BT charges

Your find your already pay BT £3 a month extra line rental by paying your bill by non-dd.£36 instead of £33 a month. They are putting it up by 50p a month.

Discussed here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=342453

I changed my line rental to Tiscali, then BT sent me demands for unpaid bills. I asked for copies and they were going to charge £4.50 for each one!

Beware BT online account holders!

BritBrat wrote: »

And I am only doing it because they are now charging me for not using direct debit.

...but they have always charged you for not using Direct Debit.

They have just increased that cost from £1 per month to £1.50 per month.

Previously line rental was £12, but you got a £1 discount if you paid by direct debit, so in reality you were paying £1 per month for not paying by direct debit.

Now they have dropped line rental down to £11, but charge £1.50 if you don't pay by direct debit.

If you had always paid by direct debit, you would be paying the same.

I understand many people would rather have a discount than a surcharge, even if it amounts to the same thing.

jizba wrote: »

Interesting topic.

I was under the impression that by paying by DD, it would work out more expensive that paying all at once per quarter, am I wrong with this assumption and if so how much does it cost to set up a DD.

Incidentally with DD how do they work out the monthly charges e.g. is Septemebers all taken out of the DD account on the 1st of October etc etc?

Depends on which version of DD you use.

BT used to try and get people on a monthly budget plan, where they work out roughly how much you pay each month, and take that amount out each month, does mean each month the same amount is taken out, but you can either over-pay or under-pay think at the end of the year they then sort it out.

You can pay quarterly by direct debit, when your bill arrives every quarter it will simply state that the money will come out of your back account with 10 days or so.

Or you can switch to whole bill monthly direct debit, so instead of getting a bill every quarter, you get a bill every month, and payment is taken shortly after the bill arrives for the whole amount you used in that month. £11 for line rental + call charges. You may find some BT CS staff say this isn't an option - it is!

Paying by direct debit has always been cheaper, BT have always offered a discount for paying by DD as it is cheaper for them. Same reason that paying you gas and electric by DD can save you 10 - 20% on your bill. Though no one seems to moan at the huge difference in the cost of energy when not paying by direct debit.

It doesn't cost you anything to set up the direct debit, only save you money on the bill.

Since I left home all those years ago, we pay everything we can by direct debit, simply because of the saving and also I don't have to worry about going out and paying it.

BT have just annoyed people by switching from a discount to a surcharge, even though at the end of the day it amounts to the same thing, pay by DD and it is £11 per month. If they had simply put the line rental up to £12.50 and increased the discount to £1.50 I doubt people would have complained.