Cancelling Virgin Media Direct Debit

Gaz83

My Virgin Media DD comes off mid-month. I would rather it came off at the start of the month but it can't be changed.

Is there anything to stop me cancelling the DD and making a manual payment online on the first of each month?

Thanks.

custardy

You will have a billing date. This tells you when the payment is due.
VM will charge more for non DD and a late payment fee if you are past the due date.

Gaz83

custardy wrote: »

You will have a billing date. This tells you when the payment is due.
VM will charge more for non DD and a late payment fee if you are past the due date.

Thanks for your reply.

My bill gets generated on or around the 27th of the month with payment taken on or around the 16th of the following month. So my current bill was generated on the 27th October and payment is due to be taken on or around the 16th November.

I would have thought there would be no problem with me paying this bill online on the 1st November - it's still a fortnight before payment would normally be made.

Gaz83

To clarify: I would be making the payment before the normal payment is taken, not after.

[Deleted User]

Virgin give a generous discount for paying by Direct Debit. If you cancel the Direct Debit
(a.) You will lose the DD discount
(b.) Your manual payment will probably not be recognised by their payment systems which will still approach your Bank for payment
(c.) The Bank will refuse payment and Virgin will apply a late payment charge to your account.
(d.) You will have a whole lot of trouble explaining what you have done and why and even more trouble trying to sort it all out.


Just arrange for enough money to be kept in your account for when the Direct Debit is due. It surely can't be that difficult not spending it for two weeks?

custardy

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Virgin give a generous discount for paying by Direct Debit. If you cancel the Direct Debit
(a.) You will lose the DD discount
(b.) Your manual payment will probably not be recognised by their payment systems which will still approach your Bank for payment
(c.) The Bank will refuse payment and Virgin will apply a late payment charge to your account.
(d.) You will have a whole lot of trouble explaining what you have done and why and even more trouble trying to sort it all out.


Just arrange for enough money to be kept in your account for when the Direct Debit is due. It surely can't be that difficult not spending it for two weeks?

Sorry,you are wrong.
You can cancel the DD and pay by any other method.
There will be a non DD fee but thats it as long as its paid on time.

[Deleted User]

custardy wrote: »

Sorry,you are wrong.
You can cancel the DD and pay by any other method.
There will be a non DD fee but thats it as long as its paid on time.

Yes, but the Direct Debit has to be cancelled with Virgin's knowledge. The OP appears to just want to cancel the DD and pay early by other means without telling the provider. If I've misunderstood, then I stand corrected.


As I said, there will be a financial penalty in either event. I still stand by my statement that the OP should simply ensure that sufficient funds stay in his account until the Direct Debit is taken.

Gaz83

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Virgin give a generous discount for paying by Direct Debit. If you cancel the Direct Debit
(a.) You will lose the DD discount

This is fair enough - didn't realise it was as much as £5 (I just Googled it), thought it was only £1 or £2 at the most.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

(b.) Your manual payment will probably not be recognised by their payment systems

I don't really see why a manual payment would probably not be recognised by their systems, given that it's their own system - they have a "Make a payment" button on the same screen as "Your current bill". Indeed, right now I could make an online payment using my card.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

which will still approach your Bank for payment
(c.) The Bank will refuse payment and Virgin will apply a late payment charge to your account.

If the DD is cancelled, they wouldn't have the authority to approach my bank for payment. And given that the bill will be paid over a fortnight before it is normally paid, I don't really see why they would apply a late payment charge.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

(d.) You will have a whole lot of trouble explaining what you have done and why and even more trouble trying to sort it all out.

I genuinely didn't think this was a particularly difficult thing to understand. I would prefer my bills to come off on the first of the month as it's easier to keep track of.

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Just arrange for enough money to be kept in your account for when the Direct Debit is due. It surely can't be that difficult not spending it for two weeks?

I have a separate account for my direct debits so on each payday I dump enough in there to cover all my DDs for the month. I've never missed a payment and it's certainly not difficult to not spend it, given that it never forms part of my 'spending money' account.

[Deleted User]

Gaz83 wrote: »

If the DD is cancelled, they wouldn't have the authority to approach my bank for payment.

They don't need "authority" to ask, but the Bank will simply refuse to pay. This is where your problems would likely start as I detailed above.


However, if you arrange this in advance with Virgin I don't see any problem other than your bill increasing by £5 a month unnecessarily. Not very money-saving.