I’ve got a longtime customer who has never paid a bill on time in the 15 years I’ve done business with him. I learned this after the 1st job I did for him and started adding a couple of points to the price when I bid his jobs. He’s a regular customer and usually about 2 months after I finished a job of his that he hadn’t paid the last draw on, he’d call me to start another job. I’d get final payment on the last job and 1st payment on the next before I’d start. I’d often have to pull off the job to get the next payment, but it usually suited me because someone else was breathing down my neck and I could go take care of them and come back when I got a payment.

Long story short: Finished a job in October for him. He owed me $8K. When I call him he always answers my calls and tells me he’ll send a check in a couple of days. Then he doesn’t.

I called him last week and told him if I didn’t have a payment by today I’d file suit on Monday. He was surprised that I’d take payments. His thinking was that he had to pay me the full amount or nothing. My thinking is partial is better than nothing and then I’ve got a smaller balance to collect.

Anyway, he called today about 4pm and I figured he wasn’t going to give me anything (we had agreed that 25% would keep the lawyers away for another month). But, he told me he was just looking at my statement and realized for the 1st time that I took AMEX. Paid me in full. Cost me 3%, but I’m paid in full. I’m doing a little dance while I type. Beer’s on me.