university admin charges - a defaulted direct debit

wheelbarrowenthusiast

I'm a student at a major uk university.

I fund my degree by working nearly full time. My tuition fees are paid from my account as a direct debit.

Earlier on this year I had one of the payments bounce as I did not have enough money to cover the £1000 payment in my account at that time.

Resulting from this the university have slapped a £25 charge for late payment / bounced direct debit. (plus the bank charge of £25 its quite a painful experience)

I have had this happen once before during my university career - are the charges legal? Can I claim them back?

Thanks for any replies

melancholly

since they can stop you graduating if you owe them any money, it's probably easiest in the long run to just pay up and try to avoid it happening again. the late payment charge is quite common across universities and it's a hell of a lot better than them not allowing you to do the year because you didn't pay them in time......

Call_Centre_Guru

Look at moving your account to a student account, one with a free overdraft like Nat West, that way your payment wouldn't be bounced in the future but make sure you only use it as a temp buffer not a way of building up extra debt.

DrFluffy

What are the terms of the contract you entered into wwith your Uni hen setting up the Diret Debit?

Compound_2

melancholly wrote: »

since they can stop you graduating if you owe them any money, it's probably easiest in the long run to just pay up and try to avoid it happening again. the late payment charge is quite common across universities and it's a hell of a lot better than them not allowing you to do the year because you didn't pay them in time......

Here's an idea: pay the charge now, wait till you get your graduation certificate and then reclaim with 8% interest. By law, you have up to 6 years to reclaim from the date of the charge. Remember to keep evidence.