Cash is King



Paddy O'Dors said:
Pre-payment meters no longer attract a higher charge I think.

But people who are paying by direct debit are saving the company money which they are passing on.

FWIW I don't agree that customers who want to pay cash should be barred from being customers of utility companies (I think OVO insist on direct debit).
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It used to be massively higher.

I don't know why, but when I moved into my house they had a pre-paid electric meter. It wasn't like they were skint or anything. I was shocked at how quick we burned through electricity and it was a right faff. I had to take the key down to a local corner store (about a mile and a half walk away), but they would charge it up for cash, so I'd have to head up the road first to get cash then come back and top it up.

I did get annoyed at some snotty sounding young lass on the phone saying "you are going to have to have it for a while and prove to me that you are sensible with money". I was 30 at the time and both me and the missus were on a pretty good wage each, with no negative credit history. A chat with her manager when we asked if all new customers were subjected to payment meters, and quoting our rights to move elsewhere got the thing taken out within 2 days.

It felt like we were paying double. When you think these were usually given to the poorest people already struggling, charging massively more was just wrong.
 
DaveH said:
It used to be massively higher.

I don't know why, but when I moved into my house they had a pre-paid electric meter. It wasn't like they were skint or anything. I was shocked at how quick we burned through electricity and it was a right faff. I had to take the key down to a local corner store (about a mile and a half walk away), but they would charge it up for cash, so I'd have to head up the road first to get cash then come back and top it up.

I did get annoyed at some snotty sounding young lass on the phone saying "you are going to have to have it for a while and prove to me that you are sensible with money". I was 30 at the time and both me and the missus were on a pretty good wage each, with no negative credit history. A chat with her manager when we asked if all new customers were subjected to payment meters, and quoting our rights to move elsewhere got the thing taken out within 2 days.

It felt like we were paying double. When you think these were usually given to the poorest people already struggling, charging massively more was just wrong.
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that's shocking from them and it's sort of why i won't have dd's, especially to the energy companies. i'm buggered if i'm giving them my bank details to take out whatever they please at a whim. how many folk end up being hundreds in credit to them because they've upped the amounts they take? when my mam died they owed her over a grand, similar when the parents in law passed and it's rarely the other way round imo.
they're nowt but shysters.
 
humbug said:
that's shocking from them and it's sort of why i won't have dd's, especially to the energy companies. i'm buggered if i'm giving them my bank details to take out whatever they please at a whim. how many folk end up being hundreds in credit to them because they've upped the amounts they take? when my mam died they owed her over a grand, similar when the parents in law passed and it's rarely the other way round imo.
they're nowt but shysters.
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It is true that the direct debits from energy and water companies are silly and they should just charge what is used, or at least give people the option.

We got something from our water company saying we had used three times more water than last year and were 4 times the average for our street (mostly retired couples), so they wanted to up the direct debit considerably. We started checking for leaks, turning off the stopcock and waiting to see if the meter changed, checking before and after went away for a week, all sorts of things like that. The meter barely moved. Then I noticed that they misread the meter and we were below average and £250 in credit. We were about £400 up on power too, so there was £650 of our cash sitting with utility companies.

At least back when people paid the bill when it arrived in cash at the post office, you paid as you used.

Their excuse is "it helps people budget". Sorry but fuck off, I don't need your help budgeting. I'm a grown adult and doing alright income wise. Especially when their "help" is to be very quick to tell you if you are falling short, but never tell people they have run up hundreds or I've known people say over a thousand pound in credit. Tougher legislation needs bringing in to cap the amount people can go in credit.
 
DaveH said:
It is true that the direct debits from energy and water companies are silly and they should just charge what is used, or at least give people the option.

We got something from our water company saying we had used three times more water than last year and were 4 times the average for our street (mostly retired couples), so they wanted to up the direct debit considerably. We started checking for leaks, turning off the stopcock and waiting to see if the meter changed, checking before and after went away for a week, all sorts of things like that. The meter barely moved. Then I noticed that they misread the meter and we were below average and £250 in credit. We were about £400 up on power too, so there was £650 of our cash sitting with utility companies.

At least back when people paid the bill when it arrived in cash at the post office, you paid as you used.

Their excuse is "it helps people budget". Sorry but fuck off, I don't need your help budgeting. I'm a grown adult and doing alright income wise. Especially when their "help" is to be very quick to tell you if you are falling short, but never tell people they have run up hundreds or I've known people say over a thousand pound in credit. Tougher legislation needs bringing in to cap the amount people can go in credit.
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they tried to get us to have a water meter a few years back and to pay by dd. for all the reasons you mention we refused.
the water companies are another one who take the piss out of it's customers.
 
DaveH said:
It is true that the direct debits from energy and water companies are silly and they should just charge what is used, or at least give people the option.

We got something from our water company saying we had used three times more water than last year and were 4 times the average for our street (mostly retired couples), so they wanted to up the direct debit considerably. We started checking for leaks, turning off the stopcock and waiting to see if the meter changed, checking before and after went away for a week, all sorts of things like that. The meter barely moved. Then I noticed that they misread the meter and we were below average and £250 in credit. We were about £400 up on power too, so there was £650 of our cash sitting with utility companies.

At least back when people paid the bill when it arrived in cash at the post office, you paid as you used.

Their excuse is "it helps people budget". Sorry but fuck off, I don't need your help budgeting. I'm a grown adult and doing alright income wise. Especially when their "help" is to be very quick to tell you if you are falling short, but never tell people they have run up hundreds or I've known people say over a thousand pound in credit. Tougher legislation needs bringing in to cap the amount people can go in credit.
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With energy companies you can just log onto your online account & change the DD amount (to a certain lower limit which would put you in debt anyway). Some even allow you to withdraw money that you're in credit by (which was handy to cream off extra cashback from santander before they limited it to £5)
 
Keawyeds said:
That's the thing.
Granted, it's still nice to get that much.

For Gift Aid though, we need people to confirm they are tax payers and are eligible for us to claim gift aid.
The more we have the better it is. Having those gift aid declarations in place is a bit of a bugger.
Just a case of doing it with everyone you speak to now and trying to catch the older ones as you go.


We have stall holders coming to our fairs with more card machines than we have!
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Sorry, I don't know if we are talking at cross-purposes or whether I have misunderstood. There is a small donations scheme that lets you claim Gift Aid on cash or contactless donations of £30 or less without any declarations - Claiming Gift Aid as a charity or CASC

There is an annual limit of £2K of Gift Aid (equating to £10K of donations). That is not too shabby for a small charity, and still worth the effort for a bigger one.

Apologies if you knew this already and I have just misunderstood.
 
42 said:
With energy companies you can just log onto your online account & change the DD amount (to a certain lower limit which would put you in debt anyway). Some even allow you to withdraw money that you're in credit by (which was handy to cream off extra cashback from santander before they limited it to £5)
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It is the same with water. I think the main thing is if you are not watching them they try to screw you over.
 
CEF said:
The lad hasn't cashed a cheque because it's too much hassle finding and going to a bank. So, obviously not that easy.
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It’s not a hassle finding a bank, it’s about a mile down the road where it’s always been.
It’s a £10 cheque from a charity that I support and I’ve no other reason to go into town.
If it was from anything other than a charity I would make a trip to do it.
My point was that a cheque is an outdated method of paying someone when a bank transfer could be used.
 
Fiery Jack said:
It’s not a hassle finding a bank, it’s about a mile down the road where it’s always been.
It’s a £10 cheque from a charity that I support and I’ve no other reason to go into town.
If it was from anything other than a charity I would make a trip to do it.
My point was that a cheque is an outdated method of paying someone when a bank transfer could be used.
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All the banks near us have shut down. Have to travel 5-6 mile to the nearest one. Disgrace really.
 
stapler said:
Sorry, I don't know if we are talking at cross-purposes or whether I have misunderstood. There is a small donations scheme that lets you claim Gift Aid on cash or contactless donations of £30 or less without any declarations - Claiming Gift Aid as a charity or CASC

There is an annual limit of £2K of Gift Aid (equating to £10K of donations). That is not too shabby for a small charity, and still worth the effort for a bigger one.

Apologies if you knew this already and I have just misunderstood.
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There’s still an element of an audit trail you need in place to access GASDS which can be tricky doing cash donations.

And, agree it has its place but it’s a sticking plaster for cash donations, RBL will still lose an enormous amount on the Poppy Appeal.
 
Paddy O'Dors said:
Do you think banks should keep loss-making branches open for the dozen or so customers who use it?
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Aye, should be branches available for everyone. Should be made to keep them open. As said it's a cold, heartless, I'm alright jack, cashless future. Society? There's no such thing as society.
 
stapler said:
Sorry, I don't know if we are talking at cross-purposes or whether I have misunderstood. There is a small donations scheme that lets you claim Gift Aid on cash or contactless donations of £30 or less without any declarations - Claiming Gift Aid as a charity or CASC

There is an annual limit of £2K of Gift Aid (equating to £10K of donations). That is not too shabby for a small charity, and still worth the effort for a bigger one.

Apologies if you knew this already and I have just misunderstood.
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No worries at all. Thankfully the Gift Aid claims are done by another member of the team, but I'll ping this over to them just in case.
 
CEF said:
Aye, should be branches available for everyone. Should be made to keep them open. As said it's a cold, heartless, I'm alright jack, cashless future. Society? There's no such thing as society.
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You could offer your services to staff a branch for free as your contribution to a better society for all.
 
CEF said:
Aye, should be branches available for everyone. Should be made to keep them open. As said it's a cold, heartless, I'm alright jack, cashless future. Society? There's no such thing as society.
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That is a commercial decision of the banks, not a decision of society. If they thought branches still had value then they would have kept them open as a loss leader.

The most common services (withdraw, paying in, and I think funds transfers) can now be done over post office counters, after banks struck a deal. Since a lot of post offices moved to be counters in small supermarkets, they now open longer than post offices and banks did. I did end up with a pile of cash at one point that needed paying in, so it was great being able to sort it locally at a post office outside normal working hours.
 

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