Sky to charge for missed or Late payments
suffolkblue
Posts: 4,059 Forum Member
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Hello not sure if this has been covered but from July 15th Sky will now charge you if you miss a payment or are late paying. Not sure how much they are charging but someone told me minimum 4% on the payment that was due and this will increase every day that's owed.
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Comments
Pennies.
That's good at least its not that high. There may be legitimate reasons why you can't get a payment to a company exactly on the due date and as long as its not that much later, say 5-10 days, it shouldn't really cost you anything. There should always be a set grace time.
But details of the relevant fees have not yet appeared on the page linked i.e. sky.com/latepaymentfee , it says to check back soon for more details.
Totally disagree, you have a contract to pay on a set day/time, and Sky even allows you to adjust this date if need be, if people can't afford Sky, they shouldn't have it, simple as that.
No different to what Credit Cards, Banks or Mobile Phone operators do if you don't pay them on time.
As above, if people pay them on time, then they have nothing to worry about, if they consistently can't pay on time, them maybe they should consider not having Sky.
I believe Sky would be charged for a non collected Direct Debit, that is through no fault of their own, so why should they have to cover this cost?
Well banks and credit card companies will only change so much before they put an account into collections anyway by which time if an agreement is made you don't get any more fees anyway!
Yes there should be a short grace time but it should be short, I know sky prefer to have direct debit payments but if you pay by cheque or standing order if you send the payment to them for the due date it still wont be in their account until so many days later, up to 3 days on standing orders and 5-7 on a cheque. So a grace time is essential whatever happens.
I'm not even going to go into the complexities of if you get paid weekly or 2 weekly, as that causes more issues too, meaning you might actually be able to afford something but the money might be slightly late!
I've held the opinion for a long time, that Sky has depended on a significant minority of its traditional pay-tv base for growth, who cannot comfortably afford to pay.
Their Now TV service would probably be a better financial fit for a proportion of these customers, but it's less suitable for sport and it's sport that tends to encourage many to over-extend their budgets.
I agree that anybody who regularly experiences these charges should probably be considering whether they should be subscribing to Sky.
Whilst the onus is on individuals to look after their own finances, the element that concerns me is that Sky have apparently offered to write-off debts in the past, in return for re-subscribing. Thus, inviting customers who haven't demonstrated they can afford to pay, to re-commit themselves to making pay-tv subscription payments to Sky.
If they are to take a tough stance on charging for missed payments, then I think that they should be careful that they are not directly trying to sell long-term subscriptions to consumers that they know couldn't/haven't paid their debts.
I never suggested otherwise, I was just pointing out that Nigel's "Pennies" comment is misleading. It won't be "pennies"... though the actual fees do not yet appear to have been published, only the interest rate. The fees are what late or non-payers should be concerned about!
If I paid 14 days 'late', am I correct that they intend charging me 14/365 x base+4%?
On the WHOLE amount? (17 days of which technically isn't 'late'!!)
Why don't I get interest CREDIT for the 17 days that I will then have paid in advance?
Should we all make a class action for backdated interest for all the money they've collected from us in advance?
Sure - If one doesn't pay for a couple of months, gets cut off etc - THEN you can talk about interest, but unless it's stipulated in the T&C, they will need a court order to approve an interest claim on outstanding amounts...
It is. Post #5.
But it says 'may' so in the end, the choice is theirs.
Other organisations charge for bounced direct debits or refused payments, so I cannot see what is wrong with Sky following along. Sky has reported that it now has 20.61 million retail customers across the group, taking a total of 52.04 million products between them. In the United Kingdom and Ireland it has 11.75 million retail customers, with 4.74 million in Italy and 4.12 million in Germany. Even a small percentage of late or refused payments will impact and the admin cost of dealing with late payments have to be recovered from somewhere and, hopefully, not from the subscriptions of the payments received on time.
What a load of cobblers - Sky give the choice of changing your billing date so with a little forethought customers should be able to arrange their finances to suit. Why the hell should other subscribers bear the cost of refused DDs and late payments.
You can only blame it on Sky they are the ones who when you ring up to cancle offer a deal to stay and if do they dont do a credit check before they activate the
offer, their is no case to Reclaim
This, fully agree with!
But you don't pay 'Credit Cards, Banks or Mobile Phone operators' monthly in advance...
The day you pay Sky is for the forthcoming months viewing, starting that day, as you have agreed to do in the T&C's, if you do not like the T&C's, then do not sign up, simple really.
People complain about having to pay for the football, when they don't receive it, this is no different, if I pay my bill ON TIME, why should I pay more to cover those that can't pay on time?
People seem very selective on what they do or don't want to pay towards on this forum!!
A payment "due by" date, should be just that. You are in breach of contract if you don't pay by that date, and subject to any penalties (financial or other) that the supplier has in its T&Cs.
A "grace period" is a silly concept - you might as well change the "due date".
Broadcasters, who are customers of Sky (for the EPG listings), have it much tougher.
Sky requires a 3 month DEPOSIT from the broadcaster for their EPG charges. That is held on account, earning interest, until the account is terminated, when you get it back. It also provides the desirable buffer before Sky cuts your channel off for non-payment of due invoices.
Further, Sky invoices broadcasters quarterly, and you have to pay the invoice in advance, by the due date.
If you don't pay on time, Sky immediately starts racking up interest charges at the annualised rate of 8% above base rate. Sky doesn't undertake to even tell you that you're past your due date.
Of course any supplier can apply "discretion" in enforcing penalties - though Sky has to apply FRND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discrimination) to all its customers. But any supplier who doesn't have adequate payment terms in its T&Cs, and who fails to apply them pretty rigidly, is risking its own business.
It may all sound a bit heavy-handed, but if you're a major supplier, you can get away with it. Sky has suppliers too, and they need to be paid. Sky (in contrast with many companies) IS very good at paying on time.
I can't really quarrel with Sky's policy. I only wish I could apply equally strong payment terms in my own business.
As others have said, if you can't afford it, don't subscribe. Or maybe sacrifice that meal out you had planned...
I have him on block, and best place for him to.
Pretty disrespectful that......
Nope! no grace time at all, as if you pay Companies by cheque, which they really do not like, it MUST be with them at least 5 to 7 days before the 'due' date.
Agreed, it is the date it is actually in their account. Paying bills on time is something people should get used to. Companies who have to chase up payments just make others who do pay on time subsidise those who do not. I have a friend in his own business and he is always chasing up unpaid bills for work he has actually done.
It's worse than that. The cheque may be credited to the supplier company's account, but then be REVERSED up to 5 days later... AND the bank charges the supplier for the bounced cheque...sometimes more than once, if the customer's bank sets a flag to re-present a bouncing cheque.
Cheques nowadays are a serious pain. The banks charges suppliers more for depositing cheques, and someone's got to take them to the bank, then have a system in place to check whether it actually gets paid.
Suppliers are well entitled to charge heavily for the hassle of chasing the customer AND the bank charges.
That's why most suppliers either give a discount for direct debit, or actually insist on it.