BT Processing Payment

drinks4two

Would you be able to find out why we have to pay this charge to BT to pay our bill. No other company charge such a fee. It will be making BT millions alone every 3 months as we all have to pay it if we do not use direct debit. It must be stopped as we feel it is stealing our money. Bt make you pay on automated fone or post or post office, as they no longer take payment over the fone . Therefore they cannot justify this payment....

Browntoa

ofcom have looked at this and said its fair......

Heinz

Most other line providers also charge extra for non-DD payments. BT's £1.50/month is one of the cheapest (Virgin's is £5/month).

giraffe69

It must be stopped as we feel it is stealing our money.

BT like many other companies charge x but offer some modest reduction if you pay by DD. You get a reduction, they get the benefit of the money regularly and inertia probably means that they keep some customers longer than they might. In what way is this stealing? Sure, some people don't want to pay by DD, including perhaps you, but to characterise it as stealing is unreasonable. They are also hardly alone in doing this.

Welshdebtor

It's now £1.80, I pay it as well.

I do not class it as stealing though, because it is my choice not to pay by DD. Making it optional, hence I guess why OFCOM says it's fair.

jhp

It has been tested a number of times in court and deemed to be legal.

Heinz

Welshdebtor wrote: »

It's now £1.80, I pay it as well.

No, still £1.50/month.

http://www2.bt.com/static/i/microsite/help_and_tips/payments/faq/about_payments.html#faq11

Welshdebtor

Heinz wrote: »

No, still £1.50/month.

http://www2.bt.com/static/i/microsite/help_and_tips/payments/faq/about_payments.html#faq11

Sure I paid £1.80 on my last bill.Will have to see if I can find it.

Welshdebtor

Just checked it is now £1.80 it increased by 30p on 29th Jan.

taken from my bill.

Processing your payment

Payment processing fee
18 May 11
This is the fee charged by BTPS for processing your payment.
The fee was previously exempt from VAT, but has increased by 30p per month
or 90p per quarter from 29 January 2011, as it is now subject to 20% VAT.

Cooler

The service we buy is different from whatever it costs a company to collect it's fee. There is no moral reason why the bill for the service should therefore differ simply because the customer's preferred method of payment has a slightly larger overhead for the company. Overheads are defined as fixed costs of the company, and should be treated as such. IMO it is immoral to charge extra to folk with enough "common" sense to refuse a commercial concern unlimited access to the customer's money at the company's demand, and it should be made illegal. If OFCOM says it is fair then it speaks volumes for their inability to come to sensible conclusions.

iniltous

Some Telco's will only provide service if you agree to pay by direct debit, others charge far more than BT if you dont pay by direct debit, but no one has to use BT if they dont want to, change to a provider that allows you to pay by whatever method you chose and doesnt charge you extra for doing so, but they are few and far between