BT "Payment Processing Fee" !!!!!!?!?!

marleyboy

Not everyone has a Bank a/c, and those whom dont are generally on the breadline as it is, so £3 can be a lot of money for those. Cash has always been King. If I go into a shop to buy a product, I dont get an additional fee for not paying with a credit card. As much as I dont charge a surcharge to collect the change.

EHeylin

You all seem to be saying that the answer is to set up a DD. But if you follow the threads about DDs and phone suppliers you'll see why I don't want to give Virgin Media (which incidentally charges £5 for processing payment) access to my bank account. I always pay my monthly bill promptly by internet payment and although I have written to Virgin to ask why I am still charged as though I was paying by cheque I have still (6 months later) not had a reply. My consumer revenge is to pay by cheque since that is what they are charging me for. Or maybe next month I will pay by two cheques, or maybe three cheques..........

RadoJo

marleyboy wrote: »

Then how can you explain Virgin Media taking too much out of my DD (nearly every Month), and even managing to get another DD from me on top of the one they have, without any permission or knowledge by me? Only to have them pay me back the oversight by reducing other bills.

As for this putting my Bank a/c into overdraw, I had to send VM details of the excess bank fee's as a result of it, so they could re-imburse me? As they HAD taken excess money out of my bank with no questions asked and as it was a VM mistake the onus WAS on me to claim my money back. And thats ENTIRELY correct.

Did you contact your bank and ask them to use their powers under the direct debit guarantee to recover the money? If they refused, then you should have reported them to the financial ombudsman. If you didn't contact your bank about it, then how were they supposed to know?

lolarentt

WELL IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM...........my (grudging) response has been to sign up for DD, AND go for paperless billing with the result that I'm now £3/quarter BETTER off than before all this began - £10/qu line rental instead of £11.

In addition there are no call charges as I'm on AOL Talk which gives me free UK landline calls 24/7 for 6 months with no service charge (and no time commitment so can cancel after the free 6 months)

marleyboy

RadoJo wrote: »

Did you contact your bank and ask them to use their powers under the direct debit guarantee to recover the money? If they refused, then you should have reported them to the financial ombudsman. If you didn't contact your bank about it, then how were they supposed to know?

I didnt have to get in touch with my bank, they got in touch with me, as my a/c had gone into the red.

How were they supposed to know?? maybe because I had not set an agreement up with the bank for an extra DD in the first place. How was I supposed to know that VM had set one up for me, without given permission? That I did manage to get the DD cancelled by the bank, or that I would have to contact some ombudsman, again re-iterates that the onus is indeed on me.

The fact that VM CAN do this and the bank CAN allow it, without any prior knowledge to me from either of them is the point I am stating. In the old days, it took a signature from the customer to set one up, nowadays all it takes is a click of a mouse, without, so it would seem, any authentication from the customer.

missk249

kitekat wrote: »

Pay your bill at the post office,i believe its free for B.T.customers.

Very true, but, it is still not dd!!!!! so charge still stands.

Now, get this one, My 87 year old gran pays £30 a month to her bt prepayment card. Her bill, quarterly, including line rental of £11, is usually in the region of £70. This means that she is highly in credit on her bt prepayment card. YET she is still charged the £4.50 payment processing fee, even though she is paying them directly, and NEVER has a bill to pay as she is already in credit!!!! Where is the FAIRNESS in that????

antoniomontana

RadoJo wrote: »

'many people don't like paying via DD as they take the money out no questions asked and if theres a mistake with the bill than the onus is on you to get the money back from them which can be difficult'

That's almost entirely incorrect - under the direct debit guarantee your provider is obliged to send you details of the amount before billing you and your bank is obliged to ensure that any errors arising in the process are refunded to you, without you having to contact your provider (unless of course you need to ascertain where the error has come from, but you would need to do that if they just sent you a bill for the wrong amount anyway).

Many people seem to not understand the direct debit guarantee, even though it really is very simple. Here is the financial ombudsman's page on the matter.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

That may be the theory but in reality it hasn't worked like that for me, companies have taken out much more than agreed and as has been said by others its up to you to try and sort it out with endless calls, being put on hold and the headache that goes with it.
(virgin are a great example)
Given the furore over unfair bank charges surely this is similar, no way does it cost BT £4.50 to process payment, I think the best way for everyone being charged the fee is to pay by cheque and really make the £4.50 worthwhile!

smcaul

I refuse to pay BT by DD. If you didn't already know you actually pay your line rental in advance with BT, only the cost of the calls are retrospective. So why should I pay £4.50 for fees I am already paying in advance (my call charges are pennies per month -use line for BB access mostly)?

Each time they add it on I call them up and get it removed (actually I normally wait for them to call me), have been doing that for about 2 years and they have refunded every time without exception.

RadoJo

I appreciate that the direct debit system is lacking, and companies who already have poor customer services may not be holding up their end of it, but if everybody refused to be fobbed off by them and forced them to resolve the matter, it might encourage some of them to actually implement a proper process to ensure mistakes weren't made.

Marleyboy - in your case, I would be questioning how this happened as there was clearly some unauthorised action on your account. This is separate to the Direct Debit guarantee that I was talking about, and I am sure you are pursuing the matter with your bank to discover who the originator of the DD was, but the principle is still the same - if VM offered to reminburse you through reductions on your bills you are within your rights to refuse and ask them to return the funds directly back into your bank account. I have done this with VM and they capitulated pretty quickly when I mentioned the Direct Debit guarantee. That's what I mean - in the same way that certain retailers have a lax approach to the SOGA, it means that you have to be sure of your rights and force their hand, and not let them put you in a position where you have to do all the running - I am sure they would prefer that if they can get away with it, but if you stick to your guns the company and bank are obliged to resolve it from their ends.

silverchair

Ive heard that they are able to increase the direct debit amount without you being able to stop them increasing it.
I recently had a letter from my electrcity supplier saying that they want to increase my DD and that I dont need to do anything as they will do this automatically from such and such a date.
I phoned my bank to ask whether I can put a limit on the DD that electricity company take out and my bank said no.
I mean obviously I can stop them taking out more by just cancelling DD (& talking to electrcity company), but I was surprised that you can agree on DD amount and other person can just increase it.
I wonder whether bank has given me the wrong info?