Yep, undoubtedly - for all the other things Zen have been getting wrong of late, they're very honourable when they make that sort of committment still.

Just tagging on again - do Zen take monthly payments via credit cards or is it just DD?

And how quick are they to disconnect if they don't receive payments? Last year I had 3 or 4 different numbers on my card due to random fraud, some other change and Goldfish being bought out. Pain.

Hi I think i can answer your questions. I pay Zen via Maestro debit card not direct debit infact mid last year (2008) i got a letter from them asking me to switch to direct debit but i never got around to changing to it. So i'm sure there accept payments via Credit card too. While i have not missed a payment to Zen in i dunno years. Ages ago when i was a student and poor lol back in like 2004 or 2005 i missed paying them for like 3 or 4 months in a row and they never cut me off. They sent these reminders via post every month slowly turning more scarey "final reminder" type stuff. Eventualy i paid what i owed them all in one go. I would try not to miss payments tho its never a good idea if you can help it.

I continue to pay via Standing Order, which reminds me, I must downgrade my account. I will see if I can do that in Portal.

Cheers
Ruz

You can pay by debit or credit card. Unlike many ISPs, Zen don't automatically take the payment; instead they send you an email a couple of weeks before your due date with a link to their secure payment server*, so you're not left with a continuous payment authority on your card (recurring payment coming off your credit card which can be a pain to stop) or with being forced to use one particular card (you can pay using a different card from month to month).

Zen also offer the facility to pay either by DD or by standing order.

As to how quick are they to disconnect you, the answer is they aren't. They usually send a reminder within a couple of weeks of your payment being overdue, and I've found that nothing further happens if you pay fairly promptly after that. I think on one occasion I missed the email and forgot about the payment (was reminded by a further chase-up email), and ended up paying two amounts at once, but service was uninterrupted.

* The Zen Customer Portal also has an area where you can view/pay current/outstanding invoices, view your payment history, and also setup a DD if you wish.

Thanks for the answer, that sounds good to me. Enta disconnect within 48 hours - after a theoretical email reminder, if the automated card payment fails. Hasn't happened to me but it's been close with all the card number changes.

48 hours? Seems a bit harsh, especially as it doesn't give the end-user much opportunity to investigate/intervene or make alternative arrangements (there are limits to what you can achieve over a weekend, even with access to online/telephone banking services).

For example, I've had one or two occasions when my bank has appeared to declined a payment, which subsequently turned out to be due to an error with the supplier's ePOS payment systems (not a problem I've experienced with Zen I hasten to add). It required a great deal of going to-and-fro between bank and supplier to get to the bottom of it.