Mobile monthlies force direct debit payment

Caseon

I have discovered that from this month Orange are now charging me a 3 pound admin fee because I don't allow them access to my bank account via direct debit. The only alternative they can offer is for me to pay at an Orange shop. I much prefer to pay via online banking which is much more convenient but I will definitley be searching out my local Orange shop if that is the only way. But in that case they will still take the 3 pounds per month and then credit it back to my account each month.

This seems ludicrous, so i called Orange customer service and threatened to move to another provider only to be told that all the other providers did the same thing. Is that so? Does anybody know of a provider who doesn't enforce Direct Debit on its monthly subscribers. I certainly wouldn't want to give Orange free access to my bank account considering the amount of billing mistakes they have made on my account in the past. If I pay via online banking, how much aminstration can there be? Anybody got any ideas?

Tim_L

Nothing wrong with direct debit: you can cancel it very easily and any mistakes must be refunded by your bank. There's very little practical difference between a DD and doing the transaction yourself, and personally I'd have no problem with using DD anywhere, even with Orange.

Credit card authorities are quite another matter as these can only be closed by the person or company you grant them to.

pin

What have you got against DDs? With DD you get a Direct Debit Guarantee meaning wrong payments are easily rectified. Orange are right, most of the other providers will charge you for not paying by DD. In fact many organisations charge for you not paying by Direct Debit.

Fedz

I'm not over-keen on DD either. Reason being for years I had a simple cashpoint card with no on-line access but now I have online access and a good free overdraft facility. Despite the above to this day I still dislike DD.

I have an o2 contract and I cancelled the DD and pay by debit/credit card via the online control panel at my o2. I have done this months and o2 don't charge me a non-DD fee

Hope this helps

soul_sister_2

o2 do not charge for not paying by dd as fedz said he doesn't. orange should not be comparing there network with others as this is non compliant!!