Break Contract on reasonable grounds

Hi, is there anyone who can give me help/advice on the following:
I celebrated a 12 months contract with Virgin Media for phone + broadband. The contract was concluded at the phone. My terms, which were accepted by them, were that I would not accept payments by direct debit and it would be me deciding the method of payment. The guy at the phone asked me to wait a second because he needed to check that with his supervisor. He came back after a minute and said: �Yes Sir, you can pay whatever you like, by cash, post office, etc.� Being agreed these terms, I accepted to go ahead with the contract. A month ago, as I did not receive any bill from them yet, I decided to call them asking when they were thinking to send my first bill. The answer was: we do not send bills (not even by email), you must log in the customer area at virginmedia.com and check yourself. I did that and was astonished to find out that they had already charged my debit card. I call my bank right away and informed them that this payment was unauthorised and instructed them to arrange a refund, which occurred on that same day. I also send Virgin a recorded letter declaring that I did not allowed them to take money from my account and if that would happened in future I would consider that an abuse. I further declared that, depending on what they would answer, I would consider rescinding the contract. Meantime, as I did not receive an answer, I decided to pay the next bill by sending them a recorded letter with a check. My questions are: 1. Is this enough reason to break the contract; 2. How long do you think I should wait for an answer before announcing them that I will break the contract upon reasonable grounds; 3. Is there in the UK any office or helpline dealing with these kind of problems to whom I may apply for legal help and advice? Thanks.

How did they get your debit card details?

What was your reason to not pay by direct debit?

Hi, Thnks for you post.
1. I gave them debit card number because they asked me to do so as a pro forma to check my credibility;
2. I pay all my bills by bank transfer at my instruction and I never failed one till this date. The reason is simple, I want to receive a bill and decide when to pay and how to pay. I don't like companies and ISPs to be doing the 'great favour' of managing my payments. It is, if you want, a matter of principle and personal organisation method. In any case, I will not abdicate from this prerogative. Besides, this was the agreement.

make sure you take note of your contract renewal date as they will automatically apply a new 12 month contract unless you tell them otherwise! best phoning to cancel 1 month before the contract end date as they want 30 days notice to cancel anyhow.

good luck

They may have a recording of your phone call.

Thanks