Paying Council Tax: Standing Orders vs. Direct Debits

System

Utter tosh - a standing order will be no more expensive for the council to collect.

With Direct Debits, the Council also conveniently have your bank details on-hand for Court Proceedings etc. Any money saved would be wasted on a council drone or other deadbeat.

colsten wrote: »

One of the benefits of paying your council tax by DD isn't immediately obvious: it will be cheaper for the council to collect the tax by DD. Thereby contributing to keeping your council tax lower.

colsten

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Utter tosh - a standing order will be no more expensive for the council to collect.

There are plenty of reasons why an SO is more expensive for a council than a DD. One major one is less predictable cashflow. That's why most councils encourage their residents to use DDs.

System

Administration is another point altogether.

From a simple cost perspective, receiving an incoming standing order is likely to be comparable to a direct debit - a few pence - would you not agree?

colsten wrote: »

There are plenty of reasons why an SO is more expensive for a council than a DD. One major one is less predictable cashflow. That's why most councils encourage their residents to use DDs.

pinkdalek

Depends on who you want the onus to be put on.

DD - as long as you have money in your account the onus is on the company to collect/change amount and advise you of any changes. If they fail to advise you/collect incorrectly you are covered by the bank under the DD Guarantee. Also should you miss a payment many DD companies call again after 10 days, or contact you to advise what they are doing next eg take double payments next month or ask you to ring to make manual payment.

SO - it is your responsibility to set up, alter when it goes up and make sure the money is in on that due date.

You could pay by Debit/Credit card, but again it is your responsibility to remember to pay it.

If you have a fixed income paid on a set date, dd would work easily. Manual payments would be more easy if you had a varied income e.g. self employed.

adonis

You could do the other option, set up a bill payment from your bank account if you have online banking.

I do this as I have had problems in the past with a delay in the DD being set up so I was a month in arrears, which meant the council was sending threatening letters which peed me off as it wasn't my fault.

MABLE

I pay my water and council tax by credit card. Also the card I pay by is interest free on purchases for 20 months and then I only pay 1 percent back in payments per month. With the difference it goes into a savings account.

Herbalus

I would say direct debits are cheaper because the council can take the required amount, and don't have to go chasing/refunding people who can't divide £1,215.89 by 12.

boliston

colsten wrote: »

Sounds as if your council could make significant savings if they don't charge for the use of credit cards

My council's website lists debit card as a payment method but says nothing about credit card being a payment method.

boliston

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Utter tosh - a standing order will be no more expensive for the council to collect.

With Direct Debits, the Council also conveniently have your bank details on-hand for Court Proceedings etc. Any money saved would be wasted on a council drone or other deadbeat.

They only way to avoid handing over your bank details would be a card payment as an electronic payment (eg standing order or payment via internet banking) will show the source sort code and account number and account name.

CIS

With Direct Debits, the Council also conveniently have your bank details on-hand for Court Proceedings etc. Any money saved would be wasted on a council drone or other deadbeat.

Unless you're in Scotland where they can arrest bank accounts then the details are useless to the council for enforcement as there's no form of recovery that utilises bank details