I rang up at the time of the charge and talked to Billing, explained the situation and asked for the charges to be removed, and got nothing. Since previously I'd had a long, excruciatingly drawn out complaint with O2 I just threw up my hands and paid it.

My bank ARE charging me for the failed DD, so I will have effectively paid £55 in charges when the original bill was £41. What's especially galling is when I first set up the phone contract I requested a pay date after my monthly pay day so I wouldn't have this kind of problem, which they completely ignored and set the pay date to 3 days prior to that, when I have the least money. When I rang up to try to change it they told me I had to wait until after the first payment went through and of course I forgot to ring again to get it changed, being as I have a life outside waiting in call systems which I consider akin to having my fingernails pulled out one by one.

I rang the customer services department about this who reckoned that the 23.50 was to cover the bank charging them for the Direct Debit which hadn't been paid. Anyone know if this is legitimate?

Hello, I wasn't sure where to post this but this is as good a place as any. I recently had a bounced Direct Debit for my monthly T-Mobile phone bill and paid over the phone a couple of days after it bounced. Got this month's bill a couple of days ago and I'm apparently being charged £23.50 for an unpaid direct debit penalty charge! Not run into this sort of thing before with phone companies! I also got charged £3 for paying the balance over the phone, so have in effect been charged £26.50 by T-Mobile for the bounced direct debit (and will be charged on the bank's end too, boo!). Would the bank charge situation apply to a phone contract also?