Paying via DD

DGJsaver

Cardew wrote: »

Are you saying that you pay monthly on the 1st? i.e. 10 or 12 monthly payments by cheque/post or in person?

i am simply saying the council tax is asked for on the the 18th (not the 20th) and we pay on the 1st of the month 10 times via on line banking and we never receive reminders or anything of that nature

So , we pay it when WE find it convenient

DGJsaver

1carminestocky wrote: »

Have you tried this method, DGJSaver? :eek: Firstly, you will receive a rather pleasant reminder, ignore that and a rather less friendly reminder arrives, ignore that and it's usually followed by a court summons for the full amount (with associated additional costs). Having said that, it was many moons ago when I worked in my local council's Treasury Dept but I'd be very surprised if they are adopting a less strict payment scheme these days.

You should be very surprised then

I imagin the bad press from jailing old people has softened their stance slightly , as long as you dont take the micky i think they give a few days lee way nowadays , they do with us anyway

1carminestocky

DGJsaver wrote: »

You should be very surprised then

I imagin the bad press from jailing old people has softened their stance slightly , as long as you dont take the micky i think they give a few days lee way nowadays , they do with us anyway

Aaaah, I misunderstood your original statement. I thought you meant you just pay it whenever you want, i.e. leave it a few months then pay all 3 months at once, for example. Now I know what you mean, you're correct, most local authorities tend to accept this method, although IME of working for one it's always best to ring them first and request a different monthly payment date so as not to risk getting a reminder.

Cardew

DGJsaver wrote: »

i am simply saying the council tax is asked for on the the 18th (not the 20th) and we pay on the 1st of the month 10 times via on line banking and we never receive reminders or anything of that nature

So , we pay it when WE find it convenient

Ah I see.

My Council are quite good in that they ask on what date in the month you want your Direct Debit to be collected.

The bill is due on 01 April and they take it in 10 DD payments, so I suppose you could ask for the first to be taken on 30 April.

MarkyMarkD

The 10 annual installments approach for council tax is a national thing because it's a legal requirement for them to take payment in that way.

KimYeovil wrote:

But when the discount is increases your bill to 170% of what it would be otherwise, this is a problem.

I don't understand what you mean here. How are you calculating a 170% increase following a discount?

Do you perhaps mean that your consumption is £30 a month but they are asking for a monthly DD payment of £81? If so, are you confusing "payments" with "bill"?

KimYeovil

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't understand what you mean here. How are you calculating a 170% increase following a discount?

If you use £12 worth of gas and electricity per month but are charged £8.33 extra for a dual dd discount you are paying 169.4%. And you are thus trapped and unable to switch on a price increase or other alteration without losing 70% of your payments.

Premier_2

MarkyMarkD wrote:

...Those who say "don't use DD" are those who have had incorrect amounts taken, or who aren't capable of keeping enough money in their current accounts to meet their DD payments when they fall due, and hence incur charges...

KimYeovil wrote:

You speak to funny people...

expresso wrote:

Looks like your friends are the paranoid minority then...

It appears then that I must also be one of the 'paranoid minority' of 'funny people' who have incurred charges because I've not been capable of paying bills when due. :rolleyes:

Well I'll let you decide on the two subjective claims, but I can state I've never incurred any charges for failing to pay a utility bill when correctly presented yet.

Yes there are advantages of paying monthly that some prefer, e.g. the ability to level out the bills over the year rather than paying what you've actually used, the discount that may be offered by the supplier by your agreement to help them in their cash flow, etc.

However, some do see these through rose tinted spectacles, imho. As others have mentioned, the supplier can basically take what they want. Yes I agree that they must advise the customer beforehand, but if the customer doesn't agree (and no other agreement can be reached) the supplier may elect to take that customer off the pay monthly tariff and back to the pay on receipt of bill method. This can cause issues because as well as possibly losing the DD discount (I believe at least one supplier applies this on an annual anniversary, so leave that tariff for any reason and that voids that possible advantage), the customer may end up owing an amassed debt.

In my experience, I did once pay monthly by DD and the every bill showed we were increasing in credit to the supplier. The supplier would not reduce the amount being taken every month, nor provide a refund of the overpayment. We only eventually got back our money after leaving the property and so closing the account - it still took several months for us to get the refund back though!

Since then I've been very happy to pay for what I've used when I've used it. If times get hard, I am free to reduce consumption and know that I'll pay less as a result.

MarkyMarkD

KimYeovil wrote: »

If you use £12 worth of gas and electricity per month but are charged £8.33 extra for a dual dd discount you are paying 169.4%. And you are thus trapped and unable to switch on a price increase or other alteration without losing 70% of your payments.

All I can say to that is that the DD discount you are getting is completely disproportionate to your usage - i.e. you are benefitting far more than most people do, for paying by DD.

I wouldn't view it as being trapped by the DD discount - I'd view it as being very frugal and paying next to nothing for your fuel.


Premier - fair comment. If your account is in credit by an unreasonable amount, the supplier should refund it, and you could complain to OFGEM if they fail to do so.