Paying by standing order

Watercompanyvictim

Hoenir said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

Hoenir said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

I've never refused to pay and indeed still pay weekly but now they have sent my account to a debt collection agency with all the costs that comes with that because and I quote "this is not their desired method of payment". 

Sounds as you are in constantly in arrears and not adhering to the contractual terms and conditions. Causing the water company unneccessary additional administration. You are beating yourself with your own self made stick. Solution is easy. Switch to direct debit. No amount of ranting is going to help you achieve anything. 

Been paying standing order since the start. 65 payments gone through without any problems at all. You are allowed to pay in installments so paying by direct debit would not change anything as utvwiyjd be the same amount paid on the same day to the same account it's just they would not have direct access to my bank account. 
The amount and date are not even in question just the method. 

You are a business and as such agreed to the contractual terms. Breaching those terms allows the other party to seek a remedy through the Courts. Unfortunately doesn't apply to me / I'll do what I want counts for absolutely nothing.  I'd imagine that the Water Company has now reached the point of having no other course of action. 

There has been no breach hence why 65 payments and 20 months of payments went through without a hitch. If there was a breach they would have corresponded with me from the first payment and 20 months ago. 
No contract has been agreed and it used to be united utilities which I also paid by standing order for 10 years without any problems. 

Watercompanyvictim

@noitsnotme
Unfortunately not true. There are still massive problems getting money back since they spotted the fraud loophole. You can check just by looking on this forum.  

mmmmikey

Watercompanyvictim said:

mmmmikey said:

la531983 said:

Surely you only get these letters if the account goes delinquent, the above is totally nonsensical. 

Get £100 in credit with SO payments, get a quarterly bill for £90 - whats the issue? No "debt collection" agency is going to be interested , because there is no debt.

Have you actually had one of these letters yet?

It's possible that what's happening here is that the standing order payments aren't being applied to the account automatically which leads to delays in them showing up and an account that is permanently in arrears. If the OP refuses to co-operate and use a recognised payment method then they should accept the hassle that goes with it.

Ive made 65 payments using standing order without any late letters or correspondence from the company. In fact they describe me as a consistent weekly payer. 
Apparently nothing has changed from the IT systems to their policies and yet from July 2023 till April 2025 I've not received a single letter saying I've paid late or this was not an acceptable method of payment and why would they if I'm a regular payer. This has only been an issue since April this year. No one can answer why it was acceptable for 20 months then all of a sudden it's not now. 

Regardless of how the situation has arisen, you simply need to (a) make sure your account is up to date, and (b) make future payments using one of the many acceptable payment methods. It really is as simple as that. You are not obliged to pay by direct debit if you choose not to.

Watercompanyvictim

mmmmikey said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

mmmmikey said:

la531983 said:

Surely you only get these letters if the account goes delinquent, the above is totally nonsensical. 

Get £100 in credit with SO payments, get a quarterly bill for £90 - whats the issue? No "debt collection" agency is going to be interested , because there is no debt.

Have you actually had one of these letters yet?

It's possible that what's happening here is that the standing order payments aren't being applied to the account automatically which leads to delays in them showing up and an account that is permanently in arrears. If the OP refuses to co-operate and use a recognised payment method then they should accept the hassle that goes with it.

Ive made 65 payments using standing order without any late letters or correspondence from the company. In fact they describe me as a consistent weekly payer. 
Apparently nothing has changed from the IT systems to their policies and yet from July 2023 till April 2025 I've not received a single letter saying I've paid late or this was not an acceptable method of payment and why would they if I'm a regular payer. This has only been an issue since April this year. No one can answer why it was acceptable for 20 months then all of a sudden it's not now. 

Regardless of how the situation has arisen, you simply need to (a) make sure your account is up to date, and (b) make future payments using one of the many acceptable payment methods. It really is as simple as that. You are not obliged to pay by direct debit if you choose not to.

It is up to date. They are trying to force me to pay via direct debit instead of standing order for apparently no reason. 

noitsnotme

Watercompanyvictim said:

@noitsnotme
Unfortunately not true. There are still massive problems getting money back since they spotted the fraud loophole. You can check just by looking on this forum.  

Nothing I have said about direct debits is untrue.  That example you gave is poorly trained bank staff.  I’ve used the direct debit guarantee on a couple of occasions with no issues.  An appropriate complaint to the bank in that situation would have seen it escalated to someone who knows what they’re talking about.  You can’t outright dismiss the whole direct debit guarantee scheme just because of a few posts on the internet.  There are always going to be outliers and mistakes made but in the majority of cases it works as intended.

The problem you have is you are a business and do not have most of the same rights as a consumer.  Funnily enough, a direct debit does actually give you the same level of protection as a consumer!

noitsnotme

Watercompanyvictim said:

mmmmikey said:

Watercompanyvictim said:

mmmmikey said:

la531983 said:

Surely you only get these letters if the account goes delinquent, the above is totally nonsensical. 

Get £100 in credit with SO payments, get a quarterly bill for £90 - whats the issue? No "debt collection" agency is going to be interested , because there is no debt.

Have you actually had one of these letters yet?

It's possible that what's happening here is that the standing order payments aren't being applied to the account automatically which leads to delays in them showing up and an account that is permanently in arrears. If the OP refuses to co-operate and use a recognised payment method then they should accept the hassle that goes with it.

Ive made 65 payments using standing order without any late letters or correspondence from the company. In fact they describe me as a consistent weekly payer. 
Apparently nothing has changed from the IT systems to their policies and yet from July 2023 till April 2025 I've not received a single letter saying I've paid late or this was not an acceptable method of payment and why would they if I'm a regular payer. This has only been an issue since April this year. No one can answer why it was acceptable for 20 months then all of a sudden it's not now. 

Regardless of how the situation has arisen, you simply need to (a) make sure your account is up to date, and (b) make future payments using one of the many acceptable payment methods. It really is as simple as that. You are not obliged to pay by direct debit if you choose not to.

It is up to date. They are trying to force me to pay via direct debit instead of standing order for apparently no reason. 

Something doesn’t add up.  You think it’s up to date but they obviously don’t if it’s been referred for debt collection.  What do the debt letters actually say?  Redact any personal info and then post one here.  Perhaps someone can make some sense of it.

Watercompanyvictim

The debt collection letter states that the rest of the yearly balance is now due and can be paid to them in installments. Ironically one of the methods is standing order. 
But it's currently been suspended by the debt collection agency as they can't tell me the basis they have received it and have referred it back to the water company. I've supplied a copy of all 91 payments and will also be including the conversation with their complaints department (GDPR requests of phone call) where they said it's an  acceptable way to pay and would not receive any consequences as they can see I'm a good payer. Will be happy to supply the recording when I get it. 

noitsnotme

Redact personal info and post the letter.  Someone might spot something you’ve missed.

Watercompanyvictim

I will try to do this tomorrow. I had to send them an email with all my payments and the emails saying I was a consistent weekly payer. 
They then sent me a message saying they had suspended the actin against they get back to the water company. 
I asked if they had a copy of the file and they said they had not which is not the usual process. 
But I'm waiting for a caseworker from CCW. 

Hoenir

If this wasn't a water (utility) company I'd suggest that the trading relationship would have been terminated by now.