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Guide: SMS Payment Reminders

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedJun 20222 min read

Successfully collecting late payments often depends on the approach taken by a business, and sending out SMS reminders is a notably effective method. This is chiefly because it serves as a gentle and friendly means of communication. However, it also benefits from the fact that individuals typically check their phone on multiple occasions throughout the day, so are unlikely to miss the reminders.

In this guide, we’ll provide some payment reminder SMS templates and take you through the various stages at which you should send out late payment reminders via SMS.

Payment reminder SMS templates

Below are the detailed the four most crucial stages at which SMS payment reminders should be sent, along with some exemplar payment reminder SMS templates.

Scheduled loan payment reminders

Before a payment is due, it can be worth sending out a text message to remind a customer of their upcoming payment. This serves to potentially avoid late payment issues occurring.

A friendly payment reminder SMS should resemble the following:

“Hello, [name]. This is [institution/business name]. We’d like to remind you that a payment for [£] is due by [date]. For more information, visit our website [link].

Soft overdue payment reminders SMS

Once a payment is officially overdue but only by a short time period, a gently worded reminder is advisable. For customers that have genuinely just forgotten, this soft reminder is usually enough to get them to clear their debt ASAP.

A gentle reminder like this should read something like the following:

“Hello [name]. We would like to remind you that [£] sum is due for payment since [due date]. If you have any issues with the payment, contact us via email [email address] or call us on [phone number]. Cordially, [institution/business name].”

Strong overdue payment reminders SMS

If a payment still hasn’t been collected after the initial soft payment reminder, it’s time to send a more strongly worded SMS. At this stage, however, your SMS should include reference to the previous attempt to remind the customer of their overdue payment. This is both for legal reasons, and to ensure you stay on good terms with the customer.

A strong overdue payment reminder SMS sample may look something like the following:

“Dear [name]. We have made several attempts to contact you regarding your outstanding payment of [£] since [date]. However, unfortunately the payment has still not been made. We will therefore be forced to [cut off services, go to a debt collection service, etc.]. Regards, [Institution/business name].”

Final overdue payment reminders

If no previous reminders have resulted in a successful payment collection, the next step is to send a final SMS message informing your client that you will now pursue legal action. You can also offer a final chance for the client to resolve the issue by paying before matters go to court.

This sometimes works as a scare tactic to finally get the customer to pay up. Unfortunately, however, it does also occasionally result in the costly affair of pursuing legal action.

An SMS of this nature may read something like the following:

“Dear [name]. After several attempts to contact you, we have still not received the due [£] payment. Unfortunately, we are now forced to pursue legal action. If you would like to settle the payment before matters go any further, call us on [phone number]. [Institution/business name].”

Avoiding late payments with GoCardless

The risk of late payments can be virtually eliminated with GoCardless, as the platform enables businesses to collect invoice payments directly from their customers' bank accounts via Direct Debit. This saves businesses huge amounts of both time and money spent chasing payments. In fact, businesses can get paid up to twice as fast by accepting GoCardless payments on their online invoices.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.