Council Tax.

alo6

Good morning all.

I have a quick question regarding council tax. I got my invoice for the year through yeasterday, and it is £150 a month, it also states that you can make payments online/paycard/telphone etc.

My question is what if i pay say £1000 over the internet, how would that affect my Direct debit?

Bit of a silly question but i dont have the full £1550 right now to pay it outright.

Thanks very much.

jennifernil

Why not keep the £1000 in the bank and just pay the £150 per month? It does not cost extra to pay monthly.

alo6

im more on the notion of lowering expenditure right now till i get my feet on the ground (just moved into a flat of my own), i know where you are coming from and it has went through my head but i am not the best at keeping money aside.

jennifernil

I would ring the council and ask them in that case.

Mojisola

With our council I'm pretty sure you have to choose one way of paying and stick to it. They can't cope with lump sums and DDs.

But the only way to know is to ask them.

greyteam1959

Mojisola wrote: »

With our council I'm pretty sure you have to choose one way of paying and stick to it. They can't cope with lump sums and DDs.

But the only way to know is to ask them.

I think you might cause a shed load of confusion knowing the way councils operate.
On another note......
You got an Invoice from your council ???
I get a DEMAND from mine.....words like this annoy me !!!
:mad:

Mikeyorks

mervyn11 wrote: »

I think you might cause a shed load of confusion knowing the way councils operate.

So if you know how they operate - why not give the thread the benefit of your knowledge?

My experience suggests Mojisola is spot on. They can't cope with ad hoc payments. So - rather than risk your statutory right to pay via instalments being removed by a misunderstanding - you ring them. And ask the implications of making a one off lump sum payment ..... whilst in an instalment arrangement.

jennifernil

As the OP has apparently recently moved in, I do not think he does have any arrangements in place.

Mikeyorks

jennifernil wrote: »

I do not think he does have any arrangements in place.

The OP mentions 'invoice for the year' / '£150 per month' and 'my Direct Debit'. So I assumed from that (against a total £1550) s/he has already opted for the statutory 10 instalments?

CIS

From an admin point of view one of the biggest headaches is caused when people don't pay the actual instalment amount due.

How its handled depends on the system the council use - the most common system which we use can handle it in some cases but not others.

It would pick up each month that your not paying your instalment but it wouldn't issue you a reminder until your £1000 'ran out' when compared against the instalments due to date. Assuming you have no arrears under the same reference number it allocates it correctly against the only balance but if you have any arrears it tries to offset payments against that and causes no end of problems.

jennifernil

Mikeyorks wrote: »

The OP mentions 'invoice for the year' / '£150 per month' and 'my Direct Debit'. So I assumed from that (against a total £1550) s/he has already opted for the statutory 10 instalments?

He/she also says he/she has just moved in, so it is unclear.

I think the 10 monthly installments is the default situation, but of course the council would need to have had details to set it up.