Massive 'late fee' from Spark?!

Girl_in_the_City

Hi,

I received a bill from Spark after I moved out of my last place, and it was wrong so I asked them to revise it. The second bill has come with a massive late fee on it (fair enough I took forever to contact them about the first one so it would have been late).

I am happy to pay a late fee, as it state in their T&Cs they will charge after 30 days. However it says this

We reserve the right to charge you for late payment. We may charge you a late payment administration charge if your account remains unpaid for 30 days after the due date for payment or we may charge you interest at an annual rate of 4 per cent above the base-lending rate from a high street bank in England, as we shall nominate from time to time.

What I've actually been charged, is just a flat fee of £80.25. But surely that's far too much? I have no idea what the base rate is and what 4 percent higher would be!

Any ideas? Thanks!

macman

UK Base rate is 0.5% (has been for 3 years now), so they'll be charging 4.5% annually. No-one can tell you what that amounts to in interest unless you say what you owed, and how many days over 30 days late it is.
However, since they also reserve the right to levy an unspecified 'late payment admin charge' instead (which could be any amount they please) you don't really have a case under the terms of that contract.
Why does anyone use these people?

DVardysShadow

Pay them the money without the late fee and write to ask them for how they have calculated it.

jalexa

macman wrote: »

However, since they also reserve the right to levy an unspecified 'late payment admin charge' instead (which could be any amount they please) you don't really have a case under the terms of that contract.

I'm not convinced by that. The quoted clause says this..."as we shall nominate from time to time" so as a minimum the "nomination" needs to be explored. As to "any amount they please", I'm not convinced that would be considered "fair" in contract law.

macman

True. My point was that under the contract terms as quoted, it's impossible to know what the charge would be, unless it's based on the base rate + 4% calculation.
On the basis of some other posts we have seen about Spark, no doubt they just make it up as they go along.

Girl_in_the_City

macman wrote: »

UK Base rate is 0.5% (has been for 3 years now), so they'll be charging 4.5% annually. No-one can tell you what that amounts to in interest unless you say what you owed, and how many days over 30 days late it is.
However, since they also reserve the right to levy an unspecified 'late payment admin charge' instead (which could be any amount they please) you don't really have a case under the terms of that contract.
Why does anyone use these people?

I had no choice to use them when I moved into a managed apartment. I know they're dodgy and kept an eye on all bills etc previously.

I owed them just under £200 (without the fee), which I have only just finished paying and I guess they would have calculated the amount from when they sent me the first (incorrect) final bill, which was 26 August 2011.

I will email them as suggested and ask how they calcuated the amount. Thanks!

grahamc2003

Girl_in_the_City wrote: »

I had no choice to use them when I moved into a managed apartment. I know they're dodgy and kept an eye on all bills etc previously.

I owed them just under £200 (without the fee), which I have only just finished paying and I guess they would have calculated the amount from when they sent me the first (incorrect) final bill, which was 26 August 2011.

I will email them as suggested and ask how they calcuated the amount. Thanks!

The interest on that is about a fiver.

Looks like it's almost all the admin fee. It makes banking fees look quite reasonable!

macman

You re under no obligation at all to use the landlord's 'nominated' supplier. The reason they say that is because they receive a commission from Spark. Your bills, your choice of supplier.

Consumerist

macman wrote: »

You re under no obligation at all to use the landlord's 'nominated' supplier. . .

Absolutely. You may be required to switch back the original supplier before you leave, however.

If your tenancy agreement specifies a particular energy supplier then that will be regarded as an unfair term. You can download a pdf file about this <here>. See Table 4.2 "Examples of potentially unreasonable prohibitions" in the section "Against changing the phone or utility supplier".

vax2002

This is a penalty and I doubt they would chance court.