Sneaky way of dropping Virgin Media's £5.00 Payment Handling Fee

zippiesdisciple

Our monthly Virgin Media services (BBL & Phone Line) cost us £27.50 and we normally pay £15.00 (to cover services & calls) onto our Virgin Media account every week at a pay zone outlet using the barcode that comes with any bill. That way we end up already in credit when the bill is issued, that helps us to budget as we are a large family. We always incurred the usual £1.25 paper bill charge and the £5.00 handling fee.
We have already signed up to the E billing to drop the £1.25 fee and today we managed to drop the £5.00 fee by signing up to direct debit.
We can continue to pay with the barcode on any bill as we have been doing during the month keeping us in credit so when the direct debit is due there is no balance to collect and we have not incurred the £5.00 fee and this has enabled us to drop our weekly payement.
It might not seem like a huge drop weekly but every pound saved helps and I am begrudging to pay the extra £5.00 charge. It works out at £60 a year for nothing and that is a lot of money to us!!
The woman at Virgin Media laughed when she realised what we were doing but agreed it was allowed.
Although there is a direct debit instruction in place as long as we can keep in credit with regular payments like we have been doing it will never be acted upon.

RTNI

Just a word of caution, some banks automatically cancel DD's after a period of inactivity (13 months springs to mind). If this happens, you would need to re-setup the DD again or you would get the £5 charge added onto the bill again as Virgin would see the DD as cancelled!!

TREVORCOLMAN

Why dont you leave a small amount for them to take by DD (say £1). Make sure there is money in the bank account to cover it. That way the DD should remain open.

You do not even have to let them take £1 every month maybe every 3 or 6 months.

Just an idea.