paying for paying a bill

websaway · Mar 29, 2011

I never like griping, but does anyone else take issue for being charged to pay a bill ?
You know like virgin media, they charge you £5 handling fee to settle your account, on time, over the telephone, on an automated system.
How ludicrous is this ?

BREWSTERS · Mar 29, 2011

websaway said:
I never like griping, but does anyone else take issue for being charged to pay a bill ?
You know like virgin media, they charge you £5 handling fee to settle your account, on time, over the telephone, on an automated system.
How ludicrous is this ?

That is ludicrous. Do they not have to offer a free payment option?

Sussexite · Mar 29, 2011

Send them a bill for your professional time and costs in dealing with their system.

15 minutes @ £150 per hour should do the trick.

websaway · Mar 29, 2011

BREWSTERS said:
That is ludicrous. Do they not have to offer a free payment option?

They don't charge for direct debit payments, but it's the principle of charging the customer to pay the bill that I cannot get my head around. If you pay by card through an automated system it cost's £5 handling fee, so the customer is paying for the companies handling of there own income. This to me flies in the face of common sense. All companies want customers and even more, they want them to pay for the services provided, if you want to retain the customer it doesn't make sense to annoy them by charging a fee to pay. They do it because the consumer stands for it, I know it has been tested in the courts and there is nothing illegal about it.
I know branson is busy trying to send people into space but maybe he should look more at what's going on on Earth.

Blossom · Mar 29, 2011

I hate it.

I especially hate it when your payment options are a) be charged for paying or b) pay by DD and have them take anything they like out of your account.

A couple of years ago one utilities company I was with decided to increase the amount they took monthly by DD by 200% (without telling me) even though my bills hadn't changed much over the 3 years I'd been with them. When I asked why, they said it was 'so my account would be in credit'. I asked them if I was going to get interest on that and if they were becoming a bank. When the answer was no, I cancelled my DD. Seriously, the amount they wanted me to pay each month would have meant I was over £1k in credit by the end of the year. Pointless.