience in collecting late payment from US firms from the UK then I'd be happy to hear from you too.
Many thanks
Solomon