Billing

Hi folks,

I�m looking at Plusnet as a viable alternative to BT.

With Bt, I pay online by debit card each month after each bill arrives. This does cost a little extra each month but I prefer it to Direct Debit as I don�t like DD for variable amounts.

Will Plusnet let me do this or do I have to pay by DD each month?

Thanks

Adam

There is a £1.50 surcharge per transaction for paying by debit/credit card. The whole point of Direct Debits is that they are variable and you get notified of the amount before the payment is taken. Life's too short to be faffing around with manual payments for everything.

Thankyou Kasg,

Unfortunately I have been double charged a couple of times and only found out when my bank told me I had gone overdrawn.

Regards,

Adam

I can't remember the last time that happened to me but even if it did you would be fully protected against any costs incurred.

Are you sure? I don't believe that is true any longer. I used to pay a £1 premium, I think it was, for paying by card, so I switched to direct debit.

BUT, in the past year or so, maybe longer, the law was changed, outlawing such penalties for paying by card, so I reverted to paying how I always wanted and used to - by credit card.

I believe I checked at the time with PN that there was no longer a surcharge, so I'd be very surprised and displeased to find I've been incurring one. I don't see it on the bill anywhere.

I believe the OP can do it exactly the way he proposes.

You could well be right, the information I saw was from 2017. I must admit I didn't think the change in the law applied to things like that, this page suggests you can offer a discount for paying by Direct Debit, which amounts to the same thing:
https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/p...

Whilst it may "amount to the same thing", Plusnet was applying an explicit surcharge for card payments, NOT offering money off your phone calls or broadband if you agree to direct debit. I had to Google the date of the law change - it was January.

I wouldn't expect PN to exactly advertise that you can now pay how you like without being surcharged. They probably still push DD as the default, and hope not too many rail against it.

Edit: I should probably add, for the benefit of the original poster, that I'm NOT sure it's possible to manually pay every month.

My payments are still automatic - they're just charged to my credit card instead of DD. So in theory, just as open to the OP's worry about being mischarged/charged twice. I've never had it happen, though, and credit cards have protection against unauthorised charges, just as direct debit has.

Edited by TLM (Sat 15-Sep-18 19:58:08)

With Direct Debits you can just call your bank and ask them to get the Direct Debit back. I have done this.

Here are the rules for DD:
https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/p...

That is an absolute guarantee. I too have asked my bank to reverse an incorrect DD. They did it immediately and without question.

There is no reason at all to be wary of DDs unless your financial management is so poor that you've no idea what transactions are happening on your account.

In reply to a post by TLM:

My payments are still automatic - they're just charged to my credit card instead of DD. So in theory, just as open to the OP's worry about being mischarged/charged twice. I've never had it happen, though, and credit cards have protection against unauthorised charges, just as direct debit has.

Automatic payment by credit card may not be as safe as direct debits.

The Financial Conduct Authority says ....

"Whilst you might have heard of direct debits and standing orders, continuous payment authorities are slightly different. They do not offer the same guarantee as direct debits and give the company taking the payment more flexibility about when and how much it takes from your account."

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/continuous-...