I'll take you anywhere the river of money flows.

[reddragdiva]

• #uk_goffs will never run out of new members. (Presumably to be encouraged by Evil fross.

• How to LART a plagiarist.

• This entry has just attracted my best comment evar.

• Your inner child will hide under the pillow and whimper.

redcountess and I are looking to use payment by direct debit to save a small amount of cash. I have serious qualms about both the concept and execution, having heard far too many tales of merry fuckups. But arkady assures us that, for instance, TV Licensing are competent in this regard, and we already use direct debit for rent and Internet (because neither would let us pay any other way).

In particular: do BT, NPower and Waltham Forest council possess any competence whatsoever with direct debit? And we bank with NatWest, though we're considering switching to Citibank. I welcome your tales or pointers to tales. I realise that if there is a fuckup we'll win, but I can do without saving a few quid and paying in torn hair and wasted time to get there.

Comments

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Our family does pretty much everything by direct debit - as long as you check your bank statement each month and are aware of what's going out when, there's seldom any problem with most big places that have the facility. Can't offhand remember any problems with any payments to anyone, though sometimes you can run into difficulties if, for example, a salary payment is unexpectedly late and all the outgoing debits are called for. Having phone or online banking makes sorting such things out a doddle though.

[neenaw.livejournal.com]

I pay BT by direct debit and have never had any problems, but I don't advise using the monthly "budget" thing which seems to result in you paying them more than you actually need to. I wouldn't recommend playing council tax to LBWF by direct debit as they seem to have totally ballsed mine out and are taking the money out at random dates or not at all then shouting that I haven't paid them, though I do suspect the fault here lies with Natwest Bank and not the council...

[reddragdiva]

Oh yes, I should add to the original post that we bank with NatWest ...

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

I don't use direct debit at all. But I do use Citibank and have done for the last 3 years and have never had any problems with them what so ever.

The dual currency banking is really nice and most of the utilities get paid by electronic payment thing. Its nice being able to do all the online banking stuff, and the few times I've had problems I've just used the telebanking thing, to stop cheques etc.

My cash card works in whatever country I'm in, so I can take out euros or dollars or whatever. The only wierd thing is no branches (theres about 2 in london and thats it) but this hasn't really been a problem, the only time I needed a branch was when I needed to pay a dollar cheque into my account that was payable to someone else and they needed to sign the back and provide ID.

The things that require direct debit type stuff (mobile phone and internet) have always gone through my credit card (which I don't really use as a credit card as it normally gets paid off at the end of the month). It might be easier to dispute payments with a creditcard than a bank, as you get the disputed money credited instantly then the credit card people sort it out.

[ex-stephmog743.livejournal.com]

Last time I shared bills with another person we had a joint 'bills account' set up with the bank, where we put in a predetermined set amount every week (being paid weekly at the time) and the bills and rent etc all went out of that account by DD. It ran like clockwork and we knew anything in our current accounts was spending money.

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

I've been paying NPower for gas and electricity for the last six months (regular, fixed amounts) without hassle. I've just killed both DDs (since I'm moving out) and they've just written to me (twice, once for each) requesting the payment of the balance between my payment plan and what I've used. Of course, they've not sent me a bill, and provided no instructions regarding how I might achieve this! Net conclusion, they're incompetent, but in the shoot-self-in-foot sense rather than the shag-you-over-a-barrel sense.

[benton.livejournal.com]

I know that the payments take longer to get to My Company by billpay/internet/electronic than they do by any other method, with greater varience.

Sometimes its tomorrow, and sometimes its in 20 days.

And they charge you if you need proof that the money was sent.

Paper checks, which are very quaint, are excellent for paying bills.

Unless you are 60 days late to My Company, then I'll take electronic check or debit, thx plz.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

HSBC have never fucked me over, and they have had at least one chance to do so which was completely my fault (got bank transfers and cheques wrong, ended up overdrawn GBP1500 - they could have bounced the cheque but honoured it, merely slapping me on the wrist with a GBP20 unauthorised overdraft charge). They appear generally competent. I recommend them.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

What's a "townie"? Any non-darkling, or some British equivalent of the jock/preppie/rugby-shirted yobbo/Country Road-wearer?

[reddragdiva]

Something like that, and getting on down into 'ned' territory (which is pretty much the local translation of 'bogan').

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

I thought 'ned' was a Scottish usage. Is it used much south of the border?

Is there much overlap between townies/neds and mooks (i.e., rap-metal fans in oversized shorts and backward baseball caps)?

[reddragdiva]

It's a useful word, so is spreading southward in usage.

'Townie' tends to indicate no-particular-subculture, and in common g*th usage includes connotations of possible drunk aggression. G*th and metal pretty much get along here with a lot of crossover. Dunno about those you speak of. I'm sure alt.gothic has plenty to say about the idea if you ask there.

[justinep.livejournal.com]

Feh. Those of us who're into Japanese pop culture already own Hello Kitty 'personal massagers' (http://www.hellocat78.1hwy.com/) ;)

And I fear Bonnie Bryant's Number One Fan