Factoring Aging Fees After 30 or 45 Days

When the aging clock starts

An aging fee is a contract price for an invoice that stays unpaid past a stated number of days. If the contract has no such sentence, the factor does not get to invent one on day 31 because the broker is slow. If the contract has the sentence, the percent and the day are what you signed, not what feels fair after the fact. FMCSA does not set this fee, does not require factors to charge it, and will not referee it.

Before you can count, you need day zero. Pull the sentence. It might start the clock on the date the factor funded you. It might start on the date of the POD. It might start on the date the broker's system shows a complete invoice, with no missing pages. Write that sentence at the top of the invoice notes. Then count forward with a calendar, not with the settlement's label. A settlement that says "day 31" is using the factor's clock. Confirm it matches the contract before you pay the higher percent.

30, 45, and 60 are contract numbers, not a law

Carriers talk about "the 30-day fee" as if it were in the regulations next to hours of service. It is not. One contract steps the fee up at 30 days and again at 45. Another does nothing until day 60 and then buys the invoice back. Another never ages the fee and instead chargebacks only if a dispute appears. All three can be titled factoring. The number in a Facebook comment is not your number.

When you are shopping, ask for the aging schedule as a table: day, what changes, and whether the change is a higher fee or a repurchase. If the salesperson will not put the table in the contract, you do not have a schedule. You have a story that will be interpreted against you on the first slow broker.

A higher fee versus a forced buyback

Read the remedy, not just the day. A higher fee means the factor still owns the invoice and the price went up. You might pay the original percent plus an added percent for the next period. A forced buyback, sometimes called a recourse repurchase, means on the stated day you must repay the advance, the factor returns the invoice to you, and you collect it yourself. Those are different kinds of pain. The first is a more expensive loan that continues. The second is your cash going backward and the broker still unpaid.

Recourse versus non-recourse explains why a buyback exists at all. A non-recourse contract can still have a documentation buyback. Aging is one more door into that repurchase. Circle the door that is actually in your PDF. Do not argue a fee if the clause says repurchase, and do not repay the advance if the clause only raised the fee and you are still inside the factor's collection.

Who you chase: the broker, not the factor's clock

The clock stops when the broker pays the factor, or when the defect that let the broker hold the invoice is cured and the broker then pays. You are the one with the relationship. Call the broker's payable desk, ask what document is missing, and send it. A POD exception, a missing rate confirmation, or a reference number is a common hold. The factor's aging clause does not phone the broker for you unless collections are part of the contract you bought.

If the hold is a claimed offset or a cargo deduction, you are in a dispute, not in a slow-pay story. Aging may still run while you fight. The chargeback page is what happens when the check arrives short. Fixing the document is how you keep a clean invoice from becoming that short check. Put the broker's written status in the file so that, if a fee posts, you can show the invoice was complete on an earlier day. Some contracts pause aging when the delay is the broker's and the paperwork was complete. That pause exists only if you can point to it.

Quick pay versus letting it age

Brokers sometimes offer to pay in a few days for a percent taken off the invoice. Factors sometimes make that look expensive until you see the aging schedule. Compare the two written offers. If the broker's quick pay is 2 percent and your contract adds 1 percent at day 30 and another 1 percent at day 45, a broker who routinely pays on day 50 can cost more than the quick pay you refused on principle. If the broker pays on day 15, the quick pay was a donation. The break-even guide walks that comparison. Use the percents in your rate confirmation and your factoring contract. The percents in the next section are not those offers.

Do not take quick pay from a party who is not the broker on the rate confirmation. That is a different problem, and it is a fraud pattern, not a discount.

A worked day-31 example

This arithmetic is an example. It is not your contract and not a market rate. Suppose the contract says: day zero is the funding date, the initial fee is 3 percent, and if the broker has not paid by day 30 an additional 1 percent aging fee is charged. Suppose the invoice is $2,000 and the factor funded it on March 1. Day 30 is March 31. If the broker pays on March 31, the aging sentence has not been triggered. If the broker pays on April 1, the example's additional 1 percent is $20. The original $60 fee was already taken at funding. The aging $20 is a new charge because the sentence said so. If your contract instead says the invoice must be repurchased on day 30, April 1 is not a $20 conversation. It is a repurchase of the advance. Quote your sentence in the margin of this example and throw the example out if the sentence does not match.

Count weekends the way the contract counts them. If it says thirty calendar days, a weekend counts. If it says business days, it does not. The example used calendar days because the sentence in the example said day 30, not thirty business days.

Hidden fees are the rest of the settlement. The calendar is this page, and it only runs if the contract wound it.

If several invoices fund on different days, do not let the factor age them as one batch. Each invoice has its own day zero. A March 1 invoice and a March 20 invoice do not share a March 31 cliff unless both sentences say they do. Ask the settlement to show the funding date and the age of each invoice. A single "aging" line with no invoice numbers is not a calculation you can check.

Also ask whether a partial payment stops the clock on the unpaid balance or resets nothing. The contract's sentence decides. A broker who pays half on day 20 may still leave the other half aging. Split the balance in your notes so you are not arguing about the half that already arrived.

Frequently Asked Questions