NIACT warn the proof of payment is the receipt

The Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (NIACT) has revealed that it has recently been contacted by several customers who have experienced difficulty with automatic payment systems for paying their phone bill through, for example, the Paypoint and Pay Zone systems.

The committee said that it seemed that payments could be lost by these systems and that they could go unnoticed for long periods of time, resulting, in some cases, in disconnection.

As a result, NIACT has encouraged people to keep records of all payments made by any means, and to keep copies of all bills and receipts for at least one year in case there was a dispute.

Another NIACT consumer issue of concern was letters from debt collection agencies. Several people had been contacted by debt collection agencies after experiencing difficulties with making payments to their telecoms service provider.

Courtenay Thompson, Chairman, NIACT said: "It is extremely important that people do not ignore action by a debt collector - this may result in damage to their credit rating, and they may end up being refused credit in the future.

“Also, consumers can only benefit if they hold on to all their receipts of payment for bills. Proof of payment is of advantage to a consumer in the event of a dispute rising. NIACT highly recommend consumers always maintain records of proof of payment". (MB)