Late fee
Encyclopedia
A late fee, also known as a late fine or a past due fee, is a charge levied against a client by a company or organization for not paying a bill or returning a rented or borrowed item by its due date. Its use is most commonly associated with businesses like creditors, video rental outlets and libraries
. Late fees are generally calculated on a per day, per item basis.
Organizations encourage the payment of late fees by suspending a client's borrowing or rental privileges until accumulated fees are paid, sometimes after these fees have exceeded a certain level.
Significant portions of the revenue of creditors, video rental outlets, and libraries alike come from the payment of late fees.
Late fees are widely regarded as an annoyance
. In 2005, video rental chain Blockbuster Video capitalized on this perception with a major advertising campaign
that touted a revision of its rental policy as "The End of Late Fees".
More recently, in 2006, Rogers Video
has used the same technique, except only for movies, and without any restocking fee
(due to movies costing much less than video games).
Late fees charged by banks, landlords, and utilities have been heavily criticized as a penalty against the poor, and attempts have been made in some places to outlaw them completely or place caps on them. The argument against them is that the poor will inevitably be forced to pay them as they cannot earn the money to pay their bills by the due date. These people will be forced to pay even higher fees for the same services, and will find making future timely payments to their creditors even more difficult.
A special use of the term late fee is additional postage that was once required by Post Offices to allow inclusion of a letter or package in the outgoing mail dispatch although having been posted later than the normal closing time for mail. Often a special Late Fee Box was provided.
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
. Late fees are generally calculated on a per day, per item basis.
Organizations encourage the payment of late fees by suspending a client's borrowing or rental privileges until accumulated fees are paid, sometimes after these fees have exceeded a certain level.
Significant portions of the revenue of creditors, video rental outlets, and libraries alike come from the payment of late fees.
Late fees are widely regarded as an annoyance
Annoyance
Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by such effects as irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger...
. In 2005, video rental chain Blockbuster Video capitalized on this perception with a major advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
that touted a revision of its rental policy as "The End of Late Fees".
More recently, in 2006, Rogers Video
Rogers Video
Rogers Plus is the overall banner for the retail operations of the Rogers Cable subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It was formed in early 2007 from the merger of the Rogers Plus chain of telecommunications stores previously operated by InterTAN under licence from Rogers, and the company-owned...
has used the same technique, except only for movies, and without any restocking fee
Restocking fee
In retail, returning is the process of a customer taking previously purchased merchandise back to the retailer, and in turn, receiving a cash refund, exchange for another item , or a store credit...
(due to movies costing much less than video games).
Late fees charged by banks, landlords, and utilities have been heavily criticized as a penalty against the poor, and attempts have been made in some places to outlaw them completely or place caps on them. The argument against them is that the poor will inevitably be forced to pay them as they cannot earn the money to pay their bills by the due date. These people will be forced to pay even higher fees for the same services, and will find making future timely payments to their creditors even more difficult.
A special use of the term late fee is additional postage that was once required by Post Offices to allow inclusion of a letter or package in the outgoing mail dispatch although having been posted later than the normal closing time for mail. Often a special Late Fee Box was provided.