BT - 'Unannounced' Direct Debit date changes

ChadTheRad

Hi everyone

Been with BT for my internet & home phone for the last 2 and a half years with no problems. Account was set up to pay the full bill on a monthly direct debit, which was always presented to my bank between the 2nd and 6th of each month.

In November, the payment for October's bill was deducted on the 4th as expected, but the November bill was presented for on the 28th November - frustratingly 2 bills taken in 1 month, and the second before the 'allocated' pay packet for the month. As it's a specific direct debit current account, there was insufficient surplus and the payment bounced, gaining the appropriate charges from my bank :mad:

Since then, the payments have continued to come out at the end of each calendar month, 27th-30th of each month. Luckily there has nearly always been enough there since, but as this is the days leading up to payday each month, it's a little annoying

I've spoken to BT about this as I am unhappy and ideally would like to go back to paying the bill after payday each month. They told me the reasons for the change is due to the Direct Debit switch which is industry wide (including other telecoms and utilities companies) that means the direct debits can now be presented 8 days after the bill instead of 14? (sounds peculiar...) They also claimed that despite making regular, reliable payments for the past 2 and a bit years, the notification of the change only had to be on the bill itself, I'll be honest, I don't look at them, it's a regular payment for a relatively consistent amount!

Only reason I ask is I've a couple of bank charges for this now and haven't found it particularly straight forward to try and change the DD date, I thought the Direct Debit Guarantee was supposed to protect us as consumers from this kind of thing.

Anyone have any similar experiences or advice?

Cheers, and sorry for the long post.

Quentin

They did comply with the rules by informing you, so DD guarantee can't help.

You/your bank cannot change the collection date, it's up to BT.

You can, though, cancel the dd.

Don't know if this would work, but you could try cancelling it and setting up a "new" one in the hope it alters the collection date?

Vortigern

If BT want to collect the DD 8 days after the bill date, you'll have to ask them to change your bill date. I don't know if they'd be willing to do that.

Buzby

The billing dates are set and are fixed based on area for the various billing runs.

If you want to control when your payments leave your account, cancel the DD, as you've already agreed they can take funds of any amount, at any time.