From what I can tell by the OfCom notes to date (what a way to spend a Sunday afternoon!) - as long as the company put the charges in writing, clear to understand, they can add on what the heck they like?

Yes, that is correct. You are always free to pick a supplier who doesn't rip you off like this, that said, I bought a new mobile recently - don't really like contracts for things like mobiles, but did look at them and it appears that just about all the networks only accept payment by direct debit anyway.

What's even more sneaky is the newer practice of the customer being forced into two contracts - one with MySupplier and the other with My Supplier Payments Processing Services Limited or similar.

This, I would have thought, would pave the way for the payments processing fee to, say, treble, inside a contract with MySupplier, but because MySupplier hasn't changed their terms to disadvantage you, you have no rights at all to cancel with MySupplier and are stuck with it.

I have a second phone, for my voluntary work, very similar tariff but a business account. No non-DD charge there. It's actually cheaper.

Perhaps the answer is to have a business account

Need help please regarding virgin media and there bill charges. Like most people i am unemployed so dont pay by dd this costs me £5 amonth also £1.25 paper bill but what is really hurting because i cross over into other months they are hitting me with another £10 charge each month i have to juggle my money to pay peter then paul any help please regarding these charges mainly the late charge.

I'd love to wave a magic wand, however VM have establioshed these charges over the last 2 years (and don't make any secret that they exist), so the opions are; (1) Pay the charges (2) Negotiate to bring them down to a more manageable level (3) Take your custom elsewhere, and let them know the reason why.

For the record, as NTL they made a total mess of my finances so I withdrew their right to take money from my account as they had broken any trust I could reasonable expect to give them. As such, I retain control of my finances, and have no wish to relinquish this to a third party. For over 2 years they would (on request) provide a 'goodwill credit' which covered the amount they charged for not letting them control my bank account. When this stopped, I kept a note of the additional money I was paying until it reached £60. I then advised that as I was paying them almost £800pa, I had had enough and wanted my £60 back as it was disproportionate, I also said if we did not reach a resolution, I would take htem to court for the £60, and terminate my services, giving due notice.

Within 2 weeks I had a response. A credit for the £60, and the creation of a 'special discount' which would keep the non-DD fee to £1.50pm. This was clever, as it meant I would probably be unsuccessful should I challenge them in court over the fee. £60pa would easily be seen to be unreasonable, but £18...? Success would not be easily assured. So, it IS possible to get the DD Fee down to £1.50 per month, but it has to be negotiated.

As to your last point - the 'late fee'. You can switch to ebilling and save on the cost of paper bills, because they use UK Mail, paper bills usually arrived about 3 days before the payment needed to be credited to the account. With ebilling I get them 1 day after the bill is generated, and have a full 3 weeks to pay. The secret is to ensure your monthly bill is paid in full BEFORE the next one is printed. If you do not, the Late Fee will be applied. If your bill is printed on (say) the 15th of each month, then your funds MUST be with them by 13th, and by this I mean IN their bank account - you can usually do this via PC Banking/BACS under your control, but if you use any third-part service (like PayPoint, Cheque or Debit card) you cannot leave it as late as this - the 5th would be your target date.

The dates will never change, so you need to put a ring round the calendar to ensure this bill is paid on time, as it will cost you dearly if it will not.

TIP: IF you have not missed a payment in 12 months, CD staff can arrange for a crediting of the £10 fee, but if there is a string of late payments, they will not do it.

I am in receipt of a letter from BT (yesterday) that's in response to a complaint I made on the 19th March about BT's proposed penalty if you don't pay by direct debit.

 

Has anyone else had this letter? I assume it's a standard one.

 

 

 

What's most annoying is that Gillian Lewis couldn't even be bothered to sign the letter herself - it's PPed from someone else. What's worse than that is that it's a scanned signature! Jeeeeez, why can't they scan Ms Lewis' signature?

haha see what i mean someones already being paid to process your payment so why should we have to pay extra for that ?

BT are the biggest cash whores going they wanted to charge me £130 for a call out because what ever the problem was, was not there problem

People say that BT are bad, lol you should see THree They are worse! When I first started with them 3 years ago on a £10 a month contract, I was being charged £4.50 non-dd admin :-/

Back to the topic of BT and non-DD charges, I'd personally just email the CEO' email address as it's still passed onto the CEO's exec team to deal with... Here are the details and exec teams details:

 

Michael Rake Chairman

 

E-mail [email protected]

Telephone 0207 356 5000

Company Twitter @bthelp

 

and

 

I'm sure this is the acting CEO:

 

Ian Livingston Chief Executive

 

E-mail [email protected]

Telephone 0207 356 5000

Fax 0207 356 6650

Website http://www.bt.com

Company Twitter @BTCare

I'd personally consider CCing your local news desks tipoff email address when you do

Noone has posted on thuis thread for a few years

is it still the case where companies are not allowed to over charge for non-payment by direct debit?

Vodafone charge me about £3 a month for not paying my direct debit, i think it's pretty unreasonable but they think otherwise.

Tried to download the letter someone posted up but the link has now gone dead