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BT Payment Processing Fee

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Comments

  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    You can pay post office homephone by any means including card over the phone.

    The price is the same however you pay.
  • Buzby
    Buzby Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    cynicalgit wrote: »
    BT aren't a monopoly!! Ru having laugh? Who owns the majority of the UK's communications infrastructure?

    BT RETAIL are not a Monopoly. Landline services not routing via BT infrastructure include Virgin Cable and Cable & Wireless. As for who own the majority, based on what? Fibre miles, landline terminations, wholesale circuits? If wireless, they are seriously deficient and can only rent capacity as a third party.

    So, there is alternatives, however as far as the OP goes, they all charge differential rates depending on how you pay.
  • Buzby wrote: »
    BT RETAIL are not a Monopoly. Landline services not routing via BT infrastructure include Virgin Cable and Cable & Wireless. As for who own the majority, based on what? Fibre miles, landline terminations, wholesale circuits? If wireless, they are seriously deficient and can only rent capacity as a third party.

    So, there is alternatives, however as far as the OP goes, they all charge differential rates depending on how you pay.

    Presumably BT Openreach is not a wholly owned BT subsiduary then?
    Regardless of the retail side the majority of UK telecomms infrastructure is owned by BT. End of.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    Buzby wrote: »
    ......... as far as the OP goes, they all charge differential rates depending on how you pay.

    Not so.

    One I know of already posted (post office) doesn't.
  • double-slit
    double-slit Posts: 29 Forumite
    edited 13 October 2013 at 10:32AM
    Heinz wrote: »
    The obvious counter-argument is that you get a discount if you pay by DD rather that you pay extra for using another payment method.
    When I pay my British gas bill by cheque/cash they give me a prompt pay discount ( if you pay in about 10 days),and no processing fee.
    I suppose i am asking just to much from BT(now there is no Oftel to stand up for the customer).
  • Buzby
    Buzby Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    cynicalgit wrote: »
    Presumably BT Openreach is not a wholly owned BT subsiduary then?
    Regardless of the retail side the majority of UK telecomms infrastructure is owned by BT. End of.

    Since you cannot be a retail customer of BTO, your comment was simplistic and inaccurate. You can take it further too if you want to be perverse, in that if it wasn't for OFCOMs monopoly in issuing telephone numbers, we could get them cheaper elsewhere!

    End of? If only it was that simple.
  • Buzby
    Buzby Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    Quentin wrote: »
    Not so.

    One I know of already posted (post office) doesn't.

    Perhaps they do - but if you look at:

    https://account.pobroadband.co.uk/SelfCare.UI/ContentManagement/FAQs?topic=BillingAndPayments#015

    You'll note that they don't state either way. Would you not think they would have promoted this as a USP over their other competitors, or is it an oversight?

    In any event, as they are only BT resellers, these virtual operators simply send out bills with their corporate branding, nothing more. I would certainly not entrust my comms to an outfit that resold services from another 'proper' supplier. The monkey and organ-grinder syndrome takes precedence.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    edited 13 October 2013 at 1:00PM
    No "perhaps".

    You are wrong, (more than once regarding post office phone)!

    If you read your own link you will see all the ways you can pay post office bills.

    You show your ignorance when you state in your authoritative manner the po are "only BT resellers".

    This is not the case. They now use talk talk. If the op is happy with this and wants to avoid paying any charge for not using dd, then despite your ill informed argument he will not do so with post office.

    (Some would say that's not a usp, and prefer getting a discount for paying by dd!)
  • littleboo
    littleboo Posts: 1,763 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    cynicalgit wrote: »
    BT aren't a monopoly!! Ru having laugh? Who owns the majority of the UK's communications infrastructure?


    As I said, BT Retail are not a monopoly. That's why you can buy services from Talk Talk, Sky etc. The parts of BT you are referring to are regulated businesses.
  • earthstorm
    earthstorm Posts: 2,134 Forumite
    Buzby wrote: »
    The law (which escapes me ATM) was to prevent pricing differentials being used to confuse consumers, the issue of what it cost the company was/is an irrelevance.
    The law is to get mainly service companies to make it clear to customers any hidden charges, such as inflated processing charges, and any charges they do apply must only reflect the true costs applied to them.

    i.e they are charged £1 to process a payment, but charge their customer £6, this is what the law is set to outlaw, so the supplier will only charge you the £1 it has cost them.

    The the card providers are trying to fight this
This discussion has been closed.
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