Virgin Media Hidden Charges HELP!!

CinderellaLucy

I have just noticed that im being charged £5.00 per month extra because i choose to pay my bill on time without a direct debit and also a £1.50 charge for having a paper bill.

Is there any law or any way around not having to be penalised because i choose to manage my money differently? as £78 per year is alot of money!!!

thanks

penrhyn

This is no different to any other company which offers a DD discount, presumably you have the same problems with your utility companies?

CinderellaLucy

tbh i havent checked , it makes no difference to them surly? they get my money paid in full on time!

dojoman

This is the same for a lot of companies now. this was clearly explained to me when upgrading my services.

macman

CinderellaLucy wrote: »

tbh i havent checked , it makes no difference to them surly? they get my money paid in full on time!

Yes, it make a great deal of difference, it costs far more for them to process a manual payment.
Switch to DD and you won't have the non-DD charge. If you have broadband/email, why would you need a paper bill?

penrhyn

CinderellaLucy wrote: »

tbh i havent checked , it makes no difference to them surly? they get my money paid in full on time!

Yes it does make a difference, and don't call me Shirley:D

DCFC79

You would have had a letter about the charge for the paper bill(well we got the letter) and re the fee for non dd payment should be in the T&C's i would have thought. If you pay by DD then you can save yourself £5 a month.

useless_git_requires_wife

As I've posted many times before, if you are outside of your contract period just phone them up and ask to disconnected.....when they ask ''why?", tell them because of the extra charges. They will usually offer an instant bill credit of about £30. Simply rinse and repeat every few months.

Remember to choose the ''if you're thinking of leaving'' option as only those guys can dish out bill credits. They will try and blab on about some new deal that would be cheaper but just hold your ground and they'll come round.

CinderellaLucy

ahhh thanks everyone :-)

Buzby

The charges are NOT hidden. A look at ANY VM publicity shows a link to their pricing (for DD and paper-free billing). It's all above board. I remain a customer, but only becauase I negotiated my non-DD charge down from £5 to £1.50, due to the fact that they twice emptied my bank account due to billing errors.

The Labour govt had initially ruied there was no issues of import, and charges like these could continue, but the Con/Lib replacement is now outlawing higher charges for Debit and Credit cards, so what you complain about may well be looked at again.