charges for bills not paid using direct debit

feistymiss

is this the right place for this

i wanted to ask, if anyone had challenged the charge that is levied, if a bill is not paid by using direct debit

such as bt, sky, orange, to name just a few, put up to an additional £4 charge on top of the bill if you dont pay by direct debit

is there any way to challenge these additional charges, purely from the point of view that i am on benefits, and all these little charges, ie postal orders etc all add up

help please

daveboy

I have challenged BT for their £4.50 charge for not paying by DD.

The reason for me doing so was because a DD had been set up and was for some reason cancelled. When I noticed this (before a bill arrived), I tried ringing them up, only to be on hold for over an hour on two occasions. I therefore paid the bill by debit card over the internet (so it wasn't forgotten about and not paid at all), only to be greeted with the charge on the next bill. I did eventually manage to set the DD up again when they finally answered my call. Never ring BT unless you really really have to as you'll waste no end of time on hold!

I wrote to them asking them to refund it, it must have taken them at least three weeks before I got a phone call saying it would be refunded on my next bill.

Which is how it should have been as it was their sloppy customer service which made me resort to paying online.

Do have to say....a mobile phone and Sky TV aren't what I'd be putting my benefit money towards. So things can't be that tight as they aren't necessities.

Elaine_Wilson

I find it difficult to believe that it costs BT £18 a year to process my quarterly payments which I make via internet banking.

How can it be the same as the cost of recording a cheque received and actually paying that into the bank?

Perhaps they should "work smarter", or would that, in this case, be less profitable.

geordie_joe

The way I remember it is.

BT used to give a discount if you paid by DD. In an attampt to get more people to change to DD some bright spark had the idea of turning it around. So "get a discount for paying by DD" became "We charge extra if you don't pay by DD"

Unfortunately it backfired on them. Instead of getting more people to change to DD it just got people complaining they were being charged extra for not paying by DD.

The fact is nothing has changed accept the wording in the ads and letters. The people who did not pay by DD did not complain when the people who did "got a discount". Now the wording has changed and they think they are getting charged more than those paying by DD they are complaining.

geordie_joe

Elaine_Wilson wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that it costs BT £18 a year to process my quarterly payments which I make via internet banking.

How can it be the same as the cost of recording a cheque received and actually paying that into the bank?

It's not a case of what costs more to process, rather what BT can control.

With DD BT control when and how much you pay, with any other methods you are in control of that. That is why they give a discount for paying by DD.

As an example. I used to pay by DD but canceled it last month.

The reason was I moved house last October. I moved from a flat I had lived in, and had a BT line for 9.5 years, into a house with a BT line which I took over.

When I arranged the move, in early October, BT said there would be no charge as I would still be a BT customer at my new house.

Three weeks ago BT took £63 and £145 from my bank account. When I rang them they said the £63 was for ending my contract at the old address early and the £145 was for a new contact at the new address. They had sent two bills, but sent them to my old address which I moved out of in the middle of October last year.

After arguing for 45 minutes the man finally agreed to give me a refund. But the only way he could do that, according to him, was to deduct the amount from my next bills. They were not able to actually refund the money back to my account.

Needles to say I canceled the DD as soon as I put down the phone. BT will NEVER take money from my bank account again. From now on I decide what and when they get paid.

So that is the reason, I think, why they want people to pay by DD.

dunstonh

I find it difficult to believe that it costs BT £18 a year to process my quarterly payments which I make via internet banking.

Having an individual run through the bank account statements and matching the payments made to your account would be quite time consuming.

With d/d BT can control the payments far more efficiently.

No doubt if someone did decide to challenge it and there were indications of the case winning (which is highly unlikely as it is not a penalty charge) they would either put the bills up for everyone or rename it as a discount for those that pay by direct debit.

jonesMUFCforever

dunstonh wrote: »

Having an individual run through the bank account statements and matching the payments made to your account would be quite time consuming.

With d/d BT can control the payments far more efficiently.

No doubt if someone did decide to challenge it and there were indications of the case winning (which is highly unlikely as it is not a penalty charge) they would either put the bills up for everyone or rename it as a discount for those that pay by direct debit.

The bills are automated - all the details are scanned by computers - there is very little human intervention, even for those who send a cheque and the bill direct to BT to process.
In fact by paying directly on the internet I do the work for them!

dunstonh

How many get chucked out with errors? i.e. incorrect reference numbers?

jonesMUFCforever

dunstonh wrote: »

How many get chucked out with errors? i.e. incorrect reference numbers?

Not many IMO.
The OCR characters on the bottom of the bills can be read and if that fails every bill has a bar code.
By paying on the internet you can't possibly put in a wrong reference number unless you are stupid enough to put down someebody else's phone number when logging in. :beer:

chuckley

they state from the start any payments other than D/D will encounter a charge.

if anyones wasting time and money its u... posting payments, stamp, time in post office, postal order fee, e.t.c if u can afford the postal order fee, then u can afford the BT fee.

feistymiss

i was a little wounded,. by some comments such as what is deemed necessities but i understood what was meant

thank you

the point i was making, was people who do not have a bank account or who cannot use direct debit to pay their bills do get charged hefty penalties

and i wondered if this could be challenged ??

plus it is the ones on benefit who pay out more ... again, no means to use direct debit so hey, bang it on the cost

there is no leeway, its pay by direct debit, OR the extra charge

and i thought the charge, in the main, is excessive

BTW, phone, ie BT, landline, ie internet connection and PAYG not contract, for mobile, as i have found, without communication connection OTHERS are very reluctant to bother with getting in touch

i also keep a batch of stamps handy for when i do not have internet connection