Is BT late payment charge legal?

jodie

Just looked it up and think I will join when I swap my line over to BT, it could save me a small fortune, thanks for that.

Rikki wrote: »

£45 a month is expensive.

Have you tried using 1899 for most of your calls?

I have reduced my BT bill to around £40 a quarter plus my broadband at £14.99 a month and under £2 a month on calls through 1899. This brings my quarterly total to ... £90.97. Working out at ... £30.33 a month

I used to have telephone bills in excess of £100 plus broadband.

elixier22

No this is not legal. No company is allowed to charge you more that it cost them. So because you were a little bit late I very much doubt it cost them anywhere near £5 to accept a slightly later payment. I have won several cases now in court over this and I suggest you write to BT giving them 7 days to refund you all your charges. Its been illegal under common law for laws and any company telling you different doesnt know what they are talking about.

oldnick wrote: »

I pay my BT bill monthly, and used to pay just before the next bill was due.

About a year ago they started issuing a reminder and adding £5 to the bill if it wasn't paid within 5 days.

Since then the time allowed has reduced and reduced.

I am on benefit and have been paying every 4 weeks for the last 6 months.

You used to be asked to pay within 10 days then reminder came out on 14 days after the bill so you had 19 days to pay.

Two months ago it changed to 7 days to pay reminder after 10 days so even though my payment was 4 weeks after the previous one it attracted £5 penalty.

I am told that the reduction in time to pay is because of my late payment record and that if another 3 payments aren't made by the due date then the £5 penalty will be added on the due date ie seven days after the bill is issued.

Including my broadband my bill is around £45 a month so this is more than a 10% penalty. Is this legal?

I don't appear to be able to switch to anyone as I don't have a bank account to do direct debits.

April2

It is standard business practise to charge interest on outstanding debts (i.e. debts which remain beyond the normal contract period - normally 30 days in business).

BT (and many other firms) now apply that to personal accounts rather than, in effect, allowing customers interest-free loans.

gt94sss2

elixier22 wrote: »

No this is not legal. No company is allowed to charge you more that it cost them. So because you were a little bit late I very much doubt it cost them anywhere near £5 to accept a slightly later payment.

I think you are likely to find that the BT late payment is likely to be legal - as you are likely to underestimate the cost of sending reminder bills etc. to customers - remember that BT don't charge a late payment fee until after the reminder bill has been received. This is normally sent 3/4 weeks after the first/original bill has been sent..

Regards
Sunil

wowzetov

I've just recieved a BT letter where the cost of this lateness penalty is 7.50 and not 5.00; so they seemed to have raised it by a whopping 50%!

AlexisV

Got our business bill today - £12 late payment charge and £9 fee to 'process payment'. Their last bill arrived 10 days after it was dated.

Simply wrote them a cheque minus £21, stuck on Post-It saying I've deducted the excess.

Contract runs out in May, so I'll be off elsewhere. Had so many problems with these awful company in the past year (they've already paid us £500 compensation for their incompetence). They debt collectors 'Moorcroft' are still sending junkmail and being simply ignored.

Mark_In_Hampshire

The strategy employed by BT - and this is based on two experiences over the last five years or so - is to deliberately delay sending bills, such than the bill is generated on day 1, arrives on day 8 or day 9 (2nd class) and is then due for payment on day 10, crossing with a red reminder arriving around that time or not at all.

Therefore it is almost impossible to pay "on time". It is the definition of "on time" which is at issue here. After all, I could today generate invoices for all my clients, and put the due date as today, and send them at 5pm. Can I now charge all my customers late payment charges?