Chase in writing with a firm date, then send a letter before action giving them 14 days to pay. If you invoiced as a business (self-employed counts) and the brand is a business, you can add statutory interest at 8% over the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed £40 to £100 recovery charge, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. If they still don't pay, you can claim the money online through the small claims court in England and Wales for amounts up to £10,000, with court fees from £35. What wins is evidence: the brief, the agreed price, proof you delivered, and the message trail.
What should you send first?
Start polite and specific. Most late payments are a lost invoice or a missing purchase order, not a brand deciding not to pay. Send one message that gives them everything they need to pay you today:
The invoice again, attached, with the amount, the invoice date and your bank details.
What you delivered and when, with links to the live posts or the files.
A date: “Please confirm payment by Friday 10 October.” Seven days is reasonable.
Send it by email, not only in DMs. Email is easier to put in front of a court, and it reaches someone in accounts rather than the social media manager who briefed you.
What if they ignore you?
Send a letter before action. It's a formal letter (email is fine) saying what is owed, why, and that you will start a court claim if it isn't paid by a set date. Give them 14 days, or 30 if the brand is a sole trader rather than a company.
Include the amount, a copy of the invoice, a short timeline of the deal and the interest you're adding. Keep it factual. The letter often works on its own, because it's the first point at which ignoring you starts to cost them money.
Can you charge interest on a late payment?
Yes, if you invoiced as a business and the brand is a business. You can claim statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, from the day the payment became late.
If you didn't agree a payment date, the payment is late 30 days after they received your invoice or you delivered the work. You can also add a fixed debt recovery charge: £40 for a debt under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99, and £100 above that.
One exception: if your contract set a different interest rate, that rate applies instead.
How do you take a brand to the small claims court?
In England and Wales you can start a money claim online. Claims up to £10,000 normally go to the small claims track, which is designed for people without a solicitor. The court fee depends on the amount: £35 up to £300, £50 up to £500, £70 up to £1,000. You add the fee to what you claim.
If the brand doesn’t respond to the claim, you can ask for judgment without a hearing. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own processes.
Check the brand is still trading first. A free Companies House search shows whether the company is active or in liquidation, where a court claim is unlikely to get you paid.
What evidence do you need?
Four things decide most payment disputes:
The brief: what they asked for, in their own words.
The agreed price: the email, DM or contract where they accepted your fee. A screenshot counts, but make sure it shows the handle and the date.
Proof of delivery: links to the live posts with dates, or the file transfer showing when they received the content.
The trail: every message since, especially any that approve the work or ask for changes.
Save it now, while you still have access. Brands delete DMs and staff leave; screenshots taken today are worth more than a thread that has gone.
How do you avoid chasing next time?
Get the money committed before you start. Ask for a deposit, or work through an arrangement where a third party holds the fee until you deliver. That is how escrow works for creator deals.
On Sponsarva, the brand pays the fee into Stripe escrow before you start work. When you deliver, the brand approves and the payment is released to you. A brand that goes quiet can't hold it back: if it doesn't respond within 14 days of delivery, the work is approved automatically. If there's a disagreement, it's handled on the platform, with the deal terms both sides agreed as the evidence.
The price, deliverables and usage rights are written into the deal before anyone starts, so there's no DM trail to reconstruct. For what to charge, see UK creator rates for 2026 and the rate calculator, and how Sponsarva protects deals.
Whatever you agreed. If no date was agreed, a business-to-business payment is late 30 days after the brand received your invoice or you delivered the work. Agreed terms between businesses should usually be no longer than 60 days.
No. A contract can be agreed in emails or DMs. What you need is evidence that the brand agreed the price and the work. A written contract makes that quicker to prove.
Yes. The Late Payment Act covers business-to-business contracts, and a self-employed creator invoicing a company is a business. The rate is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed recovery charge of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the debt.
Claiming across borders is slow and rarely worth it for a few hundred pounds. The practical protection is to have the fee paid up front, or held by a third party, before you start.
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