To think that being charged extra when you dont pay bills by Direct Debit is out of order?

[BearMama]

Short story - DP had to give up work due to illness and his bank didnt help in the slightest - in fact they just went on happily racking up charges for unpaid direct debits and denied his request to extend overdraft.

Outcome - he had to cancel all direct debits and give up bank account.
We are finding that on average companies are charging £4-5 extra if you dont pay by direct debit. This is outrageous surely? Penalising people who dont/cant have bank accounts?

Sorry - bit confusing, should read, "if you choose some other means of payment other than DD"

I totally agree! If they want to encourage people, fine but this is not the way to do it. People often don't have bank accounts because they are having financial difficulties anyway so penalising them is just madness.

Isn't BT being taken to task for this???

I don't think they are so much penalising people who don't have bank accounts, more passing on the savings that they get from reduced admin and so on to people who pay by dd. You were benefitting from the savings they offered, now you have to go back to the regular rate

but I can see it is the last thing you need atm. sorry to hear about your difficulties.

no .. it's perfectly acceptable to offer a discount if you know that the form of payment will be automated to be on time and regular

I'm sorry you're in the position you are in, it must be really tough but that doesn't make the very nature of DD discounts unfair.

you are paying the basic price, the DD offers a discount

here

From this article, it looks like she has lost the first round..

but I do agree with you that it is ubiquitious way of charging and does penalise a large number of people who can't/don't bank the way companies want them to..

my dad is fuming about this too, lots of pensioners affected.