£4 for doing sod all!!!!!

[myutopia]

I had my telephone bill from ntl today and noticed I was paying £16 alone for service charges. I only have broadband and telephone with them so this seemed really steap for the telephone.

Turns out that the charge levied for not using direct debit has risen from £2 to £4, I'm a bit confused by this as it shouldn't cost them any more to service an account not on direct debit than one that is. I mean even if this was because of late payments I don't see how it would cost everyone not on DD an extra £4 a month to service them.

This seems to me to be a scam to extract more money from people while doing sod all.

OK I could go onto direct debit but last time I was on it with them they took over a £100 out of my account when they cocked up my bill, this happened twice in 6 months and since then I just don't trust them.

Hence forth I've decided they can go and get stuffed, after 10 minutes in a queue waiting to get through I asked if I could cancel my account over the phone, which I'm pleased to say I can.

Before I do, I've decided to look around and see who the better deals are with.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what packages they are with. BT fusion interests me but I'm not sure it's worthe the extra.

I'm not bothered about the phone too much, I hardly use it anyway, as for the internet, I'm not bothered about high speeds as I don't tend to download much, just mainly browsing and a bit of emails.

I reckon it's going to take me a while to ferret out the better deals but the sooner I do the sooner I can get shot of this useless lot NTL. Any help or any pointers on good deals or combinations of packages would be most appreciated.


thanks

It does cost more to process a cheque payment than a DD - DD is all electronic/automatic, but with a cheque payment there is (usually) a manual process, which takes time and costs. Also, DD payers tend to generate less Collections (overdue money chasing) work.

PS I think £4 is a lot for non-DD, but it is probably their way of getting people on to DD.

If you are not paying by cheque, but some other form of EFT, ignore all of the above.


EFT - Electronic Funds Transfer

[myutopia]

Sorry , should say I don't pay by cheque but by standing order from my bank.

[SnoopZ]

Just got a leaflet today from NTL that tells me the charge for not paying by DD will increase to £5.

[myutopia]

Just a bit cheesed off by it. £4 is a lot of money at the mo and £48 a year for doing sod all seems a rip.

[Nedkelly]

It not just Ntl that do this other companies do it as well

[myutopia]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Just got a leaflet today from NTL that tells me the charge for not paying by DD will increase to £5.

This is you're idea of a sick joke right?

net had the leaflet yet, but suspect it's on it's way.
Definetly time to jump ship

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by myutopia

This is you're idea of a sick joke right?

net had the leaflet yet, but suspect it's on it's way.
Definetly time to jump ship

Sorry but no joke, look at my attachment.

[myutopia]

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

It not just Ntl that do this other companies do it as well

Yep but I'll happily go on direct debit with another telco as long as I don't get vast sums of money vanishing from my account because of their mistake. If I do then I'll just go elsewhere. It's only really NTL I don't trust with a DD

---------- Post added at 21:01 ---------- Previous post was at 20:59 ----------

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Sorry but no joke, look at my attachment.

I can't see how they can justify this charge.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Standing orders cost more to process and are a risk to their business. With a standing order you control the amount that is paid once the bill is received and they then have to check that you have paid the correct amount etc. With a DD NTL are in control as they can request the funds and they know if its paid it will be the correct amount.

Thep oint being if you pay by standing order why dont you change to DD and save yourself some money

[kibblerok]

DD is practically money in the bank so its any companies ideal payment method.

Extra costs are negligible per individual yet soon mount up across millions of customers.

Not only that, there is manual work done both via counter payments... but extra staff need paying to answer phones and take a payments. Also non DD payers are statistically more likely to be late or default on bills... not saying you are at all, but its the way it is, this then brings about more reminders, and more staff being paid to chase late bills etc.

[myutopia]

Because in the past they've cocked up, taken out more than they should have, leaving my account over drawn and costing me money on 2 occasions.

Which is 2 occasions too many.

I no longer trust them with what is literally the right to go to my bank and take as much as they like.

As for the cost of taking the money via direct debit as opposed to standing order as far as I'm concerned that's just the price of doing business, I'm a customer, It's not an honour to be so. whatever the method of payment there's still a cost involved in processing the transaction regardless of how it's conducted, if it was cash they'd still have to have the money taken to the bank and processed, if it's dd they still have to request the funds, ther's still a cost. They could argue a cost for every form of payment processing, although I'm still struggling to see why paying by standing orders incurrs costs to them of £4 now going up to £5


---------- Post added at 23:03 ---------- Previous post was at 22:58 ----------

I've noticed that BT are doing an option that may be good for on on the phone front.
http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail...realcallvalue/
option 2 may be goood for me . I'm assuming once the phones in place getting broadband from one or the other provider's should be straight forward.

may try tiscali or and I say this hesitantly.... Virgin

[Halcyon]

It is robbery !
It's like airlines that charge you a huge price to change booking details when all they have to do is bring up your info on screen and change a few numbers.
Crazy !

[lostandconfused]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

It is robbery !
It's like airlines that charge you a huge price to change booking details when all they have to do is bring up your info on screen and change a few numbers.
Crazy !

can i ask do you work in an airline? i suspect they do more than change numbers. such as possible loss of revenue because they cant sell that seat again etc.

with the non DD i agree £5 is a steep but personally i dont want to be paying extra because other people dont pay by this method, the cost would be passed on by a general price increase if its not passed on to the people who dont use DD

also its fair enough if money has been taken wrongly before as im not going to argue with someones experience however there is a direct debit guarantee so its probably safer than most other payment methods anyway

[Chicken]

Perhaps if NTL could manage to get their bill amount correct for more than 3 months in a row more of us would be happy to go back to paying by DD.