BT charging for using Debit Card to pay bill

mjordant

I have just been charged £5.40 by British Telecom as a payment processing fee for paying my telephone bill in full using my Lloyds TSB Debit Card.

Anyone know if this is legal? I always understood that paying by debit card was the same as paying cash as the recipient gets the money deposited into their bank account immediately.

This charge represents about 5% of my bill and I think it's outrageous. Yet another example of big companies screwing loyal customers for every penny they can get.

Any advice appreciated - thanks.

antrobus

mjordant wrote: »

I have just been charged £5.40 by British Telecom as a payment processing fee for paying my telephone bill in full using my Lloyds TSB Debit Card.

Anyone know if this is legal? I always understood that paying by debit card was the same as paying cash as the recipient gets the money deposited into their bank account immediately.

This charge represents about 5% of my bill and I think it's outrageous. Yet another example of big companies screwing loyal customers for every penny they can get.

Any advice appreciated - thanks.

Is this legal? Sadly yes. BT have been charging for debit card payments for a few year's now.

See: How can I pay my bill? http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9855/~/how-can-i-pay-my-bill%3F

If you don't want to set up a DD with BT, perhaps you should check whether you can pay the bill by bank transfer if your Lloyds TSB account offers that facility.

Paul_Herring

mjordant wrote: »

I have just been charged £5.40 by British Telecom as a payment processing fee for paying my telephone bill in full using my Lloyds TSB Debit Card.

Anyone know if this is legal?

Of course it is.

I always understood that paying by debit card was the same as paying cash as the recipient gets the money deposited into their bank account immediately.

And the recipient gets charged for the privilege unlike, say, when you pay using a direct debit.

Now ₤5.40 is nowhere near what BT will be being charged by the card processors, but they do get charged by Visa/Mastercard/whoever.

This charge represents about 5% of my bill and I think it's outrageous.

And BT are probably being charged anything from 0.5% to 5% of the amount by the processor (and it's more likely to be at the lower end,) to allow you to actually be able to pay by card.

Yet another example of big companies screwing loyal customers for every penny they can get.

Any advice appreciated - thanks.

Get a Direct Debit put in place.