Ways to pay

[#1]

Is direct debit the only way to pay Plusnet ?
Could Standing Orders or Paypal not be a way forward ?
I Have never had a problem but reading some of these posts I would be less than pleased if I was over charged and had to wait for a refund.
Direct debit in theory allows any sum of money to be taken out of your account which could leave you overdrawn and facing overdraft fees. I am not suggesting for one minute that any company would deliberately take more out of your account than it was entitled too but some alternative option should exist for paying Plusnet, even if this means paying in advance.
If direct debit is the only option is there scope to do what the gas/electricity companies do and charge a fixed amount per month with a final bill at at the end of a set period... What you owe or are owed could be displayed on your own personal web page thus allowing you to keep track of whats going on.
I Can access my bank account any time to see what goes in or out so no reason why PNet could not do it.
Some thinking ' outside the box' is required on this topic... perhaps it could be a topic for training days !

[#2]

Thanks for the suggestions, I don't know enough about Paypal as I don't use it that often so I can't really say whether or not this is a workable solution. However, our billing system was never designed to work for anything other than Direct Debit or credit / debit card so I expect the functionality required would necessitate a complete re-write of the billing platform which is something that we don't have the resources to action at this stage.