BT Having a Laugh?

HooCanTellMee

Hi to all,
Just fuming, my Mother In Law, in her mid-eighties, asked me to take a look at her phone bill, it was higher than usual! I thought, no problem, sure enough she had been having a long natter with an old pal down south, for about ninety minutes, whoops.................. I suggested she went onto an inclusive call charge plan, then took a second look at the bill. BT charge her over £5.00 just to process her payments! Unless she pays be DD she pays for this for them dealing with a cheque, credit or debit card or even by paying over the counter at the post office. My phone company would charge for a credit card but no where near £5.00, debit card is free of charges as is a cheque! What a rip off, many older people are very reluctant to give out bank details over the phone and a cheque is something they are used to. Please don't tell me it costs BT £5.00 to process a cheque or card payment, if it costs that much everyone would charge this amount, I go into many shops and use a Debit Card, if it cost so much to process these payments why can you purchase goods for less than £5.00 with a card?
I told Mum in Law to ditch BT but, for the very reason she doesn't want to Direct Debit any bills she wants to stick with what she knows! Loyal customer being taken for a ride! She even rushes to pay up as soon as the bill arrives!
No mention of these charges on their advertising is there?

Azari

They did make it clear that this was going to happen.

They are trying to move away from these individual payments as they are a lot more expensive to process.

You could certainly argue that £5 is somewhat over the top but they are trying their best to nudge people to use a more efficient payment system.

maninthestreet

HooCanTellMee wrote: »

Hi to all,
Just fuming, my Mother In Law, in her mid-eighties, asked me to take a look at her phone bill, it was higher than usual! I thought, no problem, sure enough she had been having a long natter with an old pal down south, for about ninety minutes, whoops.................. I suggested she went onto an inclusive call charge plan, then took a second look at the bill. BT charge her over £5.00 just to process her payments! Unless she pays be DD she pays for this for them dealing with a cheque, credit or debit card or even by paying over the counter at the post office. My phone company would charge for a credit card but no where near £5.00, debit card is free of charges as is a cheque! What a rip off, many older people are very reluctant to give out bank details over the phone and a cheque is something they are used to. Please don't tell me it costs BT £5.00 to process a cheque or card payment, if it costs that much everyone would charge this amount, I go into many shops and use a Debit Card, if it cost so much to process these payments why can you purchase goods for less than £5.00 with a card?
I told Mum in Law to ditch BT but, for the very reason she doesn't want to Direct Debit any bills she wants to stick with what she knows! Loyal customer being taken for a ride! She even rushes to pay up as soon as the bill arrives!
No mention of these charges on their advertising is there?

I felt the same way about this £5 charge and switching to DD, but I eventually gave in and switched to DD. The DD amount can be variable depending on how much you use the phone.

HooCanTellMee

My main vent is the amount BT are charging for the privilege of paying a bill promptly with a recognized method of payment, by all means charge for late payments. I can't believe it costs anywhere near this amount to process a payment, and if it is just about making things easier for BT, surely the loyalty of a customer for nearly forty years should be worth a little effort!
Mum in Law is probably funding TV adverts for fast broadband, something that is unavailable in our area and of no use to her, she doesn't have a computer! This is a lady from a generation that got paid weekly, in cash, if they ran out of cash mid week then they went without. Electronic payments mean very little to her, the world of direct debit and even card payments are as alien to her as video gaming! She is constantly being bombarded with warnings with how dangerous the world of the internet is, and cash card fraud.
Why would it cost more to process a debit card payment than a direct debit? Isn't it all just done electronically? I even read recently that cheque clearing had been speeded up and that it had been decided that cheques would continue to be used, because many people still used and needed this method.
Shame on BT for taking advantage of loyalty instead of rewarding it!

nomoneytoday

It's not just about the processing costs.

If a Telco uses a DD then 99% of the bills will be paid and on time.
A stand alone bill can be ignored, lost in the post, not paid, delayed etc. Instead of a carrot, they're using a whip to get people to change IMHO.

olias

OP, you're missing the point. The charge as stated, is not a fee to cover the cost of processing the payment, it a fee levyed to encourage or push people into DD because that method of payment suits BT better. By doing so they will have to employ less people as more could be automated, therefore meaning bigger profits. Not trying to stick up for the big boys, but you can't really blame them for wanting to maximise their profits. They are a private company now, competing with others. It's not like the old days of the GPO (remember them..?)

TBH, at your MIL's age, DD for all her bills may not be a bad thing. Although I'm sure she does not have a problem at the moment, age will undoubtedly start to affect her memory at some stage and that is when problems may begin with bills being left unpaid, or forgotten about etc.

Olias

WestonDave

In effect its a £5 Direct Debit discount, however because that would only appear on the bills of those paying by Direct Debit who already do what BT want, its far more effective in terms of getting a transfer to Direct Debit if they put it as a charge on those who don't do it. If they simply banged up quarterly line rental by £5 and gave a discount on DD bills, you'd never have noticed this and not even be thinking about how payment is made, but by doing it this way they've got your attention - exactly what they wanted.

fluffnutter

Direct Debit is one of the safest and most convenient ways to pay bills. It's completely controllable by the customer plus any errors the collecting company might make are guaranteed by the bank so you can always get your money back if overcharged.

I notice you say your MIL is reluctant to 'give bank details over the phone'. I'm sure that this wouldn't be necessary; she could complete a DD mandate in writing and post it to BT.

It really is the most sensible way to pay bills and rather than think BT are a 'rip-off' perhaps the most helpful thing would be to encourage your MIL to move to this type of payment.

HooCanTellMee

Thanks for all the views,
Yes, it may be easier to pay by direct debit, but it is still alien to my Mother in Law! The next step will probably the "It is cheaper to view your bill on line" this way she can just know nothing, no paper bill, no means of viewing the bill and no keeping a tab on her spending. Also she will have even less reason to feel part of society, she is old and as olias pointed out her memory may go soon! Funny that they say that the more older people use their brains the longer they keep their abilities. She likes to pop out and pay her bills it gives her a reason to go out! Take this to the extreme and she could just stay in and never go out, shop on line, have stuff delivered and never see a soul from one day to the next.
These methods all suit the vendor, it makes sure their bills are promptly paid they can put up your bill with little, what is in it for the customer? They can employ less staff which is so good for the unemployment figures.
Oh yes, you can totally lose control of your finances, you don't have the excuse to pop out to pay your bill, you can just stay in.
I am in my fifties, so I guess my memory will be on the way out soon,but I have teenagers so new technology is part of my life. My MIL has little contact with any of this, mobile phone is a mystery with too small buttons, digital TV is great but she is scared to retune in case she breaks it why can't the likes of BT let her carry on for a few more years? One answer is that everything is computerised so she is just another long account number. Why should she be penalised for being too elderly to take in new ways of paying, she has never paid late, she has never been in debt how many of us can say the same! When she has a problem we will deal with it then. We will all get old, but how many of us want a Nanny State to look after us now just because it will happen one day!

"Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell" - Edward Abbey. Couldn't agree more!

mjm3346

Virgin charge £5 per Month so BT are quite cheap.