Just discovered my ISP has not been debiting my bank since Oct 2008

DocHants

I just happen to be looking over my bank account, in an effort to streamline my direct debits, bilss etc.. and noticed that my ISP las took direct debit payment from my bank in October last year... In fact the DD that was setup at my bank no longer exists, presuemrably because as the ISP has not taken any money, the DD has expired?? Ironically, this attempt to save money, may now result in me being out of pocket!!!!

I should be paying £21 per month, I checked my online account, and It doesnt seem that I have had any invoices since then either... The last invoice from them was october last year, which was paid... My direct deibt held on the account are correct,a nd the last payment they took was from the account listed...

Why havent they told me??? There is not way I can afford to stump up £200, it is their error...There are no unpaid invoices on my account. If I had cancelled the DD, which I didnt, I would have expected to receive comms from them saying they couldnt get payment, or at worst, stopping my broadband....

Ive heard nothing from them!!!! I should really contact them and point this out, but if they then demand £200 from me.. I cant really afford it, and dont see why I should, when they should have been taking the money from my account every month!!!

How long is an invoice valid for, althoguh, technically, I havent received on since October last year....

Any advice...???

brewerdave

Who is your ISP?? Some have changed hands, gone to the wall etc in the last 12 months - maybe whoever inherited you as a customer hasn't set up a payment method?
AFAIK direct debits stay live for at least 1 calendar year; many subs are annual after all.

1carminestocky

It's not Orange, is it? Some friends of ours haven't paid any money to them for well over 2 years. In fact, the service is awful but they daren't leave them for fear of being back-billed, lol.

DocHants

No its BE.. service is fantastic, best ISP I have been with..

Theyve told me I can pay double!!!! for the next 10 months til the debt is repaid.. I simply cant afford that....

Im not arguning the fact that I dont ow the money..but it is clearly their cockup which would have gone un notived if I hadnt found it...

KxMx

It certainly is their mess-up, but you should have been checking each month to make sure the money was going out, a quick glance at a statement would show.

Inactive

DocHants wrote: »

No its BE.. service is fantastic, best ISP I have been with..

Theyve told me I can pay double!!!! for the next 10 months til the debt is repaid.. I simply cant afford that....

Im not arguning the fact that I dont ow the money..but it is clearly their cockup which would have gone un notived if I hadnt found it...

That doesn't really matter to be honest, you owe them the money, if you don't pay it they could well cancel your BB and put the matter in the hands of debt collectors.

I would find a way of paying them if I was in your shoes.

macman

I'm not aware that DD's ever expire (while the account is still open). I have some on endowment policies that have been runing for years, and I don't have to 'renew' them. I would check with your bank what has happened to it.
Why did you contact be?-it's not your responsibility to chase them up to bill you. You could have just put the money into a savings account and waited for them to notice.
You should look on the bright side, which is that they have given you 10 months interest free credit, plus another 10 months to pay it off.

aerostar

You may find that if the DD is not used for 12/13 months then it is cancelled, Nationwide do this, but they do not tell you it has been cancelled, you only find out when the DD fails, found this out on a PayPal payment, I usually use credit card, but had set up DD in case the card failed for some reason, but I forgot when I paid once to change to credit card, so it went to DD and failed.

syko29793

They can only back date to your last bill so when and if they do discover you have the service for free the charges can only go back one month.Its the isp error not yours and they are (as part of the contract) obliged to bill you for the service.The same same as you are contracted to pay.

macman

syko29793 wrote: »

They can only back date to your last bill so when and if they do discover you have the service for free the charges can only go back one month.Its the isp error not yours and they are (as part of the contract) obliged to bill you for the service.The same same as you are contracted to pay.

Where did you get this from please?

Inactive

macman wrote: »

Where did you get this from please?

Indeed, news to me as well..??