Suspension of Care/ Payment Issues

I have a family who has now had 3 cheques get returned (I am no longer taking cheques from them). I just found out I had one from last week returned as well. They seem to be ignoring me this evening.

I'm at the point where I am ready to suspend care unless I am paid all monies owed before the child returns. Her main method of communication with me is through text/ email messages. I can see she has read my message (4 hours ago) I also tried calling her and left a voicemail. I have in my contract I am able to suspend care if payment is not received.
I am thinking about emailing her a suspension of care notice before I go to bed. Do you think I should just wait until tomorrow and deal with it then? I know she will get it as she has to constantly check her email for work.

Wow - how much $$$ do they owe you now???

I would expect any client of mine to have fixed this promptly without me chasing them - however in absense of that my policy is you will be refused care at the door in the morning until they come back with cash ...but I do not work for free :(

bounce #1 was paid +nsf fee the following morning
bounce #2 was paid +nsf fee 3 days later - was supposed to be friday at pick up but she dragged it out until monday.
I just found out about this one so now owing is $175 + my NSF fee. I don't have that care will be turned down at my door just that I the provider am able to suspend or terminate care if payment is not received.
I am just getting tired of this and apparently having to pay NSF fees aren't enough to get them to pay on time.

I would write her and leave a voicemail stating that you will not give care until the owed fees are paid in full!

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Originally Posted by loulou

.... I don't have that care will be turned down at my door just that I the provider am able to suspend or terminate care if payment is not received. I am just getting tired of this and apparently having to pay NSF fees aren't enough to get them to pay on time.

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Sorry I should clarify my does not specifically state that either ~ to me that is common sense if you bounce a cheque and do not voluntarily show up on your own with cash in hand immediately followed by a HUGE apology of embarrassment for having done such a thing than why on earth would I continue to provide service cause you are now a FINANCIAL RISK to my business?

Chasing money is one of the CONS of this business and I am aware that there are clients out there who are not ideal with their finances and bouncing cheques is a normal occurrence for them in many areas of their lives and yes they are even those out there who are not deterred by the NSF fee cause to them it is just something else to budget for .... just like others who are not deterred by late fee payments and other 'penalties' people put in place for bad behavior because they think the penalty entitles them to behave badly .... just like the people who regularly speed and when caught and complain about the fine they got but than turn around and speed again cause they do not CARE about the rules for whatever reason :blink:

Honestly I do not want to chase money and have that souring my experience with clients and my program and making me feel stressed and so forth .... so to avoid that and allow me to focus on the fun and positive aspects of my job it is clear in my contract that I do not tolerate having to chase fees or being treated with disrespect in regards to fees and hopefully that 'bluntness' in my contract will weed out anyone who might have a 'habit' of that kind of thing before they even sign on.

My contract is worded as such

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• The suggestion of supplying post dated cheques to ensure timely payments has been explained to me and I understand that a late fee of $10.00 per day will apply to all fees not received by noon on Friday of your payment schedule.
• A service charge of $25.00 will apply to any NSF payment.
• In the event of an NSF cheque on my part I understand I will be required to pay cash before care can continue.
• It has been explained that more than one occurrences of NSF payments will result in cash only service for the duration of the contract.
• I am aware that regular issues with payment will result in immediate termination of this contract and services in their entirety and forfeiting of my security deposit ~ any moneys owing that the security deposit does not cover must be paid in full to the provider upon notice or will be sent to collections.

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I am in my sixth year and I have only had 1 client bounce a cheque and she found out before I did, she came with cash in hand an apology and a letter from her bank stating it was THEIR fault and please do not allow their error to in anyway negatively affect the clients credit with my business .... and THAT is what should happen IMO cause she did not want to risk getting terminated from the program.

My advice is ~ if they do not show up with CASH in hand this morning that you turn them away at the door to go and GET payment. You do not provide any more service without payment cause their behaviour is escalating and while I empathize with people having financial troubles ~ you have a family and bills to pay yourself! Moving forward they pay CASH only and make sure to get it in advance of care if that is not already your policy!

I try not to be jaded about the world however 25 years working in centre care I have seen too many clients, nice people who just cannot properly budget and live within their means, who have ended up with $1000 of dollars being owed to the centre because they 'fell behind' in payments and than could not catch up so they BOLTED from care rather than paying up and I do not want to put myself in that position in my own business cause unlike a centre with higher fees and government grants and other subsidies to cover such things ~ its just me here and if a client does not pay it comes directly out of my wage!

I completely agree with Reggio and my contract has a very similar policy.

Let us know how you get on loulou

Wow- three bounced cheques - that's awful !:no: I have all my parents pay me via a series of post dated cheques at the beginning of each month. I've never had a problem family like this, but my first client was a bit scatterbrained and would frequently forget to bring her dues in the A.M. (when my contract specifies they are due) and she would have to bring them at the end of the day when she finished her shift. I was so happy when she went on mat leave and I could replace her with a nice client who could remember when payday was ! :laugh: Obviously, cheques don't appear to work well with this family. If it were me, I would move to a "cash only" payment plan for these folks. What if you asked them to pay the months dues at the beginning of the month (or perhaps bi-weekly) It might also help if you could set things up so that they are paying you for the upcoming week of care - that way you haven't already provided a service and are now waiting on them to pay you for that service. :mad: Let us know what you decide to do. Hope things get sorted out quickly !

EMT is also a good option ....

that really stinks lou. Can I give a little advice though? once you get payment, you need to start looking to fill the spot, people like this usually don't get any better or all the sudden find respect for you, the fact they don't have enough money or can't budget their money really is too bad for them and I feel sorry for people who fall on hard times or seem to have trouble with managing money in general, but I have learned over the years to weed this out early if not, just not accept families that have low hourly wage or tend to have a below average lifestyle and it seems they "struggle" sounds bad, and is not always so accurate (have also had people who make a lot of money and still manage to keep daycare lower on list than hair appt and tanning and such) but for the most part, you as a provider really need to look after yourself FIRST, and it seems these people have given at least 3 reasons to be let go already. Play nice, get your money and then the next payment UP FRONT, then give them notice. People like this ,never change! Good Luck!

I would also tell her that until she is paid in full including NSF fees, that service WILL NOT BE PROVIDED.

Sorta on topic.

Because I do not want any cheques or automatic payments to bounce I have a totally seprate (sp) bank account (free one from PC Fin) As soon as I write a cheque the money is transfered over, because I have one company that I write cheques to that takes forever to cash them...Welcome to 1990 LOL

I ended up emailing her saying since I had not heard back and received payment I am sending a notice of suspension of care along with the form. I got an EMT within 5 minutes.

It was weird because the cheques came back 1-1.5 weeks after I put them in my account. I'd never had that happen before. Once I got one returned I stopped taking anymore cheques from her. I was given the cheques for months in advance and just gave back the rest.

I know they are going through a separation but that doesn't mean everyone around you needs to deal with it as well. I am full right now and don't mind having one less child if it becomes too much of a hassle.

Thanks for all the support!

Glad you got paid Loulou. I once was that parent that was in the middle of a seperation and had bounced a cheque or two. But I always found out first and always showed up with full payment to my provider the next day. My issues were uncontrollable to me, but it didn't mean that my problem had to be my providers problem. Thankfully she didn't terminate me!

I would only accept cash or EMT from now on.
Glad to hear you got your payment! I hate when people ignore me like that especially when you know they got your message. Just rude.

Can you imagine how much this is costing her when adding up bank and daycare NSF fees? She's probably paying double what she would pay if she just handed you the cash. Too weird! My contract states that there is a $50 NSF fee for a bounced cheque and no further cheques will be accepted. I don't need that stress.