Credit card rip off

[#1]

In my opinion to charge of £2.00 to pay for Home Phone by credit card is a rip off. The request for payment is not seperate from the Broadband payment for which there is no extra charge for paying by credit card so how can the £2.00 be justified?

[#2]

Hi George,
It's basically because it's a MASSIVE debt risk.  We don't even let you sign up for home phone without Direct Debit details and this is only even allowed once you have actually signed up for the service.
Consider that reverse charge calls coming from a mobile operator can cost hundreds of pounds.

[#3]

Sorry you have lost me here. How can the debt risk be lower using direct debit than a credit card? If I had a bill for several hundred pounds there are times when I would find it difficult to cover it with cash but no problem with a credit card as I suspect most people would.
How could anyone accept reverse change calls for hundreds of pound with a £50 credit limit? Seems like a very poor excuse to me.

[#4]

Sorry James, I know you are probably following the PN 'line' but to say it is a MASSIVE risk is in reality not true (BOTH can fail if you hit your credit/overdraft limit). This charge is even higher than BT's charge for not paying by DD & totally unreasonable. And what's more CC payment is guaranteed whereas a DD could be cancelled, and here I quote directly from your Help and Support pages -

Quote

1. General Billing Policies All subscription payments are managed by an automated billing system which runs daily and processes account payments due on that date. The billing script takes many hours to run and there is no set time when a particular customer will be billed. On the customer's billing date (which can be found on our website here), the billing script will attempt to take payment from the payment details we have stored. For Direct Debit, the request will be submitted to the bank on the billing date. It normally takes between 3 and 5 days for the payment to be processed and authorised by the bank. Card payments are submitted and authorised by the bank immediately.

My emphasis, and the last line being the most significant.
So as we also have paperless billing, it would be nice if PN reviewed this situation and got rid of the charge

[#5]

It's not so much a case of the customer having funds at the time. Our failed billing process is fairly friendly, and we contact customers numerous times before taking further action.
It's more to do with the fact that the vast majority of fraud is committed using stolen cards, and this is where you can get really stung. It's possible to make a massive amount of calls in 24 hours and the costs can be significant if the customer brings the line in, runs up a bill and then leaves. This leaves us having to use expensive recovery processes to get the cash.
This is why we don't take credit cards on signup, and the reason for the additional charge if you don't pay by DD.
The risk is significantly reduced if a customer signs up for BB as well as HP, and pays by DD. What's more important, is that a DDI is checked by the bank and validated before funds are requested or service is supplied.

[#6]

Quote from: Mand

The risk is significantly reduced if a customer signs up for BB as well as HP, and pays by DD. What's more important, is that a DDI is checked by the bank and validated before funds are requested or service is supplied.

Thanks a bundle! I've got third degree friction burns and multiple paper cuts from looking up all those abbreviations.

[#7]

Oh come on Mand. The chances of a customer paying regularly by a stolen credit card  for BB then taking on home phone with the same card and running up a massive bill and leaving must be less than zero. The payment would be refused on the first request plus there is a £50 credit limit so massive bills should not be impossible.
Are you suggesting that I COULD have been paying for my BB for the past five years with a stolen credit card or I may change my card number to a stolen card? Anyone would have to be pretty damn stupid to pay for anything with a stolen credit card when their name, address and telephone number is known.
I think there must be some people at PlusNet who are very paranoid.

[#8]

I think a more accurate reason is that business is charge a percentage of the transaction. This payment can eat heavily into minimal profit products and so is why some companies make a surcharge for the use of a credit card. From a business perspective DDs are a cost effective means of collecting money due.
From a customer perspective having an open ended agreement (can't remember the official term) that works like a DD on a Credit Card is a bad idea because as a customer you can't cancel this agreement with the CC company direct.

[#9]

There is also a charge on DD payments
Cancelling CCA would only be a problem with a disreputable company.
CCA also puts the company in a stronger position.