Virgin Charges are strangling me!! HELP QUICK!

MrScabby

Ok it's the end of the month and Im going off line soon, I know this because it happens every month and I have had enough of it.

The reason I'm in this mess basically is poverty, Virgin charges me £10 per month and because my account is £37.50 overdrawn (for the want of a better word) with the other charges they have already placed on my account. They hit me every month with this charge and I cannot get out of it because I do not have the money coming in to pay them off!

I need someone to tell me if this charge is legal (as I understand the law they are not allowed to profit from someone's misfortune) then how come they charge me £10 for a late payment!

They have had off me in total something like £80 in charges in TWO years. I thought these banks, opps wrong word, companies are not allowed to do this.!

I need some clarity quickly please as I'm going off-line soon and this time they aint getting anything. The line is drawn!

star1_2

MrScabby wrote: »

Ok it's the end of the month and Im going off line soon, I know this because it happens every month and I have had enough of it.

The reason I'm in this mess basically is poverty, Virgin charges me £10 per month and because my account is £37.50 overdrawn (for the want of a better word) with the other charges they have already placed on my account. They hit me every month with this charge and I cannot get out of it because I do not have the money coming in to pay them off!

I need someone to tell me if this charge is legal (as I understand the law they are not allowed to profit from someone's misfortune) then how come they charge me £10 for a late payment!

They have had off me in total something like £80 in charges in TWO years. I thought these banks, opps wrong word, companies are not allowed to do this.!

I need some clarity quickly please as I'm going off-line soon and this time they aint getting anything. The line is drawn!

Companies are not "bound" by the same "essence of terms" that refer to with Banks.

With Virgin you signed a contract, that has "contractual terms" ie. for you to pay for a service they provide, if you don't comply with the contractual terms (ie to pay on time for the services they give you and you take), then you've broken the terms of the agreement and will be subject to any penalaties they levy (providing these have been notified to you in advance/at the time you took out the agreement).

I'm sorry if this "sounds harsh" - but if you make "deal" with a company/business you are "liable".

In this situation I would suggest you talk with Virgin, explain the situation and see for example if they could downgrade your package to a sum you can afford (preferably before you got into difficulty), or change to a package that you can (a) afford and (b) enables you to pay off any debts you owe.

soul619

yes they are allowed to implement charges if you fail to pay them sorry

F Paying for your services

1. You must pay the charges for the services as set out in our price guides or as otherwise notified to you, together with any value added tax or other applicable taxes. We can change the charges as set out in paragraph H3, but if we do so, this may entitle you to end this agreement. You can read more about this in paragraph J3. All payments by you should be made to Virgin Media Payments which will provide you with all necessary payment handling services. Virgin Media Payments agrees to collect and process all payments made by you to it promptly and ensure that they are applied in settlement of the charges to which they relate. Virgin Media Payments may charge you a separate service fee for collecting and processing such payments as provided in paragraph F4(c) below.
2. We may ask you to make initial payments and/or a deposit, either through a Virgin Media sales representative in person or over the phone through a Virgin Media telesales representative.
3. You must ensure that your payments are received by Virgin Media Payments by the due date for payment shown on your bill. If you do not pay your bills on time, you will be liable to interest or other charges for your default. We may also charge you the full amount of any bill and you may lose any discount we have given you. We will also suspend or cancel the services and charge you the costs of debt-recovery proceedings to recover any debt you owe under this agreement.
4. Bills
   1. Under this agreement, if you ask for any changes to the services we provide, these changes will be reflected by adding proportionate amounts to your first bill after the change and to your payments every month after that.
   2. You may choose to pay your bills by cash, cheque, credit or debit card, or by Direct Debit.
   3. Virgin Media Payments will provide you with payment handling services and unless you pay by Direct Debit you agree that Virgin Media Payments shall charge you a separate payment handling charge each month for processing your payment.
   4. If any cheque or Direct Debit of yours is cancelled or is not cleared by your bank or building society, we are entitled to charge you a default fee and the provisions of paragraphs F3 and F4(c) will also apply.
   5. You may choose to receive an E-bill instead of a paper bill. If you choose a paper bill, you agree that we may charge you a separate charge each month.
   6. You must provide us with a valid and current e-mail account to use E-billing. The accuracy of that e-mail address is entirely your responsibility. You shall remain fully liable for any bills of which notification has been sent to your e-mail address.
   7. We reserve the right to refuse use of the E-billing service to anyone for any reason whatsoever in our absolute discretion. Further, we reserve the right to modify or discontinue (permanently or temporarily) the E-billing service to you or all recipients at our discretion.
   8. You shall remain fully responsible and liable to pay any bills of which notification has been sent to the e-mail address you have specified regardless of whether or not you access that e-mail account and read the relevant e-mail, are disconnected from your e-mail account (for any reason and whether by us or otherwise) or for any other reason (other than our negligence) fail to read the relevant notification.
   9. We cannot guarantee uninterrupted and/or reliable access to the E-billing service and make no guarantees whatsoever as to its operation, availability, functionality, that it will be free of error or disruption or otherwise.
   10. You agree to use the E-billing service responsibly.
   11. We normally send reminders for late bill payments. We may charge interest at the yearly equivalent of 4% over Barclays Bank plc's base rate for the whole period of any late payment. The interest is worked out daily.
   12. If you want to change any of the services agreed to, we may charge you an administration fee. We will notify you of the amount of any such charge when you request the change.
   13. We may ask for any deposit at any time (as we believe to be reasonable in the circumstances) as security for the equipment and in case you do not pay our bills or return our equipment. All or any part of this deposit may be used to pay any charges you owe under this agreement. We may (but do not have to) return your deposit after six months if we believe that you have a good payment history. We will usually (but not necessarily) consider you to have a good payment history if you have paid your account for six months in a row without your services having been restricted, suspended or disconnected and you are not having to pay under a payment plan.
5. We are entitled to carry out a credit check on you at any time. We will do this by making searches about you at credit reference agencies who will supply us with credit information, as well as information from the Electoral Register. The agencies will record details of the search, whether or not the application goes ahead. We may use credit-scoring methods to assess the application and to confirm your identity. We and other companies may use credit searches and other information, which is provided to us or the credit reference agencies (or both), about you (and those you are linked financially to) if credit decisions are made about you, or other members of your household. We may also use this information to trace debt and manage your account. We may also reveal information on your payment history to the usual credit agencies. We will also check your details with fraud detection agencies and if false or inaccurate information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies. Law enforcement agencies may access and use this information. We and other organisations may also access and use this information to prevent fraud and money laundering, for example, when:- checking details on applications for credit and credit related or other facilities; managing credit and credit related accounts and facilities; recovering debt; checking details of proposals and claims for all types of insurance; checking details of job applicants and employees. We and other organisations may access and use from other countries the information recorded by fraud prevention agencies. Please write to Virgin Media's Group Compliance Officer at 160 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5QA if you want to receive details of the relevant fraud prevention agencies. You have a legal right to these details.
6. If at any time before or during the term of this agreement you fail to meet our credit conditions, we may do the following:
   1. Require you to make a payment (which shall be made to Virgin Media Payments) In advance for future line rental and usage charges;
   2. Enforce credit limits on you for any of our and/or Virgin Media Payments' charges (to the extent we believe is reasonable in the circumstances), restrict the level of services we provide to you, only allow certain methods of payment and/or suspend some or all of the services at any time when you reach the limits until we have received the full payment of any charges you owe under this agreement;
   3. Demand a deposit from you as described in paragraph F4(m) above.

MrScabby

Thanks for the reply,

It would seem quite clear to me that legislation is required in this area, not all people read the small print. You could end up with liabilities in excess of your means without knowing it. (as in my case)

It has not been a complete waste of time though using the site as I noticed on my way in the article about 'FREE phone line installation from BT. This is the very reason I could not choose anyone else because I only had a Virgin line, I'm disabled and on a very tight budget and could not afford the £122.00 to have a line fitted.

Yeh hey! One in the eye for Virgin and a 'big thanks!' to MoneySavingExpert.com for inadvertly providing me with the solution!

soul619

thing is tho ur ment to read them as cus of that they presume u do, glad u now seem happy tho