Seriously? Why, Just Why Can't She Get It???

[Cat Herder]

I gave the daycare parents a letter that was attached to my updated contract a few weeks ago.

Dcm didn't have payment last Friday so I charged her a late fee.

I was thinking, yay, this dcm is FINALLY going to get it that I will charge them if they pay late or pick up late.

Guess what she did today? The SAME thing that she did last Friday. She didn't pay me.....

DCM believes that you will charge her a late fee. She simply does not mind paying it. That is what she is showing you.

You will have to decide if you are willing to continue to allow it for extra pay.

The reality is she does "get it" and is following your policy.

[MunchkinWrangler]

I close at 6PM on Friday night. It is then the weekend. I don't do ANY business on the weekend. If they haven't paid me by close on Friday, it has to wait until Monday morning and it's a $30 late fee.

I used to tell clients it was $10 day late fee. So they thought they could show up any time Friday night, or over the weekend to pay me. A few times I even had clients come by on a weekend...see I was gone and therefore argue they didn't owe the fee because they "tried" to pay me.


So now it's paid by Friday at close, or it waits to Monday. I won't open the door to a weekend stalker. And they don't come in the door on Monday without full payment and full late fee.

And I still get payed Monday's for the week (haven't had any reason to do Friday for upcoming week), but I'll go on a case by case basis. Payments are due by close on Monday's and I ask for payment in the morning, if it's missed I send a text reminding to pay by close that day. I also do no pay, no stay...so if payment is not made, care is unavailable Tuesday, it's looser but like I said, no problems so far.

I don't do late fees for the point that most people throw money at their problems I just won't provide care. Period. And I don't allow anyone to my property after hours or weekends for any reason.

[MunchkinWrangler]

DCM believes that you will charge her a late fee. She simply does not mind paying it. That is what she is showing you.

You will have to decide if you are willing to continue to allow it for extra pay.

The reality is she does "get it" and is following your policy.

I agree, people throw money at their problems instead of fixing it. I think she should do payments by drop off Friday and turn away, if it's not in hand stating the amount due. This would be a big policy change but them maybe dcm would get it then.

[MunchkinWrangler]

I use to have this same problem so I followed someone's advice on here and changed my policy on payment. Since I don't have anyone dropping off after 10am that's my cut off time for payment on Friday. If I don't recieve payment by 10am at 10:01am a $30 fee is added on. So far so good!

Yep, agree! That way it becomes dcm's problem not the provider.

[Blackcat31]

DCM believes that you will charge her a late fee. She simply does not mind paying it. That is what she is showing you.

You will have to decide if you are willing to continue to allow it for extra pay.

The reality is she does "get it" and is following your policy.

This ^^^ is THE reason I have a graduated late fee

Those that simply don't mind throwing money at the problem, find out real fast that the only real solution is "Don't be late!"

[Boymom]

Thank you so much everyone! I love this forum :-) I LOVE the idea of increasing the fee each time they are late. I thought $10 would be enough, but apparently not to her!

AND I love that y'all don't let them come back on the weekend to pay. Sometimes I really do think that my dcp's think I just hang around at my house all weekend and that I don't ever do anything! Even if I want to relax at my house (which I normally don't because I work here!!), I don't want to see them! Lol

[daycare]

I had a family that did not care about spending the extra $$

1st late fee $50
2nd late fee $100
3rd late fee, get lost....

and I meant it....

[thrivingchildcarecom]

Yeah, I know! They don't realize (or care) that you will have to make multiple trips to the bank. You may need to do what I do and shoot her a reminder on Thursdays until she gets the hang of it. Otherwise, CHARGE HER (music playing) LOL.