Vodafone Direct Debit No Charge 10 September 2013 at 12:26PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Mobiles 19 replies 5.9K views

jimltfc

I received a message to my phone this morning and I was wondering if Vodafone have the right to charge me a fee just because I don't use direct debit. I have a 24 month contract with 12 months already gone and are they allowed to just slip in a charge into my contract that wasn't there when I signed it???

Here is the message....

Why not set up a direct debit to pay your bill & save money? There's a £3.53 a month charge if you don't pay by direct debit. We'll be adding this fee 30 days from today, so you have time to change your payment method to avoid this fee on future bills. Find out more at www. vodafone. co. uk/nonddfee1310


Please help,

Thanks,

Jim.

NFH

No, such fees have been banned since 6th April 2013. The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 state that "A trader must not charge consumers, in respect of the use of a given means of payment, fees that exceed the cost borne by the trader for the use of that means". Therefore Vodafone can charge you only what it costs them to process the payment. Clearly £3.53 is a lot more than what it costs them to receive payment by bank transfer for example. Maybe Vodafone hasn't updated its systems yet, although this is surprising as it has been several months since the new legislation came into force.

jimltfc

Ok thanks for the reply NFH, does this mean I could cancel my contract if they do charge it as they would be in breach?

NFH

jimltfc wrote: »

Ok thanks for the reply NFH, does this mean I could cancel my contract if they do charge it as they would be in breach?

No, you could cancel the contract only if they failed to provide the service with reasonable care and skill. Billing errors are not sufficient grounds to cancel a contract, because a billing error can be reversed to put you in the same position you would have been in if the error had not occurred.

You need to report this to trading standards who should take action. Given that this is new legislation, it is not well tested (if at all), so you might be one of the first.

jimltfc

Thanks again.

NFH

Alternatively, could the Vodafone company representative please shed some light on why Vodafone is breaching legislation that has already been in force for five months?

carer14

I had the same message today. I have rung Vodafone and they are adamant that they are going to charge all customers who don't pay by direct debit. I asked to speak to a manager and guess what " He was out of the office". I obviously wasn't getting anywhere with the girl on the phone so i hung off. What should i do now ? Thank you x

NFH

carer14 wrote: »

What should i do now ?

Report it to Trading Standards. They have a statutory obligation to investigate and take enforcement action under Regulations 7 and 8 of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012.

simax

None of the mobile networks have changed their non-DD charges.

NFH

simax wrote: »

None of the mobile networks have changed their non-DD charges.

So they are all in breach then.

jimltfc

I have just been on Vodafone's Terms and conditions and on number 8 it states this £3.53 charge. Will that affect what Trading Standards will say??

Here is the link for the T&C's
www vodafone co uk/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions/pay-monthly-price-plan-terms-anytime/index.htm

You will to put in the dots as it will not let me post link's as a newbie.