British Gas scrap £5 late payment fee

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<div class="rxbodyfield" xmlns:o="urn:www.microsoft.com/office" xmlns:st1="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags" xmlns:st2="urn:www.microsoft.com/smarttags2" xmlns:w="urn:www.microsoft.com/word" xmlns:x="urn:www.microsoft.com/excel"><p>After considering warnings from Ofgem and consumer action groups British Gas has decided to scrap its &#163;5 penalty charge given to customers who are late with their payments.</p><p>Last year the supplier announced that it would introduce a &#163;5 charge from March 1st for customers who took longer than the allowed 28 days to pay their bill. </p><p>British Gas claimed the fine was necessary to offset the costs of chasing late payments and it insisted that vulnerable customers&#39; needs would be taken into account, but energywatch, a consumer watchdog, claimed that the fine was &quot;punitive&quot; and urged customers to switch.</p><p>Campaigns manager for energywatch, Adam Scorer, said in a press release issued at the time that it was rather ironic for the supplier to punish late payments when it have been proven to struggle to send out bills on time. </p><p>Pressure from outside influences like energywatch seems to have caused a u-turn in the supplier&#39;s thinking however, as Phil Bentley from British Gas told This is Money yesterday: &quot;The vast majority of customers pay their household bills on time and so to ease their concerns about the late payment charge I&#39;ve decided to scrap it. </p><p>&quot;This does not mean I&#39;m going soft on the small minority who continually pay their bills late - it costs us &#163;20 million each year which in effect places a burden on those customers who do pay their bills on time - and we will be more rigorous than ever to pursue these amounts owed.&quot;</p><p>Is your energy supplier giving you the best price and service? uSwitch.com not only compares the cost of energy plans but also gives you the supplier&#39;s customer satisfaction score. See how well your gas &amp; electricity suppliers perform, with the <a href="http://www.uswitch.com/Energy/Index.aspx?">uSwitch.com energy calculator - you may be surprised at the results!</p><p><a href="http://www.adfero.co.uk" target="_blank"><img alt="track" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/dn.gif?feedid=362&amp;itemid=18079850" style="border:0 0 0" />&#169; Adfero Ltd</a></a></p></div>