7 Polite Payment Reminder Emails That Actually Get You Paid (Copy & Paste)

You finished the work. You sent the invoice. And now… silence. Here are seven polite payment reminder email templates for freelancers — ready to copy, paste, and customise — so you can chase the money without the dread.

Why Chasing Payments Feels So Hard

Let's be honest: asking for money you're already owed shouldn't feel awkward. But it does. Every freelancer knows the feeling — hovering over the "send" button on a payment reminder, wondering if you sound too pushy, too passive, or just plain desperate.

Here's the thing most people won't tell you: late payments are rarely personal. In the vast majority of cases, your client is busy, disorganised, or stuck in their own internal approvals process. Your invoice is sitting in someone's inbox behind 200 other emails. A polite nudge is genuinely helpful — not annoying. (If you're seeing warning signs that a client won't pay, that's a different conversation — but most late payments aren't that.)

The data backs this up. Studies consistently show that freelancers who send structured late payment email sequences get paid weeks faster than those who wait in silence. It's not about being aggressive. It's about being visible.

That's why having a polite payment reminder email template ready to go makes such a difference. You don't have to craft the perfect message from scratch every time. You just open the template, fill in the details, and send. No overthinking. No guilt. Just business.

Before You Send: Quick Ground Rules

Before we dive into the templates, a few principles that'll make every reminder more effective:

• Always re-attach the invoice. Make it effortless for them. If they have to search their inbox, you've lost another three days.
• Keep a neutral, warm tone. Assume good intentions until proven otherwise. Most late payments are accidental, not malicious.
• Reference specific details. Invoice number, amount, due date, project name. Specificity signals professionalism.
• Send at the right time. Tuesday to Thursday mornings (their local time) tend to get the best response rates.
• Escalate gradually. Start gentle, increase firmness. The seven templates below follow exactly this arc. For a deeper dive on the full escalation process, see our guide on how to chase unpaid invoices as a freelancer.

Right — let's get into the emails themselves.

The 7 Polite Payment Reminder Email Templates

Each template below is designed for a specific stage of the follow-up process. Use them in order, spacing them roughly 5–7 days apart (adjust based on your relationship and the amount owed).

This is your softest touch. You're essentially giving them an easy out — "maybe you missed it" — while gently bringing the invoice back to the top of their inbox.

A week has passed. Still warm, still polite, but now you're explicitly asking for a timeline. This is a perfectly reasonable polite payment reminder email for any freelancer to send.

Two weeks. Time to be more direct. Notice the shift — you're still polite, but the language is clearer and more action-oriented.

Three weeks in, you're entitled to be firmer. This template introduces the concept of consequences without making threats. It's assertive, not aggressive — exactly the right tone for a freelancer chasing a late payment politely.

A full month. This template is still professional but now explicitly references your payment terms and hints at further action. For many freelancers, this is the email that finally gets a response.

Now we're getting serious. This is your formal "last chance" email. It's still polite — but unmistakably clear about what happens next.

This one's different. After two months of silence, sometimes offering a pragmatic solution — like a payment plan — is what unlocks the situation. It shows you're still professional and reasonable, even under pressure.

Extra Tips to Get Paid Faster

Templates are powerful, but they work best as part of a broader approach. Here are a few things that'll reduce late payments before they start:

• Set clear payment terms upfront. Include them in your contract, your proposal, and on the invoice itself. NET 14 is standard for freelancers — NET 30 is generous.
• Invoice immediately. The day you finish the work (or hit a milestone), send the invoice. Delays on your end create delays on theirs.
• Offer multiple payment methods. Bank transfer, PayPal, Stripe, whatever — make paying you as easy as possible.
• Consider deposits and milestone payments. Asking for 25–50% upfront is standard practice and protects you if things go sideways.
• Send a pre-due-date reminder. A friendly "just a heads up, this invoice is due in 3 days" email works wonders for preventing late payments entirely.
• Keep records of everything. Every email, every delivery, every signed-off revision. If things escalate, you'll be glad you did.

The common thread? Systems beat willpower. Having a polite payment reminder email template ready as a freelancer means you follow up consistently — not just when you remember or when you're desperate enough to overcome the awkwardness.

Stop Chasing Invoices Manually

If you're reading this article, you've probably spent hours of your life drafting, re-drafting, and agonising over payment reminder emails. Hours that could've been spent on billable work.

What if your invoicing tool sent these reminders for you — automatically, on schedule, with the right tone at the right time?

And if you'd prefer a ready-made swipe file of every email template you'll ever need as a freelancer — from onboarding to offboarding, proposals to payment reminders — we've got that too. Grab the full email swipe file and never start from a blank page again.

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Written by the team at Landolio — tools and templates for freelancers who'd rather do great work than chase payments.