Penalties for not paying by direct debit

[sussiec03]

Hello my partner is with virgin previously eurobell for his broadband. He was paying by direct debit every month through my account, until he got his own account sorted out. I then stopped the payment from my account. Because of some mix up with his new bank account not recieving the forms, he had changes put on his next bill of £20 for admin changes. So he then decided to pay by bill through the post office and noticed he had to pay more a month. He phoned and asked why and they told him it was because of admin changes again for sending out a bill. Which does not seem right because they send him a reminder every month telling him what date his payment is due.

[trevor33]

Thanks for this thread, will be sending off my complaint letter tomorrow.....oops today.
How about his.
My daughter had money problems and had her BT phone cut off. After many weeks she found the money and wanted the phone re-connected. She came to use my phone to call BT and went through all the options to get it connected. No luck. She then called the BT operator who was very helpfull and connected her to the correct department. All went well.
When my bill came in they had charged me £1.28 for the 2min call. Cheeky b*****s. I phoned and queried this and they said it would be refunded on this bill. It wasn't. I also got the £5.00 for late payment charge.
I will be on the phone to them shortly.

[williegunn]

In most cases companies trying to impose a surcharge for certain methods of payment might well, if challenged legally, have to justify their costs of collection and, indeed, their original terms of contract, should there be no provision for such a surcharge. However, particularly with a new company, or an existing company offering a new range of services (with no previous pricing scale for comparison) they would probably be within their rights to offer a discount (as opposed to a surcharge) for payment by their preferred method, the cost of which would, of course, be factored into their commercial costings when setting their prices. Obviously, if the discrepancy between the 'normal' and 'discounted' rates was excessive this might be subject to challenge as an unfair contract term, however, under current legislation, this might be more difficult to challenge.

[kewbridge]

I sent off the template letter to Orange as they'd been charging me £3 a month for not paying by direct debit.

I've just had this letter back:

Dear X

Thank you for your recent correspondence, regarding our charges when bills are not paid by Direct Debit.

We introduced the charge for payment by means other than Direct Debit in 2005. This charge genuinely reflects the costs incurred in processing payments and is no way a penalty charge. In a recent statement the Trading Standards Institute confirmed that these charges are lawful.

Payment by Direct Debit is simple and easy to set up and gives you the added benefit of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

We trust this addresses your concerns.

Yours sincerely

Hakim Alazaibi
Executive Assistant

-----

So how do we find out if the Trading Standards Institute have indeed pronounced on this and what they said exactly?

Also, never been entirely sure of what benefit I gain from the Direct Debit Guarantee?

Any thoughts?

[demon_x_slash]

Well, theoretically, hah, if the billing company mess up, under the DD Guarantee you're meant to get an immediate refund from the bank, and the bank then look to the billing company for recompense. However...

[cumbria123]

Can the late payment charge be challenged. BT want £7.50 if you don`t pay within ten days of the bill, that seems a bit of a tight deadline if your post is delayed or you are on holiday for instance.

[Odd Fellow]

Originally Posted by cumbria123

Can the late payment charge be challenged. BT want £7.50 if you don`t pay within ten days of the bill, that seems a bit of a tight deadline if your post is delayed or you are on holiday for instance.

Given that many judgements are based upon people being "reasonable" about things, I would argue that 10 days (especially when you can lose some of those days by delaying the sending of the bill) is a little unreasonable.

[Odd Fellow]

Here's an idea.

If we refuse to pay BT these extra charges, what will it do?

I would suggest that if it cuts you off if you pay the bill minus these charges it will be acting unreasonably as you've paid the bill for the service provided.

Views?

[cumbria123]

BT wouldn`t isolate the charges, they would claim you still owed them as part of your bill.

[lazybones]

Hi All

I am sure those of you that were with NTL, before it being taken over by Virgin Media, have noticed that the NON DIRECT DEBIT CHARGE has now become the PAYMENT HANDLING CHARGE.

So I am to take it that they are charging me for just paying my bill.

Can I write to them and say that I'm going to charge them £*.** evry time I pay my bill ?

[fetsilva]

i sent off my letter to vodaphone about non dd fees a month ago and still no reply and now this months bills due (again with the fee)
any sugestions as to the next step plz?

[Odd Fellow]

Originally Posted by cumbria123

BT wouldn`t isolate the charges, they would claim you still owed them as part of your bill.

Ah, but if you disputed the charge, that would be a different story, surely?

[maximus0983]

I've been with three a number of years now - actually since they started and i have never paid by DD. Recently i have noticed that on the bills it shows a "payment method administration charge" of £2.553 + VAT which comes to around £3...is this fair just because i choose not to pay by DD because im a student and i dont want to pay charges just incase a DD bounces. can i recover these costs?

[IVANHOE]

Originally Posted by Odd Fellow

Ah, but if you disputed the charge, that would be a different story, surely?

£28 service charge?? or line rental as they used to call it, what exactly do they do with that??
bill arrived today, £5 late payment and £4.50 payment processing charge.
i'm with you, i will be deducting these costs from the amount i pay.
what they gonna do??!!
they monopolise the industry then bombard us with sneaky unlawful extra costs,
STUFF EM!

[Sak]

I found an one off charges on our bt bill of £4.46 earlier after talk of this penality charge on another forum. I went and check our bill which I didnt check throughly last week and dads already paid it.

Well been searching the web for answers and remember this forum ... read all thru this thread just.

so has anyone else got any other response? Btw has anyone contacted Oftel?

This is just so wrong, blimming daylight robbery

[Janet-M]

I have just recieved my BT phone bill £162.51 ,I only rent the line :o

part of the bill is payment charges £110.87 I have just phoned to query the whole bill ,seen as it should only be £11 ,and have been told the payment charges are because I do not pay by DD :o someones obviously got carried away somewhere
seen as I pay monthly by S/O (last payment recieved by them 8th May) I am just about to write a strong letter to both get the bill corrected and inform them I will not be paying their penalty charge and asking them to justify how my payment method costs them any more then a customer who pays by DD

I did originally phone but I felt sorry for the poor girl

[Fluffy Viper]

I presume I can send this letter to Sky who charge £4 for not paying by DD?

[coz]

I had numerous e mails to and fro BT questioning the fairness of the non DD charge and the fact that I should be able to choose how to pay and do so online within 2 or 3 days of bill arriving (I cannot be classed as a late payer).

After getting standard template e mails back with them trying to justify the charge I told them I would pay the bill minus the charge. Initially they said they then pursue the outstanding balance through usual debt collection process but I stuck to my guns and they rang me to say they would refund the charge and this would be "for life". I wonder whether I may have to do this every three months but hope not to.

The moral is "stick to your