Total rip off. Bad CSR. It shows how badly thay are doing with residential clients. They are thieves and we are happy to give them our money. Ben Verwaayen is a fat cat

Paco, London,

It says in the new Terms & Conditions that the payment fee will be the first item deducted from any payment received, so if you tried to knock the fee off your bill when paying, technically it would be part of the line rental or call charges that remained unpaid. This shortfall would roll over from bill to bill and presumably BT would deal with it in the usual way.
Better to pay up but make sure you are getting your £4.50-worth: switch back to paper billing, turn up periodically at BT head office with a wheelbarrow full of coppers, etc., and make sure you tell them why you are doing this. Have fun.

Bloody-minded, Southwark,

Customers should not roll over under threats from BT or their ilk. If we had done that in the past, women wouldn't have the vote, we would be paying the Poll Tax and Falkland Islanders would be speaking Spanish!
Its my money and my decision.

Eric C Addicott, Reed, RoystonUK, UK. Herts

BT took an extra £15.99 from my account by direct debit in March 2006. After numerous telephone calls and correspondence I still haven't had a refund. Even their Service and Sales Director (or should that be Sales and Service Director!?) doesn't respond to letters. Now they want to take all my bill by direct debit! So much for "BT, Bringing it all together." It should be "BT - Ripping us off forever".

Graham, Ongar, England

Not only is this outrageous it is actually a separate company that is getting the "payment processing fee". You have no contract with that company so where is the obligation to pay? It is not part of your bill for phone services, so can you be cut off if you do not pay? If you don't feel that bullish, the "payment processing fee" can be levied only once so how about sending a cheque to BT for the actual bill with a note saying under the Apportionment Act this is apportioned to phone service. Then send 9 separate cheques payable to BT Payment Services Ltd. for 50p. Or switch to "light user" scheme, which is back - there is no payment processing fee for that. tariff.

Zorro, London,

Received Bt bill today, waited 25 minutes in the call queue to complain about the £4.50 payment processing fee. Informed them that my cheque would be sent minus the fee. I have business lines also, informed them that I would move them to a competitor. No one should pay this outrageous fee. Would you pay £4.50 just to go into tesco?? I would have no business if I attempted to charge such stupid extras. DO NOT PAY IT, MOVE ACCOUNT. VOTE WITH YOUR FEET OR JUST PAY THEM.

CHRIS ONEILL, WHITCHURCH, SHROPSHIRE

I must be in the wrong business!!! - to charge my customers extra for paying me...... - C R A Z Y

Surely this is abuse of a dominant market position contrary to EU law?

David Eccleston, Worcester, UK

I pay BT quarterly by bank transfer and called them to object to the £4.50 that appeared on my bill (actually I called New Delhi). They confirmed that my bank transfers do not cost them a penny- hence the extra £4.50 is pure extortion and I cannot understand why it is legal.
There are many reasons why people choose not to pay by direct debit- we are not all eccentric and paranoid (or irrational as suggested!) . It does force one look at what call charges have been applied and it does facilitate claiming back charges/rental from employers etc.

Dr S, London, UK

The Times in the past has taken up the campaign of telephone companies' response to innocent victims of "0900" scams.
Could it not now [if necessary under the"Human Rights" umbrella] take on the "Payment Processing Fee" blackmail scenario?
P.Nixon/Sussex.

Cilla Nixon, East Grinstead,

I've never had any trouble with direct debits. They save me time and trouble as well as the companies. I'd be upset if the discounts I currently get for paying this way were abolished - why should I pay more because some people object on principle but irrationally?

Barry, Wallington, UK

Do you realise that if BT get away with this it could well be the tip of the iceberg? Other mainstream utility companies will follow suit, also coercing us to use direct debits. So we'll end up having to leave about a thousand pounds permanently in our Bank/Bsoc current accounts to cater for the regular automatic and variable withdrawals by a host of companies, for fear of missing one or more, going overdrawn and being bank charged. How would a poor person afford to keep £1000 permanently in their current account? Or if you have no overdraft or have exceeded your overdraft limit then most of the banks will bounce the DD and then charge an utterly outrageous £30+ for each one bounced! And all they did was refuse a computer generated and transmitted request which came in to them via the interbank telecommunications BACS system (from for example BTs bank) to decrement the computer entry in your electronic bank account by the bill amount. Your bank's computer then refused it...

Tony Harvey, London,

If I send them one cheque for the bill and a second cheque for the charge will it cost them more to process them ?

Anyone know ?

If so, I think thats how I'll be doing it from now on.

Steve, London,

If every small business & corner shop in the country charged extra to BT employees for taking their money then the message might get through.

Picture the scene; customer walks in to shop, buys fags & paper, shopkeeper charges an extra 50p. This is "because he has to process the payment and take the cash to the bank". Invite punter to open a direct debit account and see what happens.

Ray, Dartmouth,

If every one said NO instead of being sheep what could these companies do ???

affaiec, stourbridge, UK

Obviously every company wants a direct tap on its customers' bank accounts. Who wouldn't?

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

I cannot believe that anyone would even think about charging. You are the customer, giving them money. I do all my Banking .buying, credit cards etc on line. If anyone charged me they would soon find out I was not a customer any more. I bet you even pay for Bank services in the UK. Wake up, walk out.

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Times

Absolutely right, most right thinking people object to ceding this power to these aggressive organizations. Especially with their track record of ineptitude and incompetence! They think that, and possibly will, extract extra payment from long suffering and confused consumers. But possibly not! As most problems result from wild estimates of consumption, perhaps if those customers would use the system and give the companies exact readings as soon as they receive their bills, just maybe, the extra costs involved in re- issuing accurate accounts may make them re think.

P Black, St Malo, France

I changed our phone from BT to the company which provides our broadband. I did phone BT and tell them that I was doing it to 'punish' them for their arrogance. Ironically - we do pay our new provider by direct debit, but that is because we did so at the outset for broadband and my thinking is that if we have to pay by DD, we might as well have as few as possible.
Our phone bills are not insignificant - but another company with excellent customer services staffed by people in the UK, will profit instead.

When will the dinosaurs learn?

Sarah N., London, UK