Warning! BT increase charges for non direct debit payers

albertross_2

Millions of people used DD's every day, reliably, saves a lot of hassle, helps budgeting, saves time/money/paper/electricity.

You may have just been unlucky, if you contact your bank, you should get an immediate refund, no questions asked.

http://www.bacs.co.uk/BACS/Consumers/Direct+Debit/Your+rights/

IanRK

It depends on what you want to use DD for.
Large utility companies are too intransigent when mistakes occur for me to take the risk.
My insurance company played silly !!!!!!s with me only last year and would not answer phone calls or letters with a full answer. I cancelled by DD payment and funnily enough got a letter 2 days later telling me I couldn't do that. It was the only way to force them to contact me, I got past the apparatchiks in their call centres who were reading off a script and I finally talked to a real human being who actually listened to what I was saying. It was eventally sorted and I got a full refund but they were adamant at the time that I had not got a case and was wasting my time.
As I say, I still use DD for convenience but not where there is any danger some over-zealous company could take out a huge wad and leave my account short. Utility companies appear on programmes like Watchdog too many times for me to risk it.
Unlucky I may be, but you know what they say three times bitten......

BritBrat

I had a letter today regarding change of sort code/acct number, I hope they are not fixing the method I use.

BritBrat

On a side note.

A question came up in another place that if a direct debit is not used for 13 months it gets stopped by the bank.

Would BT be notified of this if they never had to call for the DD?

At the moment I am thinking of letting them have one every year so it does not kick in, maybe while on holiday or something like that.

IanRK

On another side note if you look at it from a distance BT win both ways.
If you pay by Direct Debit the monthly payments will be more than your monthly average and everyone I speak to is in credit with BT so they are earning lots of dosh from the interest.
If you don't pay by DD they charge you for the privilege of paying them on time anyway. Even those who pay on-line as I do.
Heads they win, tails you lose. Improving customer service!, gissa break.

BexTech

IanRK wrote: »

On another side note if you look at it from a distance BT win both ways.
If you pay by Direct Debit the monthly payments will be more than your monthly average and everyone I speak to is in credit with BT so they are earning lots of dosh from the interest.
If you don't pay by DD they charge you for the privilege of paying them on time anyway. Even those who pay on-line as I do.
Heads they win, tails you lose. Improving customer service!, gissa break.

We (when with BT), our friends and our family opted for Monthly Direct Debit - Whole Bill. - This has been available for many many years. This means you get billed monthly and you only pay for what you are billed. BT also offer a monthly payment plan, where they work out an average, but you don't have to go for that one, simply go for whole bill monthly DD. If your line rental is £10.50 per month and the one month you made 50p in call charges, then your account will be debited by £11 that month, if the next month you made £1.75 in call charges and with £10.50 line rental, then that month they would take £12.25.

wolvesinwales

I have totally given up on BT and when my AOL contract ends and i no longer need a land line i will be saying good riddance to them.
DD is all well and good when things are going ok and i have always thought of it as a useful tool for grabbing organisations attention by cancelling it when all other lines of communication are impossible. But BT have this one nicely covered now and hit you with the extra charge for not paying by DD when you cancel even when its only done to try and grab their attention.

I had an ongoing battle with BT that took over a year to sort out because i refused to pay part of an incorrect bill , i finally got them to understand that they were in the wrong and i should never have been charged for certain things but it went on for over a year because whenever my next bill came the first thing on it was a charge for late payment of my previous bill when i had only withheld what they had incorrectly charged me for !
My latest bill is so totally confused and messed up that i have lost the will to fight them any longer and will be kicking them in to touch asap and i will let them sue me for what i dont owe them.:rolleyes:

IanRK

BexTech wrote: »

We (when with BT), our friends and our family opted for Monthly Direct Debit - Whole Bill. - This has been available for many many years. This means you get billed monthly and you only pay for what you are billed. BT also offer a monthly payment plan, where they work out an average, but you don't have to go for that one, simply go for whole bill monthly DD. If your line rental is £10.50 per month and the one month you made 50p in call charges, then your account will be debited by £11 that month, if the next month you made £1.75 in call charges and with £10.50 line rental, then that month they would take £12.25.

I do appreciate there is that particular option but there is still the risk of a rogue bill going through, as many will testify, and BT emptying your account. Based on my personal dealings with DD through large companies that is not a risk l am willing to take. They are ALL too slow to respond when things go wrong and frankly do not give a damn about the problems they may cause to individual custorners.

littleboo

If you don't like BT's payment options, take your business elsewhere.

BritBrat

littleboo wrote: »

If you don't like BT's payment options, take your business elsewhere.

Thats is what I did apart from line rental and the odd 1 or 2 calls.

Now Openreach get most of my money (line rental) and BT retail get very little in call charges.

Sorry to repeat myself again, they lost £40 - £70 a month from me just because they wanted to charge me £1.50 for paying on time. And they don't even get the £1.50 now.

One year on and I am still laughing.

If they want me back they will have to give me 24/7 national free calls for normal rental rate.