BT Payment charges

missbagpuss

I have just received my BT Bill on e-mail. To my shock BT have added two payment charges to my bill, 1) Payment Processing Fee £4.50, 2) Late Payment Charge £7.50 a total £12.00 added to my bill. Surely this cant be legal. I object to paying my Telephone bill within the stated 10 days, most companies give most people 28 days to pay. From passed business experience they are one of the worst companies to get money out of and used to expect 2 to 3 month wait for the money.

littleboo

Yes it's legal. You've been charged £4.50 for opting not to pay by direct debite and £7.50 because you payed the bill late.

ACDeag

missbagpuss wrote: »

I have just received my BT Bill on e-mail. To my shock BT have added two payment charges to my bill, 1) Payment Processing Fee £4.50, 2) Late Payment Charge £7.50 a total £12.00 added to my bill. Surely this cant be legal. I object to paying my Telephone bill within the stated 10 days, most companies give most people 28 days to pay. From passed business experience they are one of the worst companies to get money out of and used to expect 2 to 3 month wait for the money.

You don't have to use them, if you do you agree to their terms of business which are that you will pay them within 10 days and if not by Direct Debit then you will pay a fee.

mew57

On my latest BT bill I was charged £9.00 payment processing fee. When I telephoned BT I was told that as of 11th Sept this charge has gone up. I have reported the matter to OFCOM they say nothing will be done unless they get more complaints. I also e-mailed BT objecting to the charge so far they have not responded

macman

Switch to direct debit and you won't get charged and won't pay late.

ACDeag

mew57 wrote: »

On my latest BT bill I was charged £9.00 payment processing fee. When I telephoned BT I was told that as of 11th Sept this charge has gone up. I have reported the matter to OFCOM they say nothing will be done unless they get more complaints. I also e-mailed BT objecting to the charge so far they have not responded

OFCOM is unlikely to do much as it is a competitive market (so they say), and you could use another company who does not charge the same amount, or of course switch to Direct Debit.

BT_company_representative

Hi Mew57,

I have sent you a PM regarding the payment processing fee.

Thanks
Gail

Heinz

BT's Payment Processing Fee is still £1.50/month (£4.50/quarter) - see HERE.

mrtom21

It still is £1.50 :P. If you do not pay by direct debit you get charged.. that is it. If you choose not to set up a direct debit... you are CHOOSING to pay £1.50 per month. If you pay your bill late, you are CHOOSING to pay a late fee. To be honest, I hate direct debits and will never set them up. But I accept the payment processing fee for not doing so. I see it as worth the extra few pounds to have more control of my spending.

Bryan_Rendall

My last bill also had the £9 "Payment Extortion Fee". BT's foreign call centre were this morning unable to justify this charge, saying merely "Thats the standard fee". As a result, they have now lost another customer who has just switched to service provider that is both cheaper and accepts payments, without charge!

:j

spugzbunny

£9??? - My latest bill only had the usual £4.50 payment fee (grrrr) but am I to expect double next time? You are having a giraffe?!

You are all completely right with regard to the choice element, I choose to pay in cash becasue I live in a shared house and I take cash payment of my housemates to pay the bill. We only use BT for the landline and the rest of the caboodle is with sky - who I do believe now offer a landline within the package. I think if I remember correctly it costs less and you don't ned any complicated switch around because Sky effectively pay BT for the line.

If my energy supplier pays me to pay the bill quickly, then I do feel I may need to choose to leave BT!