Payment by DD is fully automated. Once it has been input, there is no further human intervention until or unless it changes. Payment by cheque involves human interaction to open, read, credit and pass the cheque for processing by the bank. The people employed to do this would not be employed if nobody paid by cheque. They have a significant cost to NTL. NTL's bank make a transaction scharge per cheque. I have never attempted to pay by card over the 'phone, but I wiuld assume that at some point you talk to a human being. As above, these people would not be employed if nobody paid by this method. There are transaction charges levied by the banks for card payments. So the extra cost of not using DD are significantly more than the transaction charges levied by the banks.

Banks charge more for manual credits (ie cheques) then automated credits. There is more to handling a cheque than inputting the amount. They have to be sorted and physically returned to the issuing banks. Cheque sorters are incredibly complicated machines moving cheques at high speed and have high maintenance (and capital) costs. The ink used for the characters at the bottom of the check is magnetisable. When the cheque is arrives at the sorting centre, the amount is added manually to this information, again using magnetisable ink and then this is used by the sorters. Running a magnet over the cheque makes no difference as the ink will be magnetised anyway for sorting. Even if it did, this would only reduce the cheque to manual sorting instead of machine sorting

Shell garages are the same. They have notices displayed saying that they will no longer accept cheques for payment. It is my view that this can only be valid if posted on or near the pump, so it may be seen before filling up.

It seems to be the new standard - Barclaycard have done the same

And don't forget that NTL's bank will charge NTL more for 'paying in' as opposed to DD. On my business account, the difference is 50p per transaction.

There is a better way... For a few pounds you can rent your own 0870 number which is mapped to your normal (geographic) number. Then when they ring - especially sales calls, they are paying you. The cost is a one-off £10 and you get 3p/minute. Your geographic number is unaffected as this is only routing to you.

This to is fraud as the car belongs to the HP company

Just to say that having read other peoples woes on here, I would like to bring peeps attentions to the above named dealer. In June I purchased a used Jeep Grand Cherokee for £8500. After less than 5 days and 500 miles, the engine blew quite spectacularly on the M4. I had the vehicle recovered to my local garage and contacted the seller - expecting the usual 'tough luck' story. No way! The vehicle was collected and I was given my old car back to use meanwhile. A replacement engine was fitted and although there was a delay whilst some gaskets were obtained for the LPG manifold everything was repaired free of charge. ( I know it cost them over £1500) They aren't all shysters and this one in particular lived up to his obligations.

There is little or no ppint in writing to the CEO of BAA. They only run 7 UK airports and the restrictions apply to ALL UK airports. For example, Manchester is not a BAA airport, but the restrictions are in place. Although MAN has implemented the new allowed cabin baggage whilst BAA airports must wait until 4:30 tomorrow morning. Whilst the updated restrictions allow cabin baggage again, it must all be x-rayed - so no relief there.

The current restrictions are nothing to do with the CAA. They are imposed on BAA and all other UK airport operators by the DfT

SP50 is for speeding on a motorway SP30 is for speeding on a road other than a motorway. The figure does not relate to the speed limit at all

5 years. This is why insurance companies can only ask for offences in the last 5 years.

Yes it is. It is dealt with at Magistrates' Court as a summary offence. It is, however, not a recordable offence.

I think that your mistake was leaving Comet with the faulty unit to make any telephone calls at all. Comet is the retailer and responsible to you. Tell them it is not working and that they either provide an immediate replacement or your money back. Do not be fobbed off wth "We need to send it away for repair". WTF are you supposed to use for the weeks that it is away? My son bought a laptop from Comet and it failed a week later - wouldn't read CDs. Took it back to them and stood there - blocking the till - until they replaced it.

Never mind financial law, it is a requirement of the Health & Safety at Work Etc. Act that personal protective equipment must be supplied foc by the employer.

1) Auditors 2) FSA You would be amazed at how much 'hidden' data there is a a computer document (especially a Word document). Yes, they may try it on occasionally, but if seriously challenged then forensic computing will reveal the exact dates and times. This has caught my wife out before now. As a secretary, she dates letters for the day they are to be signed - which is usually a day later than current date - she uses this date in the file name. She once did a search using the document created date and was most surprised not to find her document - which had a created (hidden) date earlier than that in the letter or file name

Well they certainly don't understand DPA and FoI legislation. The FoI only applies to public bodies and cannot be used to obtain personal imformation. The DPA is the legislation that references personal data.