Pay annually Broadband - does it exist?

Hi

Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does not want
to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He pays nothing by
direct debit.

Thanks

"Ato_Zee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7UYcl.13068$(E-Mail Removed)2...
>
>> Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
>> debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does not
>> want
>> to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He pays nothing
>> by
>> direct debit.
>
> I have never done Direct Debit either (but have watched, and listened
> with amusement to colleagues sorting out problems with them.
> Call centre script driven droids with no authority, and banks
> "we don't want to know").
> I'm with Zen, monthly contract, excellent performance, good
> personal customer orientated support. I pay quarterly in advance
> by cheque, with a free static IP address. 5Gb monthly
> allowance. P2P fast even at peak times, doesn't seem to
> be any throttling, as a bonus a news server, although
> I also use a PAYG news server eu.news.net, who
> accept credit card or PayPal (my small 5 quid payment
> before I joined Zen 2 years ago hasn't run out).
> Zen NG coverage is pretty good but they miss some
> speciality and obscure ones. Not sure about binaries
> and binary retention if you need that.
> Haven't heard of any complaints from online gameplayers.
> Not sure if they still accept cheques, you might have to
> lean on them as they tried to convert customers to DD.
> Considered IDnet but they didn't offer a news server.
> Choose carefully some of the big names are crap,
> big adverts and no performance.

I use a free News
news.motzarella.org
Runs ok for me on ordinary NGs not sure if it does the picture ones think
you have to have a pay news server for that.

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:01:02 -0000, Slider wrote:

>Hi
>
>Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
>debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does not want
>to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He pays nothing by
>direct debit.

It's not totally clear what you want. If you want broadband from a
phone line and use a wireless router in the property I think AAISP can
do annual contracts but you will have to contact sales to confirm. They
will take payment monthly by cheque as well. I don't know if the router
they supply free is a Wi-Fi one or not but I do know that they sell
them. There is a contact link on the page at http://aa.nu/ which gives
their contact info.

If he wants broadband from a mobile type dongle you will need to go to
one of the mobile suppliers and ask.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:06:54 GMT, "Ato_Zee" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>
>> Plusnet offer payment by monthly charge to a debit or credit card as well
>> as
>> direct debit.
>
>Trouble with any automatic debit system is that if and when it
>goes wrong it is usually in the wrong direction, too much
>money is taken (like with energy estimated billing) so
>you go overdrawn, then incur rip off bank charges,
>compiunded by the fact that the front line call center
>droids haven't the authority to refund money.

In years of paying thousands of my own and international business
direct debits I have never had one go wrong. None at all.

>So it's we'll call you back" they never do, another call having
>to repeat it all over again, excuses like "the supervisor
>isn't here at the moment, we'll call you back".

That depends on your choice of service supplier.

>And in many cases variable amounts mean you can't
>budget and have problems reconciling your bank
>statements.

Notify changes is optional on all the DD's I use. It's not always
obvious.

>I quite see why the OP wan'ts to pay upfront by
>cheque.
>In the current financial crisis I would have thought
>firms would welcome it, the earn interest on it,
>and the customer risks a loss if they go tits up.

What interest is that? The risk exists no matter which type of payment
is used.

An upfront annual payment would be result in the greatest loss.

Steve

--
Neural Planner Software Ltd http://www.NPSL1.com

"Ato_Zee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7UYcl.13068$(E-Mail Removed)2...
>
>> Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
>> debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does not
>> want
>> to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He pays nothing
>> by
>> direct debit.
>
> I have never done Direct Debit either (but have watched, and listened
> with amusement to colleagues sorting out problems with them.

Problems only tend to be caused by large cable companies when
they make mistakes in order to get a free loan for customers. They
will NEVER return the money immediately, they will give it back
the following month. It is a massive scam that has gone on for years.

> Call centre script driven droids with no authority, and banks
> "we don't want to know").

Banks will only want to know if the amount taken differs from the
amount shown on the bill. No one even needs to sign an authorisation
in order to set up a direct debit on your account which is terrible!

> I'm with Zen, monthly contract, excellent performance, good
> personal customer orientated support. I pay quarterly in advance
> by cheque, with a free static IP address.

I have an annual contract and pay monthly, so I keep the interest
on the money in the bank for longer.

> 5Gb monthly allowance.

That is very poor, you are on an expensive, limited account by the sound
of it. 5GB is what i can get through in a few days using BBCi/4OD/ITV
and CH5 services, WiFi Radio and file transfers/emails. Then add a bit of
peer2peer use and Limewire.

>P2P fast even at peak times, doesn't seem to
> be any throttling,

How would you know! Wait until it does kick-in.
if they need to limit customers to 5GB a month then traffic shaping will be
next.
It seems to show a small ISP struggling!

> as a bonus a news server,

Probably handy, but what is the retention level, number of groups and also
number of connections allowed, any binary groups?


> although
> I also use a PAYG news server eu.news.net, who
> accept credit card or PayPal (my small 5 quid payment
> before I joined Zen 2 years ago hasn't run out).

Why on earth would you PAY when there are plenty of *free* news servers
about that allow posting, have a high number of groups and allow a few
connections. I would NOT advise paying by credit card, you never know
who or what you are giving details to.

> Zen NG coverage is pretty good but they miss some
> speciality and obscure ones.

Probably because they use the Cleanfeed system to filter out porn
and other illegal stuff, illegal under UK Law that is.

>Not sure about binaries
> and binary retention if you need that.
> Haven't heard of any complaints from online gameplayers.

How many online gameplayers do you know?

> Not sure if they still accept cheques, you might have to
> lean on them as they tried to convert customers to DD.
> Considered IDnet but they didn't offer a news server.
> Choose carefully some of the big names are crap,
> big adverts and no performance.
>

The same goes for smaller companies that put such a low limit
on an account, offer things you don't need like a static IP
address and charge far more than other companies.

In article <gl1j69$q8o$(E-Mail Removed)>, Slider <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Hi
>
>Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
>debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does not want
>to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He pays nothing by
>direct debit.

If you can't find an ISP who will do it publicly, it might be worth
approaching Entanet resellers - they have the option of paying Entanet
for the clients themselves, and then billing the clients as required.

However one issue I'd have (as an Enta reseller) is that of the client
going over their allotted bandwidth budget - the reseller would then
need to raise an additional invoice for the client to pay as and when.

And there's the issues of prices going up (or down!) and who knows
what else...

Gordon

Slider wrote:

> Hi
>
> Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
> debit?

YES.

Graham

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:55:12 +0000, Eeyore wrote:

> Slider wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
>> debit?
>
> YES.
>
> Graham

I've been looking at IDnet and the fee is based on an annual payment and
monthly contract.

--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.

Slider wrote:
> Hi
>
> Is there an ISP who takes payment annually, rather than monthly direct
> debit? My father wants a laptop and wireless broadband but he does
> not want to pay by direct debit. He would rather pay annually. He
> pays nothing by direct debit.
>
> Thanks

www.newnet.co.uk do that. They're good but they're not the cheapest.

--
Carl Waring
DigiGuide:
Full: http://getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=1495
Web-based: http://getdigiguide.com/?p=3&r=1495

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:47:07 GMT, Ato_Zee wrote:

>> I've been looking at IDnet and the fee is based on an annual payment and
>> monthly contract.
>
> I looked at them and found they didn't have a news server, so I
> went for Zen.

I was worried about that a few months ag, then got an a/c with Albasani
then, when Tiscrap started blocking ports in the evening, got an a/c with
Motzarella.
Also got an e-mail a/c with GMX - Yahoo doesn't do POP3 unless money is
offered, the Google one works, sort of, but I've never got it going
properly as POP3.
--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.