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The Pluses and Minuses of Paying your Energy Bills through the Internet
The days of waiting in line at the bank, post office or even at your local electricity and/or gas supplier are well over. These days, when it's possible to buy or sell anything online, then paying a few bills by the same method has to be child's play.
This new innovation suits the energy companies as much as it does the consumer, as there is no longer the need to deal with cash, counting out change, issuing receipts and other procedures that have gone the way of history. Dealing with all of these issues through an online payment, usually a bank transfer, means cost saving, some of which are passed on to the consumer. Before the internet came along, and more UK families took the trouble to learn of its advantages, another alternative to paying energy bills was through direct debit. Direct debiting from a client's current bank account may have suited the energy companies, but it had its drawbacks as far as the consumer was concerned. The principal drawback was that the energy company would draw up an account and almost immediately debit the amount of money to be charged from the customer's account, only issuing a receipt once the account had been paid.
That meant that if the client had any complaints or questions regarding the account, they were only aware of them once their account had been debited, and if there were any mistakes discovered, particularly overcharging, the customer was issued with a credit against their next account, and rarely a refund.
Using the internet to settle account gives the client a chance to scrutinise their bill before they need to pay it. If there any questions regarding their account, then they will have enough time to contact their energy supplier to put things right before their account comes due.
When the time comes to pay the bill, the client can simply transfer the money from their bank account to their energy supplier's account. It’s a very straightforward procedure which takes just a minute or two. While the bank will charge a minimal amount for the procedure, the costs is more than covered by the discounts earned from the energy supplier. For those who the internet and online banking still represents a challenge, they can rest assured in the knowledge that the online payment option has grown in popularity, the queues at the traditional payment points have decreased accordingly.
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