"Roger Mills" <watt.tyler@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:55vcorF265d4fU1@mid.individual.net...
> In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
> Paul Harris <nospam@127.0.0.1> wrote:
>
>>
>> If one pays quarterly the additional charge is £4.50 which does not
>> relate to the cost of processing the transaction and must therefore
>> be a penalty charge. How else would you describe it?
>
> I would describe it as a marketing decision by BT.
>
> They clearly *want* people to pay by DD because:
> * it assures them of their revenue
> * it avoids having to chase bad debts
> * it ensures that payments are automatically matched to accounts, with no
> manual intervention
> * it reduces churn (inertia makes it less likely that customers will
> change suppliers)
>
> All of these things have a *value* to BT over and above the simple cost of
> transaction processing. BT have taken the marketing decision that they
> want the overwhelming majority of their customers to pay by DD and are
> prepared to give a discount of £1.50 per month as an incentive to
> encourage this. They have presumably concluded that anything less wouldn't
> encourage a *sufficient* number of people to opt for DD.
>
> In my view, this is a perfectly reasonable business decision - and it
> matters not one jot how the size of the incentive relates to the marginal
> cost of transaction processing. Customers still have a choice if they
> *really* don't want to use DD.
>
> Unlike you, I don't see a distinction between the way in which the service
> itself is priced and the method of collection is priced. They are both an
> integral part of BT's business model.
>
> I should perhaps point out that I'm no apologist for BT. I pay them as
> little as possible - just renting my line from them but making virtually
> all my calls [1] via a third party operator - and getting my broadband
> from an independent ISP [well they *were* before BT took them over!]. I'm
> happy to pay by DD in return for a reasonable discount - but not happy to
> forego paper bills for a miserly 25p per month - they'd have to do better
> than that! But I simply don't understand why all this bleating has
> suddenly started - egged on by Watchdog - about something which is a
> long-established - and perfectly reasonable - practice.
>
> [1] I ensure that I make just sufficient calls via BT to qualify for free
> caller display and 1571.
> --
> Cheers,
> Roger


They used to give a discount now they don't, they now apply a charge.

If they wanted people to move to direct debit why not give a huge discount
(that's discount not a charge) to those who pay using DD.

I am sure many more would move to that payment method then.

Those that still pay by other methods have long resisted the discount offer
so do you really think it will make much of an impact on them unless they
give say a 50% reduction or more.

BT seem to like make their customers angry, even those who pay every bill on
time.