When are payment plans not payment plans?????

[misemammy3]

Can anyone shine any light on this please. I have my electricity with a certain provider. I have a payment plan in place for weekly payments. Before Christmas I paid €100 which is more than agreed with them. Then continued making my regular payments each week up to today. I rang them to set up a new pp and they refused on the grounds that I broke my agreement with them – meaning instead of the agreed amount I paid more and on a different day than agreed.

Now they wont allow me to reschedule a payment plan with them. What do you suggest I do?

[Financial Companion]

Was the agreed plan meant to be monthly or weekly Misemammy?

I’m justsummising but when you said you paid it on a different date, was it later than agreed? If so, their system might just classify it as "in arrears". If you feel you have paid at least what was agree and at least before the date agreed, ask to speak to a supervisor and explain your case. The other alternative is to switch provider. If they try to say you are under contract, point out that if they are not willing to keep to a payment plan (which was part of your original agreed contract) then they, in fact, are breaking the contract. Worth a go!

[misemammy3]

Thanks for replying.

My payment plan is weekly – to be done every Thursday. Which has been the case. I paid the €100 on the Tuesday of that week and because they didnt receive another payment on the Thursday they say that I have broken the payment agreement.

[Taylor5]

Are you joking!! Thats mad…. but maybe their system is just seeing the missed payment on the Thursday, could you not ask to speak to a manager, its seems a bit ott if you ask me.

Im with Airtricity and i set up a Direct Debit biling system last year, i would pay my bills every month, but at the end of the summer i started to pay 30e a week on http://www.mybills.ie... i got my Airtricity bill online and i rang them to say i pay x amount a week (my choice to do that) and what isnt paid before the Direct Debit date i will make a payment rather then coming out of the bank. The girl was sooo nice on the phone and said no problem, then i got a very very snotty letter about a payment plan and if i break this plan bla bla bla…. i rang them and asked what are they talking about a payment plan im not on one, but as a personal choice i make payment every week!!!
I was told that THEY put me into a payment plan as i told them i pay 30e a week and theywanted to have it noted on my account… im going to ring them tomorrow, im not happy with this after reading your post

[mammycool]

How very strange – there are so many accounts in arrears, they hassle the people that are paying!!! Sounds like the old computer is setup to auto flag anything that looks out of the ordinary and then they just send out the letters without checking. Definately, ask to speak to the supervisor or manager or someone with at least half a brain or threaten to take you money elsewhere. I pay mine direct debit but it would not be a fixed amount. Though always quite low in comparison to some of the bills that I hear about.

Taylor – I reckon that unless you actually sign something, you are not on any plan and I would tell them where to go.

[misemammy3]

Thanks for all that.

My latest correspondence from themsays that there T&C’s state that if an account is on PP then it must be met. No overpayment or underpayment and that it must be made on the date agreed.

In my case because I paid them €100 instead of €33 on one of the weeks I have broken my PP agreement and therefore they will no longer set me up on a PP. How bizarre – I thought by paying extra to get the account cleared quicker I was doing well – instead I shot myself in the foot. Doh! how stupid am I to make my life easier!!! LOL

Anyway I am not taking this lying down and am still persistent on paying my bill weekly.

Watch this space 🙂

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