[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by bob_a_builder

Anyone tried recovering the late payment fee ?

It would seem that its set at or below the OFT's magic number of £10

The charge, as described by NTL themselves, is a "Late Payment fee". It is a penalty charge and penalty charges, as far as consumer contracts are concerned, are illegal.

The OFT "threshold" is £12.00 - they find this, in their opinion, to be an acceptable amount. They do not suggest that it is a legally acceptable minimum. From my earlier post quoting the OFT “The OFT is not proposing that default fees should be equivalent to the threshold, and a court will certainly not consider that a default fee is fair just because it is below the threshold.”

In actual fact no court to date has ever considered any late payment / penalty to be legally enforcable under consumer contract law and there are listed cases to which complainants may refer where courts have found in the complainants favour.

NTL, much like the banks, are not about to defend illegal charges given the fact that there are legal precedents in place that counter & defeat their arguments.

In short, if you have been charged £10.00 for late payment simply write to NTL advising them of these facts and demand a refund. If they are not forthcoming then take them to the small claims court and exercise your rights as a consumer.