Letter: Scheme that takes all factors into account

Sir: I am entirely at one with Mr Francis Evans (letter, 19 August), from his wry smile to his sense of relief when he extricated himself, and this despite an unexpected advantage I gained from factoring.

It happened that our recalcitrant client used the same factor that we did. This facilitated the transfer of funds from his account to ours, courtesy of the factor. I was very pleased about this until I imagined the roles in reverse.

My pet idea for alleviating the small firm's perennial problem of late payment is to introduce statutory interest on accounts overdue on statutory terms - this would remove the opprobrium attached to charging interest, as everybody would have to do it. Those who needed funds would have to pay for them. Accounts would be settled earlier if the rate was set even slightly above the general level of bank interest.

Yours faithfully,

A. M. TEAL

Ripponden,

West Yorkshire

19 August