5 pound service charge

[leafchick]

Hello,

My grandmother lives in the UK .. I in Canada and she is a former NTL customer and received her latest bill that her home care opened for her and noticed that now if she does not pay by DIRECT DEBIT she will be charged a separate payment handling fee of 5 pound per month for the service it provides to her of processing her payment.

I now know how Richard Branson got so darn rich. Charging a 5 pound fee is appalling to say the least. I know banking services are much better in the UK and here in Canada where we pay for every little thing at the bank even they don't rip us off this bad. We are charged a processing fee from our bank of about 5 - 10 p per cheque written.

My grandmother is 87 years old and her only lifeline is the telephone. She is going blind and her home care has been reduced from 1 hr daily to 15 minutes. Hardly enough time to boil a kettle and make her a cup of tea! Now she has the added stress of thinking that her telephone will be taken away from her because she financially can not afford an extra 60 pound a year.

Anyway, my issue with Virgin Media is that there was never a service charge on her phone bill before and for a 87 year old that is using her life savings in the bank to write cheques on all of her bills and has been doing so for over 5 years now without problems, I simply can not understand how a senior is supposed to grasp this new procedure or get to a bank when she is unable to walk more than a few steps. I think the senior citizens deserve better respect. Actually I think the a service fee of that amount is such a cash cow (cash grab) on Virgin's part.

I contacted 2 people at Virgin and they said that it costs them 5 pound to process payment. That I find very hard to believe. I even suggested I pay the 60 pound processing fee but they told me that was impossible as it would just be applied as a credit and in 3 months of billing it would be cleared and the service fee would be still on her invoice/bill.

Does anyone know where I can verify that it in fact does cost 5 pound per customer per month to deposit a cheque or cash (from a Bank or Paypoint location)?

Thank you
Disgusted in Canada
Deborah

I guess it's true... companies such as Virgin only think of the bottom line ... the mighty $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$ not a customer that has been paying her bills on time for years. This is the thanks she gets!!!

[AndyCambs]

There always has been an additional charge for non-direct debit payments. BT also charge for this.

[Jules]

I can understand your anger, it use to be £2 but has now gone up to £5

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by leafchick

Hello,

My grandmother lives in the UK .. I in Canada and she is a former NTL customer and received her latest bill that her home care opened for her and noticed that now if she does not pay by DIRECT DEBIT she will be charged a separate payment handling fee of 5 pound per month for the service it provides to her of processing her payment.

I now know how Richard Branson got so darn rich. Charging a 5 pound fee is appalling to say the least. I know banking services are much better in the UK and here in Canada where we pay for every little thing at the bank even they don't rip us off this bad. We are charged a processing fee from our bank of about 5 - 10 p per cheque written.

My grandmother is 87 years old and her only lifeline is the telephone. She is going blind and her home care has been reduced from 1 hr daily to 15 minutes. Hardly enough time to boil a kettle and make her a cup of tea! Now she has the added stress of thinking that her telephone will be taken away from her because she financially can not afford an extra 60 pound a year.

Anyway, my issue with Virgin Media is that there was never a service charge on her phone bill before and for a 87 year old that is using her life savings in the bank to write cheques on all of her bills and has been doing so for over 5 years now without problems, I simply can not understand how a senior is supposed to grasp this new procedure or get to a bank when she is unable to walk more than a few steps. I think the senior citizens deserve better respect. Actually I think the a service fee of that amount is such a cash cow (cash grab) on Virgin's part.

I contacted 2 people at Virgin and they said that it costs them 5 pound to process payment. That I find very hard to believe. I even suggested I pay the 60 pound processing fee but they told me that was impossible as it would just be applied as a credit and in 3 months of billing it would be cleared and the service fee would be still on her invoice/bill.

Does anyone know where I can verify that it in fact does cost 5 pound per customer per month to deposit a cheque or cash (from a Bank or Paypoint location)?

Thank you
Disgusted in Canada
Deborah

I guess it's true... companies such as Virgin only think of the bottom line ... the mighty $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$ not a customer that has been paying her bills on time for years. This is the thanks she gets!!!

If you nan has a bank account, why not just get her to change to dd?

[leafchick]

The problem is who is going to set up her DD for her? And she has never been charged a service charge before so how do they expect a senior to have to fork over another 5 pounds each month that could be FOOD $$???

[Halcyon]

Yeah, if she has a bank account she could pay for her services through direct debit.
In this case, you would not be charged the £5 monthly fee.

[leafchick]

Her previous bills were never charged a service fee. Virgin told me that not EVERYONE had to pay it until they REVAMPED their system (LOL) in December.

---------- Post added at 12:25 ---------- Previous post was at 12:24 ----------

I agree with you all about DD .. but does anyone know why such a steep processing fee??? Does it not seem like a cash grab to you all? We have no service fees over in Canada unless you are LATE paying a bill.

[Aragorn]

I would suspect (could be wrong) that with the vast majority paying by DD now, there is a lower ratio of cheque payers to admin staff - hence higher admin cost! eg If you have a team of five processing 1000 cheques/day for £2/cust, reduce the number of cheques by half and you either sack the workers or increase the admin cost. (excuse the maths, you get the principle I hope)
Some utility companies offer a discount to pay by DD (carrot) whereas Virgin use the charge (stick).

[Halcyon]

I agree with you that the amount is crazy. So many companies make so much money with things like this. Eg. airlines charging £15 just to change someones name on an airline ticket.
It's a rip off definatley.

[leafchick]

I have a question... does the processing fee apply even if her neighbour went to a paypoint and paid the bill in cash???

Thanks
Deborah

[Marge]

I have changed the spelling slightly in the thread title - thanks

[leafchick]

Well an airline I can understand charging for changing a name but the people are already sitting at a desk processing payments on peoples accounts for DD and late payments as well as bank payments/paypoint payments so what is the difference depositing a cheque and applying it to an account.

I work in an accounting department where people pay anyway they want as long as they pay and we apply their money. Maybe we don't go to the bank daily to deposit cheques but never the less we certainly don't charge them a fee and then tell them it's so we can provide them will better service!!! Overcharging someone is not a proper way to respect customer loyalty.

Guess we think differently over here in Canada but it's no wonder seniors in the UK feel like they are a nobodies!!! Sad indeed.

---------- Post added at 12:39 ---------- Previous post was at 12:39 ----------

Thank you.. I was unsure how to edit the thread title!! LOL

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by leafchick

Guess we think differently over here in Canada but it's no wonder seniors in the UK feel like they are a nobodies!!! Sad indeed.

I think the US and Canada are still very much cheque driven and the equivilant of DD is really now only kicking off. It amazes me that in the US I cannot go onto my online banking and send $20 to the guy in the office next to me without me and he paying $10 in wire transfer fees. I have to write a cheque and give it to him to take to his bank.

So the solution to the problem here is to put her on DD, this will mean that the home help can open the bill and see that it is correct and then HH and or Nan can get on with the tea and a natter rather than writing cheques.

There is a fairly strong DD guarantee (though some banks try to pass the problem back to the company taking the DD) that can be relied upon in the case of a screw up.

As well as the people element of this banks charge a lot more for cheques. The business bank account I run charges 15p to recieve an electronic reciept and 40p to recieve a paper one, that 40p is on top of 40p for the total deposit (so depositing 3 cheques on one slip would be 40p +40px3) or 3 separately would be (40p+40p)x3. I imagine VM pay less in bank fees, but they add up, and the banks may well reduce the electronic banking fees and not the paper banking ones.

[AntiSilence]

I think the fee should be illegal. I don't care if it costs to process non-DD. I refuse to pay to pay a bill. I can accept a late payment fee, but not £5 to pay a bill.

[leafchick]

I have to disagree.. I pay all of my things (car, insurance, phone, internet, credit cards) by direct debit but we are not threatened a Processing Fee if we don't. Our banks charge us (the customer) a fee such as anywhere from 5 - 35 cents per cheque depending on the type of bank account you have set up. Money is money and of course we can not wire transfer from one bank to another just as I was told by Virgin I could not pay the 60 pounds for the yearly fees because I am not a customer in the UK. If I wanted to set up the 5 pound fee per month by DD from my bank account why is that not possible if DD is so popular and easy?

My grandmothers concern is at 87 she is not up on technology.. doesn't understand that the companies will only take the amount they are entitled for and that no one is going to rob her life savings from her bank.

I still think it is wrong the seniors have to worry about $$ and then things like this happen and they worry. I just spoke with her home help and she has NEVER been charged any fees since she was a customer of NTL so why now?

They say it's to give her better service WHAT A JOKE... all it is doing is causing her worry that he is going to be left broke.

As for her getting on with making her TEA.. she doesn't cook anymore as she can't and she is losing her sight and walking ability so it's not that easy for her to do things and I don't think that was a fair comment to make. Wait till your 87 and things have progressed and you can't grasp them.!!!!

You should be ashamed!

---------- Post added at 13:35 ---------- Previous post was at 13:22 ----------

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

I think the fee should be illegal. I don't care if it costs to process non-DD. I refuse to pay to pay a bill. I can accept a late payment fee, but not £5 to pay a bill.

I agree.. you can't tell me the banks don't charge a fee to the companies for doing all the work for them.