Late Payment Charges (Virgin Media)

2steps

I have an issue with my virgin bill. My package is £30 a month and I pay £10 a week so it is covered as well as the extra for not paying DD and anything else. They claim I am behind on payments and have been adding late payment charges of £10 a month, which are what are making me seem behind; if that makes sense? If it wasn't for the charges I would be fine. Are they allowed to make a charge like that? If someone was struggling to pay I can't see how they think charging them more is going to help. I have tried to email and write to them and had no response. By phone I end up on hold for ages and getting past from one person to another.

agrinnall

Where do you pay the £10 a week? It sounds like there is a delay between you handing over (presumably) cash and that money being credited to your Virgin Media account.

2steps

I pay via internet banking every week, same a sall my other bills

System

It could depend on dates. You pay in advance so if they want £30 by say the 12th of the month you will only in fact have paid £20 by the 12th, £30 on the 19th and £40 on the 26th. This would mean you're always in arrears. I would suggest you get you account up to date and then ensure you've always paid the £30 by the due date

2steps

I would if I could but am on a very limited budget and the fact that they add these charges is causing me to get behind on my payments more and more. If they didn't add them I wouldn't be behind

mynameistallulah

2steps wrote: »

I would if I could but am on a very limited budget and the fact that they add these charges is causing me to get behind on my payments more and more. If they didn't add them I wouldn't be behind

Then you really don't need to be spending £30 a month on entertainment. Look at Freeview, and cheaper providers for telephone/ internet etc.

halibut2209

Not very helpful. For all you know the OP was affluent, but circumstances changed. The OP would still be under contract with Virgin.

2steps

I have only been with virgin at this property since August. Money is limited as I am disabled and have two special needs children and currently receive no extra help at all. I study from home and don't get out much so for me the internet is my lifeline, same for my oldest son. I don't think £30 a month is much for what we get from it but I do object to them adding on £10 a month charges even though I am paying what I should just because maybe the dates are out. That's completely unfair. I never had this issue when I was with virgin previously for over seven years.

agrinnall

I don't understand why you are not paying by DD and avoiding both the extra charge for using an alternative payment method and the late fees that they are applying.

squeaky

Hi

Okay, as has been said, you are going to have to bite the bullet and sort out your arrears and get your payments onto a schedule that means that you have paid in enough money to cover the bill by the due date.

That said, there are ways to sort out your spending to help you out.

The first thing that you can do is visit this board: Debt-Free Wannabe and do a Statement Of Affairs (SOA) and the gurus there will help you find ways to reduce your overall spending on things.

Another thing that you can do is, for a short period of time, pretty much reduce your spend on groceries to a tiny fraction of your current spend by living off the contents of your store cupboard. On the longer term you can do a lot with budgeting and meal planning and reducing food wastage. The board to visit for this is: Old Style MoneySaving

HTH