Egg £16 fee.

[mills1]

Since when have Egg charged £16 fee for payments other than direct debit?
The payment I made, through Eggs own online facility, by making a payment from my bank account was not late, in fact if anything it was early.
Now they have landed me with a £16 fee because I do not any longer want to pay them by Direct Debit.
I cannot even message them about it through their online secure messaging, they say that I must telephone the number given if I have any questions about the account.
Cheers.

[Mistermind]

What is the precise deadline date for the monthly minimum payment? What date was the payment shown on your statement as credited to your account?

If on their own statement the pay-in was credited ahead of the deadline, Egg have no case for levying this Late Payment Fee -- which in any case can be reclaimed, though a nuisance requiring effort.

If the statement says, credited on the 10th, penalty charge levied on the 17th, this could hide the fact that the deadline was the 9th. The late payment was recognised retrospectively when the monthly IT run was triggered.

If your manual payment was credited on or before the date normally shown for previous D/D's then Egg really have no defence.

[mills1]

Hi Mistermind, thanks for replying.

This is how it looks on the statement:

07 Dec 2009PAYMENT RECEIVED - THANK YOU £-45.00 10 Dec 2009PAYMENT 2 Egg . £-59.00 10 Dec 2009ADJUSTMENT TC 272 £59.00 11 Dec 2009UNPAID DD FEE . £16.00


The £45 is what I paid on the Egg website using my Debit card.
The minimum payment was just pennies under £45.
The £59 is what Egg tried to claim from my Bank via dd.
Needless to say the £16 was levied as seen.
I would be curious as to know where in their agreement it says that payments by other means will incur a fee?
Cheers.

Meant to mention, the last statement said payment was due 10th December.
Any ideas on a nice letter to send them?

[Mistermind]

Originally Posted by mills1

Hi Mistermind, thanks for replying.

This is how it looks on the statement:

07 Dec 2009PAYMENT RECEIVED - THANK YOU £-45.00 10 Dec 2009PAYMENT 2 Egg . £-59.00 10 Dec 2009ADJUSTMENT TC 272 £59.00 11 Dec 2009UNPAID DD FEE . £16.00


The £45 is what I paid on the Egg website using my Debit card.
The minimum payment was just pennies under £45.
The £59 is what Egg tried to claim from my Bank via dd.
Needless to say the £16 was levied as seen.
I would be curious as to know where in their agreement it says that payments by other means will incur a fee?
Cheers.

Meant to mention, the last statement said payment was due 10th December.
Any ideas on a nice letter to send them?

I understand now.

That £16 penalty is not Late Payment Fee, rather it is their standard returned D/D Bounce Fee. It looks as if you cancelled your bank D/D mandate, but did not get Egg to cancel their arrangement, so they went ahead to try collect the D/D. In the mean time they have not charged Late Payment Fee, because your manual payment £45 made it just in time.

This £16 penalty is excessive and profit-making, and therefore reclaimable in court as unlawful as per Dunlop-v-Garage precedent. The standard 30APR2007 moc1982 letter will do with a minor variation. Egg will not want to go to court, so will refund £16 after putting up a token resistance of several computerised template responses. A real nuisance though.

They require D/D as mandatory condition for opening an account. Best check T&C as to what are the consequences of terminating D/D arrangement, unfortunately signed by you in agreement. If they refuse to stand down their monthly action in claiming their D/D, there will be a replay of this pantomime next month.

Good luck.