The Great Late Payment Charge Scam

[Deleted User]

Has anyone else noticed that it seems to be taking the post office four times longer to deliver BT bills than other utilities? I don't suppose that would have anything to do with the late payment surcharge would it?
Npower take 2 days and make no surcharge.
Atlantic take 2 days, and charge about £1.40 (4%) if you don't pay within 15 days.
BT bills take 8 days, and only allow 11 days before they charge you £7.50!
So, allowing for up to two weekend days, I get one day to pay before the bill goes up by 19%.

moonrakerz

Wait until British Gas join in ! I get my red reminder before I get the bill, in fact last time I never even got a bill.

dangeroussports

Direct debit.

Its quite good, it allows the company to take payment from your bank account when the bill is due.

You should give it a try, i think it works out cheaper too!

moonrakerz

dangeroussports wrote: »

Direct debit.

Its quite good, it allows the company to take payment from your bank account when the bill is due.

You should give it a try, i think it works out cheaper too!

With the levels of incompetence they show, I am a little worried about giving British Gas my bank account details !!

C_Ronaldo

we gave BG our bank details and we've never had a problem

RibAd

surely you should really be taking this up with your post office if they're not delivering your post in time?!?

and more than likely the other docs are sent from a different address than the billing department.

trisontana

If you are implying that the Royal Mail are deliberately slowing down delivery of BT bills because of some sort of tie-up between them, it's been many years since the two companies split up and went their separate ways. In fact they are in competition now as telephone service providers.

dangeroussports

Without trying to fuel the OP's paranoia....but just because BT & RM have split doesnt that they are definately not working in collusion together to rip off the general public and create their own government.....

Voyager2002

trisontana wrote: »

If you are implying that the Royal Mail are deliberately slowing down delivery of BT bills because of some sort of tie-up between them, it's been many years since the two companies split up and went their separate ways. In fact they are in competition now as telephone service providers.

A far more likely explanation is that BT delay posting the bills after the day on which they are dated.

As mentioned above, direct debit is the most effective way to protect yourself. Don't worry about the incompetence of BT, since you are protected by the Direct Debit guarantee. I have often had to ask my bank (Smile) to recall payments made by direct debit, and have never had any major problems.

dangeroussports

Nor me ! So do yourself a favour and get direct debit. Dont be scared!

[Deleted User]

Voyager2002 wrote: »

A far more likely explanation is that BT delay posting the bills after the day on which they are dated.

That was my whole point.

As mentioned above, direct debit is the most effective way to protect yourself. Don't worry about the incompetence of BT, since you are protected by the Direct Debit guarantee. I have often had to ask my bank (Smile) to recall payments made by direct debit, and have never had any major problems.

If I pay by DD I'll end up paying bank charges because someone's been dipping into my piggy bank when there's no money in there. If I pay quarterly I know there's money to cover the cheque before I hand it over. There's no wonder so many people have bank charges to gripe about.

If I had interest paid into my current a/c monthly instead of annually to cover DD's, it would lose me more money than the DD's save.

Finally, a few years ago I had a utility bill for the wrong amount. It took two years of wrangling, and a referral to a debt collector before the issue was sorted. The only power I had in the matter was to withhold payment. If I'd been paying by DD they'd already have had the money and could have spun it out indefinitely.