Brand Not Paying for Your UGC? What to Do on Day 1, 7, 30.

The brand approved your videos two weeks ago. The invoice was due on Friday. You sent a friendly reminder on Monday, and nobody has answered it.

You're not overreacting, and you don't need a lawyer yet. Late payment is common. Xero's invoice data shows US small businesses were paid 8.6 days late on average in the third quarter of 2026, and UK ones 8.0 days late. In a 2023 Tipalti survey of 1,231 creators in the US and the UK, 56% said they had faced late payments.

Here's the plan for the next 30 days, with the message to send at each step. If you've already sent a reminder, like the one above, your next message is the day 7 notice. If weeks have passed with no answer, go straight to the day 14 letter. And if the brand only has a preview so far, keep the final files until the invoice is paid (how to keep that upper hand).

Before day 1: is it late, and who owes you?

Day 0 is the date the money was due, and day 1 is the first day it's late. Four checks come first.

When was it due? Look for the date in your agreement, on your invoice or in the messages where you agreed on the job. "Net 30" usually counts from the invoice date, and "on approval" waits for the brand's sign-off. If you never agreed on a date, the law may set one: several US freelance laws make it 30 days after you finish the work, and in the UK and the EU it's 30 days after your invoice arrives, or after you deliver if you invoiced first. Either way, that date is your day 0.

Has the work been approved? If payment depends on approval and nothing has been approved, ask in writing for approval or revision notes by a set date. If your agreement says the work counts as approved after a certain number of days, quote that line back.

Who owes you? The business you made the deal with: the brand, or the agency that booked you. If the job came through a UGC platform, its rules decide when you're paid, and its dispute process is your first move, not your last. Open it now, send the day 1 and day 7 messages through the platform too, and check its rules before you contact the brand outside it. Screenshot the order, the brief, the chat and the approval while you can still see them. One creator's platform order vanished from the app three days after delivery, chat included, and support then asked for a link to the chat that no longer existed. Some platforms also hold payouts for a set time after approval, and that clearing period is easy to mistake for a brand that won't pay. And if the "brand" asked you for money first, or turns out not to exist, that's a scam, not a late payer, with different steps.

Did your invoice reach whoever pays? The person who booked you often isn't the one who pays invoices. That's usually accounts payable, which needs the company's legal name on your invoice, any purchase order number you were given and, in the US, often a W-9 form before it can pay you. Some late payments come down to paperwork, or get blamed on it. One creator who followed up once net 30 had passed was told the invoice hadn't been done correctly, and an agency owner once held up a creator's pay for a week by leaving a letter out of their PayPal address. Our UGC invoice template covers what accounts payable looks for.

Then put everything in one folder: the brief, the agreement or the messages where you agreed on the fee, proof of delivery with its date, the approval, the invoice, and every reminder you send from here. A message thread can work as an agreement, so screenshots count, and what your agreement says will matter later.

Day 1: a short note to whoever pays

Write to your contact and to accounts payable. Attach the invoice again, and ask for a date rather than a favor.

To:      [your contact], [accounts payable, if you have it]
Subject: Invoice [number], [amount], due [due date]

Hi [name],

Quick check on invoice [number] for the [videos] you
approved on [date]: it was due on [due date], and the
payment hasn't come through on my side. A copy of the
invoice is attached.

Could you pass it to whoever handles payments, and let
me know which date it's scheduled for?
[If you don't have their address: If someone else looks
after invoices, could you send me their email?]

Thanks,
[your name]

Then give it two or three business days. From here on, keep the conversation in email rather than DMs, so you can copy accounts payable and keep the whole record in one thread. Nothing needs to be stern yet, and nothing needs to be public.

Day 7: an overdue notice, copied to more people

A week late, the email changes from a question to a notice. Put "overdue" in the subject line, restate the facts and ask for payment by a date about five business days away. Copy accounts payable and whoever signed off on the deal: your contact's manager or, at a small brand, the founder. If you have a phone number, call and leave a message too.

To:      [your contact]
CC:      [accounts payable], [whoever approved the deal]
Subject: Overdue: invoice [number], [amount], due [due date]

Hi [name],

Following up on invoice [number] for [amount], which
was due on [due date] and is still unpaid [X] days on.
The [videos] were delivered on [date] and approved on
[date]. The invoice and your approval are attached.

Please pay it by [date], or reply with the date it will
be paid. [If more work is due: I'll deliver the next
video once this invoice is settled.]

Thanks,
[your name]

In a deal with several videos, keep that bracketed line, and don't take on extra work in the hope of being paid faster. In the creator threads we read, extra work after delivery didn't get anyone paid faster. It brought more silence, or another request. One creator sent a firm email after a week of silence and was paid two days later.

When the reply isn't a payment

Sometimes the answer to your day 7 email isn't money. What to say to the common ones:

"We've already paid it." Ask for the date, the amount, the payment method and the reference, then check the account details they used: "Could you send me the payment date and reference? It hasn't reached my account, so I'd like to trace it."

"There's a problem with your invoice." Fix it the same day, reissue it under a new number, and ask them to confirm the original due date still stands.

"We can pay part of it now." Take it as part payment, and say so in writing: "Thanks for the $200. I've applied it to invoice [number], and $250 is still due by [date]." Be careful with anything marked "payment in full" or "full and final settlement" for less than you're owed. In the US, cashing a check marked that way, when the amount is in dispute, can settle the whole debt. If you'd rather settle for less, that's your call, but make it on purpose.

"Can we pay later?" Yes, if you get dates. Agree to a payment plan only in writing, with each amount and its date, and a line saying the whole balance is due if a payment is missed.

"Our client hasn't paid us yet." An agency that booked you is the one that owes you, unless your agreement says you're only paid once its client pays. Answer: "Understood, but my agreement is with you, not [brand], and payment was due on [date]. Please confirm the date you'll pay." Before you contact the brand directly, check your agreement for a clause against approaching the agency's clients. If nothing rules it out, writing to the brand can help. Lumanu, a company that handles creator payments for brands, wrote about one agency's late payments: in many cases the brands had no idea until creators got in touch, and some paid the creators themselves. For how agency pay normally works, see our guide to UGC agencies.

"The video didn't perform." If you agreed to a flat fee, views were never part of it: "Our agreement was $450 for two videos, due on approval. Results weren't part of it, and payment was due on [date]." A bonus for results is separate, and it only counts if you agreed to it before you filmed.

"It's not what we asked for." If they approved it, the approval stands, so point to it. If they haven't, offer the revision round your agreement includes, set a date for their notes, and check the request against the brief you were given.

"Before we pay, we need one more thing." Raw footage, a usage contract, another version, extra photos: anything new after approval is a new job with its own price, not a condition for money you're already owed. "Happy to quote for the raw files. That's separate from invoice [number], which was due on [date]." If the new ask is about where they'll run the video, our usage rights guide helps you price it.

If your video is already running in ads

Check first: Meta's Ad Library shows the ads a brand is currently running on Facebook and Instagram, while TikTok's public ad library only covers Europe.

From your account, as an Instagram or Facebook partnership ad. You granted that permission, and Meta says creators can revoke it at any time. Removing the brand as an ad partner pauses its running ads, but switching off an ad code you already shared doesn't stop ads that are already running. If your agreement promised the brand a set period of ad use, pulling the permission early could break that promise, unless the promise depended on being paid.

As a TikTok Spark Ad. While ads use your video's code, you can't delete the code or change the video's privacy setting. The authorization ends when the period you chose (7, 30, 60 or 365 days) runs out.

From the brand's own account, with your files. No app setting reaches this one, so your agreement decides. If it says the brand's rights start when you're paid in full, a brand running your video unpaid may be using it without the rights it agreed to pay for, and that belongs in your day 14 letter. Some UGC platforms' terms work exactly this way, and a photographers' association's licensing guide shares one photographer's terms with the same condition. If your agreement says nothing about it, the picture is less clear. In the US, copyright starts with whoever made the video, but a non-exclusive license doesn't have to be in writing. Get advice before you call it infringement.

Day 14: the letter before you take it further

Two weeks late, with no payment and no date, send a final notice. In many places it's also what a court expects to see before you file a claim. California's courts call asking for payment "another step you must take before filing a court case." In England and Wales, the court rules expect a letter before you claim that gives the business a reasonable time to answer, 14 days in a straightforward case. If the brand is itself a sole trader, a stricter debt claims protocol applies instead: a letter sent by mail with set forms, and 30 days to reply.

First, find the company's legal name and address

The name on the website is often a brand name, not the company. Look it up: Companies House in the UK, the business search of the state where the brand is registered in the US, ABN Lookup in Australia (it gives the legal name, though not the full address). Online businesses in the EU have to show their name, address and registration details. California's courts warn that if the name on your claim isn't right, you may not be able to collect even if you win.

What the letter says

Keep it short, factual and dated, because a judge may read it one day. It should include:

• "Final notice" at the top, the company's legal name and address, and the date
• what you delivered, when it was approved, the amount and the due date
• the dates of your earlier reminders
• any interest or fee the law or your agreement adds (below)
• a deadline: 7 to 10 days is common, or 14 in England and Wales (30 if the brand is a sole trader)
• the one step you'll take if it isn't paid by then

Choose the next step you'd really take, and put only that one in the letter. A deadline you don't act on tells a brand it can keep ignoring you, and one you clearly mean can work fast. In one New York City case, a freelancer whose complaint was already with the city emailed the client that she would seek double damages in small claims court if she wasn't paid. The client sent the money, about $1,400, within the hour. If the brand is running your video in ads, add the line about your rights from the section above.

What the law adds

Where these rules apply, you don't need a clause in your agreement:

• UK: statutory interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, which comes to 11.75% a year on a debt that went overdue between July and December 2026, plus fixed compensation of £40 on a debt under £1,000, or £70 up to £9,999.99. On a £500 invoice paid 30 days late, that adds £44.83. If your contract sets its own late-payment interest, that rate applies instead. The Small Business Commissioner, which suggests mentioning this when you chase, has a free interest calculator.
• EU: interest of at least 8 percentage points above the reference rate, set country by country. For July to December 2026, that's 10.40% a year in Ireland and the Netherlands, 10.52% in Germany and 12.40% in France, plus €40 for each invoice paid late. Sole traders are covered.
• US: New York State, New York City, Los Angeles and California let a court award up to double what you're owed under their freelance laws. Seattle's law adds interest at 12% a year from the due date, unless your agreement sets a different rate, and a court can add damages of up to twice the unpaid amount. Elsewhere in the US, charge a late fee only if your agreement includes one.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a large amount, or an agreement that says something different, an hour with a lawyer is worth paying for.

FINAL NOTICE

To:      [company's legal name], [address]
         [your contact], [accounts payable]
Date:    [date]
Subject: Invoice [number], [amount], overdue since [due date]

Invoice [number] for [amount] covers the [videos] I
delivered on [date], which you approved on [date].
Payment was due on [due date]. I wrote about it on
[date] and [date], and it remains unpaid. Payment
details are on the attached invoice.

[UK: I am also claiming statutory interest at [rate,
11.75% for debts overdue July to December 2026] a year
from the day after [due date], and fixed compensation
of [£40 / £70], under the Late Payment of Commercial
Debts (Interest) Act 1998.]

[EU: I am also claiming statutory interest at [your
country's rate] from the day after [due date] and EUR 40
compensation under the late payment rules.]

[New York, Los Angeles, California or Seattle: Under
[the freelance law], I can ask a court to award up to
double the unpaid amount.]

[If your agreement has a late fee: Under our agreement,
a late fee of [amount] now applies.]

[If your agreement says so: Your right to use the
videos starts when this invoice is paid in full.]

If the full amount hasn't reached me by [date], I
will [file a claim in small claims court / file a
complaint with ...] without further notice.

[your name, address and email]

Send it by email and keep proof that you sent it. For a large amount, mail a copy as well. In Québec, send a formal notice by registered mail (or have a bailiff serve it) and keep proof that it arrived.

Day 30: take it outside the brand

If your deadline passes, do what you said you'd do. The options, roughly from cheapest:

On a platform

Push the dispute you opened before day 1, and ask support what it can actually do. Some platforms can't recover money from a brand, only suspend its account. One creator was told exactly that. Support confirmed the brand's account was suspended until it paid, which the creator thinks helped bring it back, and the creator was paid in two halves, before and after sending the files again.

Free official help

Some places run offices that take your complaint to the business for you. Check the minimum first, because many won't take a small job:

• New York City: any amount, even a verbal agreement. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection sends your complaint to the business, which has 20 days to respond, and since 2017 it has helped freelancers recover more than $3.5 million. File with the city before you go to court, because filing a court claim first closes this route.
• New York State: from $800, for one job or several for the same client within 120 days. Complaints go to the Attorney General.
• Illinois: from $500 within 120 days. The labor department sends the business a notice of your complaint, but it won't collect the money for you.
• Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis and Columbus: each city has an office that takes freelance payment complaints; in Los Angeles and Seattle, the law covers work from $600 a year for the same client.
• UK: the Office of the Small Business Commissioner handles payment complaints for free, from businesses with fewer than 50 staff about customers with more than 50 employees, so it can't take a complaint about a small brand. A photography business owed for photoshoots by a large retailer was paid within a week of the Commissioner's office getting in touch.
• Australia: the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman helps small businesses in disputes with other businesses, though it can't collect debts. If it offers subsidized mediation, each side pays $250 to $500.

In the US, the Better Business Bureau is a nonprofit, not a government agency, and it can't make a business pay, though your complaint goes on the business's public profile.

Small claims

These courts are built for smaller amounts, and many people use them without a lawyer. The limits in a few common places:

Winning doesn't put the money in your account on its own. "You have to collect the money if you win your case. The court does not do it for you," California's courts point out.

Collection services

Some collection services now focus on creators. Before you pay one, ask how it charges (a share of what it recovers, a flat fee or a monthly subscription), what you get back if it can't collect, whether it keeps going if you stop paying, whether it's a law firm, which countries it covers, and whether it would contact the brand publicly in your name. Terms vary a lot. Of the two creator-focused services we checked, one charges a monthly subscription and gives no refund when a debt can't be collected, and the other only takes US business debts of $1,000 or more, charges nothing if it can't collect, and doesn't publish its fee.

Is it worth it for $150?

Up to the day 14 letter, chasing costs little more than email. After that, three questions decide it:

• Does a free office take your amount? Check the minimums above.
• Can you file where you are? Small claims courts usually need to reach the brand where it is, so a brand in another state or country can rule your local court out.
• What does it cost against the debt? Filing a claim in Travis County, Texas, and serving a brand there costs $144. In England and Wales, a claim up to £300 costs £35 to file, plus £27 if it goes to a hearing, and you can claim the fees back if you win.

If no office takes it, no court reaches the brand, or the fees would eat the debt, the day 14 letter was your last cheap step. Keep the folder anyway, because the time limit for a claim runs for years (see the FAQ below). In a New York City survey of freelancers who had complained to the city, about half said they were eventually paid: 40% recovered everything they were owed and 9% part of it.

If the brand has gone out of business

Once a company is in liquidation or administration in the UK, or in bankruptcy in the US, you stop chasing it directly and make your claim in that process instead. Be ready for part of the money, or none of it, if the company has little left.

Before the next deal

Most protection happens before you deliver: a deposit, a preview instead of the final files, or escrow. Three terms to add next time:

• A line in your agreement or on your invoice saying the brand's right to use the photos and videos starts when you're paid in full.
• Spark Ads authorized for a short period until you're paid, then extended.
• An approval deadline, such as "the work counts as approved five business days after delivery unless you send revision notes," so "we haven't reviewed it yet" can't become the new late.

On a marketplace with escrow, there's no invoice to chase in the first place. On Modliflex, the brand pays into escrow before you start, and your files stay watermarked until it approves them.

Unpaid UGC: quick answers

The brand is in another US state. Can I still use small claims?

Sometimes not where you live: the table above shows which courts need the brand within their reach. Freelance laws can reach further. Illinois's applies if either you or the business is in Illinois, and Minneapolis's applies to work done in the city wherever the client is. Otherwise, look at the small claims court where the brand is.

The brand is in another country. What can I do?

Everything up to day 14 still works, and so does a platform dispute. Inside the EU, the European Small Claims Procedure handles cross-border claims up to €5,000, though UK creators can no longer use it. Outside the EU, you'd usually have to use the courts where the brand is, which is slow and costly from abroad, so next time ask a brand in another country for part of the fee before you film.

Can I charge a late fee we never agreed on?

In the UK and the EU, yes: statutory interest and the fixed compensation apply without a clause. In the US, add a late fee only if your agreement includes one, though the freelance laws in New York, California, Los Angeles and Seattle let a court award up to double, and Seattle's adds 12% a year in interest. For next time in Canada, write any late-payment interest into your agreement as a yearly rate: under the federal Interest Act, a rate stated only per month, such as 1.5% a month, is capped at 5% a year.

There's no contract, only messages. Can I still get paid?

Usually, if the messages show what you agreed to. Illinois's labor department says a freelance contract can be "an email, text message, or some other communication" that both sides agreed to, and New York City's payment rule covers verbal agreements too. Screenshot the thread now.

It's been months. Is it too late?

Probably not. The time limit for a claim over an unpaid contract is usually years: six in England and Wales, two in Ontario and Alberta, and six under New York State's freelance law. Check the rule where you live.

Should I name the brand online?

Not as a way to get paid. Offering to take a post down if the brand pays, or threatening to go public, puts you on weaker ground than a letter or a claim. If you warn other creators, stick to facts you can prove, such as dates, amounts and what you delivered, and check your agreement first, because some rule out criticizing the brand at all.

Should I work with them again?

If they paid late but fixed it once you followed up, maybe, with part of the fee up front next time. If it took a final notice or a claim, you've learned how they treat invoices.

The 30 days on one page