Problems paying bill

[Attheend]

This morning I went to pay my quarterly bill by bank card as normal. There were numerous problems which is not normal.  The first was the two-step verification which tried to send the code to a phone number I haven't had in years.  My phone number was listed properly in My Details in the My BT page.  I contacted BT for help and the person who answered wanted my bank account details including my bank account number.  When I queried this I was told it was for my Direct Debit. I do not use Direct Debit for any payments to anyone whatsoever having experienced problems in the past.  Wondering if I was being scammed, I said I was going to hang up and asked them to ring me back on the landline so I could see if this was really BT.  As they still wanted my bank account details I cancelled the transaction and re-did it.  This time the code came through and I was able to make my payment and receive an email containing a reference number. Is it normal for BT/EE to ask for bank account details?

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @Attheend   I thought you said that you contacted BT. How did you contact them? If somebody had contacted you I could understand your suspicion of being scammed.

[Attheend]

I rang them when I didn't receive a code.  For 12 years I have been a BT customer here and never before did two step verification kick in when I was paying a bill,  though I have had to use it for other things. But the mobile reception here is not good, a text can take hours to arrive.  So I rang the BT contact line but the person I spoke to kept talking about my Direct Debit which I do not have and do not want.  So when he kept pressing me for my bank account number I kept asking why he wanted it.  Then he would say it was needed for my Direct Debit.  This went on a few times when I decided to cancel the conversation and retry the payment over the internet.  Over and over we are told to never give out our banking details and this person was asking for them so I was suspicious.  I was 99% positive I was speaking to BT but there were too many anomalies at once.

[-Richie-]

---

@Attheendwrote:

 Is it normal for BT/EE to ask for bank account details?

---

Yes it's part of secure validation, your previous reply stated you never got the pin sent, which is why alternative validation was used, there are other questions that can be asked if you feel more comfortable with.

[Attheend]

That is both reasonable and sensible, however it doesn't answer the question of why the person was insistent on my having a Direct Debit when I did not.

[-Richie-]

A whole bill direct debit is BT's and most other companies preferred method of payment, Direct Debits are covered by the Direct Debit guarantee, it also costs you more money each month, it also saves BT money by not having to have staff on hand to take payments, you've said you don't want that option but it will still be encouraged in future.