How do you feel about BT's plans to add £4.50 to your bill if you don't use Direct Debit?

Question

I think it is outrageous, if a bill is charged incorrectly you have to spend ages on the phone trying to get your money back.

Answer 1

They claim it costs more money to collect other than by direct debit, but I doubt it can possibly cost that amount.
Another reason they give, is because some people don't pay their bills on time. A simple solution to that is to apply a late payment fee, rather than a payment fee. BT claim they are offering some discount to affected customers, but the whole policy discriminates against people who haven't got current accounts, which is in my opinion unfair.
NTL introduced a charge of £4 for people paying by other means than Direct Debit, I am surprised Trading Standards never picked up on that. Now NTL has changed it's name to Virgin Media, that charge has gone up to £5, and they also charge a late payment fee of £10.
I can understand late payment fees, but not these other charges.

Answer 2

Firstly just to answer you question - I agree with you most of these companies offer discounts (thereby avoiding this sort of criticism) but others used the "penalty system" to charge for hard copy bills, copy statements and also for not using D/D's. I think that it is wrong but it is the way that our "cashless" Society is moving. On the emotive side I fully agree with the lady concerned - and I hope she wins her day in Court. Sadly I only see the outcome as being a slap on the wrist and the Company changing the wording. The other question I would ask is why do we not receive some of the interest that these big Companies make on all the "pre payments". Hail the little people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

It's common practice but BT could have handled this better.

If they'd offered a discount for paying by direct debit (effectively the same thing) there wouldn't have been any fuss. They already offer a discount for paper free billing and no one has complained about that.

Answer 4

Technically u aren't losing much anyway. If you currently are not paying by direct debit you wont be benefiting from the reduced line rental of eleven pound any way. So you are already paying 1 pound per month than someone who pays by direct debit. With this new way everyone will pay eleven pounds line rental regardless of whether or not they pay direct debit. Those who don't will have a charge of £1.50 per month but technically you will only be paying an extra 50p than what you are paying now.

Answer 5

They are just jumping on the non direct debit bandwagon. Like everyone else it hits the the people who live on the bread line the hardest. You would think that someone like BT could levy their bank to lower their business and admin charges when collecting the payment.

Answer 6

I guess it's to combat the problem they have of people not paying their bills. I pay by direct debit purely because I then don't have a huge bill to pay once a quarter - it's much simpler, and they adjust the direct debit according to how much I'm using their services

Answer 7

Leave Bt and go to another company and make sure you tell them the reason why you are leaving. If enough people do this then they will re think about there policies because of the money they be losing

Answer 8

I have never thought that BT were any good and have therefore switched to Talk Talk and never have any problems such as you are mentioning.
Vote with your feet, so to speak, and go somewhere else, not necessarily Talk Talk. There are plenty of telephone supply companies out there now. What about Sky?

Answer 9

I cant use bt where i live and i have the chepest telephone company KC so im alrite lol

Answer 10

if you have a problem with the charge then change supplier
they all have the same billing policy.