# Council Tax



## ksm1985 (Dec 27, 2008)

It was due today, i have set up a direct debit, should i pay the amount i owe today seperately as surely by the time the DD is set up i'd be late, i'll phone tomorrow but what happens if you're a day late? :lol:


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## MirfieldMat (Mar 13, 2011)

from my experience of council tax, if it isnt paid by direct debit on the day they want it you will end up with court summons and bailiffs.

i hate direct debits. sometimes i just dont have money in my account or i am a few quid down. i dont like to say i will pay it this date each month in case I dont have it. this goes for everything, gas electricity phones. I sometimes earn enough in a day to pay a bill out right so will go pay it at a post office. in the case of council tax, i regularly paid on the day at a post office, but as it wasnt through DD, the computer didnt recognise my paymnet. this led to letters threatening me with courts and a visit from the bailiff. as it goes it got all sorted in the end, bailiff was a very helpful guy and i proved my payments etc and he sorted it, but he said it is all automated now and the computer doesnt recognise payments via cash at post office or other paypoints etc. i was informed that if i am going to pay in cash then i need to pay it a week before so it has a chance to work through the system before the date the direct debit is due.

my advise would be pay in cash, keep your reciept so you can phone them and explain the situation as soon as they realise you have not paid according to there computer system.


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## paulyoung666 (Jul 6, 2011)

ksm1985 said:


> It was due today, i have set up a direct debit, should i pay the amount i owe today seperately as surely by the time the DD is set up i'd be late, i'll phone tomorrow but what happens if you're a day late? :lol:


despite post #2 i wouldnt panic too much , bailiffs are only going to get involved when you are months and months behind , not because you missed a payment by a second or two  , i wouldnt go paying them by another means at the moment as you may find the DD kicks in and you end up paying them twice , not a problem if you can afford that to happen as it is a month less to pay at the end , if you need that money back though it could take a while before you see it again , you may get a snotty letter , thats all though


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## brightspark (Aug 21, 2010)

As previous post I wouldn't worry to much at the moment, you may get a letter saying you have missed a payment and to pay by a set date and everything is sorted.If you keep missing payments you may end up that they will only accept any further payments by a d/d mandate.
The bailiffs are normally the last resort that the council use.


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## Matt. (Aug 26, 2007)

I used to have it where I phone up and pay.

I always left it till around the 15th ish.

I then got a letter saying they wanted full payment :lol:

So, I had to set up DD or they wanted full payment.

IMO, you will be fine. Don't worry too much mate.


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## centenary (Sep 5, 2010)

When I was late handing in my DD, I asked the council if they wanted me to pay the outstanding month and them do the DD for 8 months.

They said no, they'd just take the whole bill out over 8 months instead of the 9.


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## paulyoung666 (Jul 6, 2011)

centenary said:


> When I was late handing in my DD, I asked the council if they wanted me to pay the outstanding month and them do the DD for 8 months.
> 
> They said no, they'd just take the whole bill out over 8 months instead of the 9.


sounds about right , its when people take the **** then things go wrong ........


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## Naddy37 (Oct 27, 2005)

ksm1985 said:


> but what happens if you're a day late? :lol:


If you come under South Cambridgeshire District Council, they'll come after you 

Of all the Councils in the UK, South Cambs are the best in collecting outstanding council tax payments, they are pure evil...


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## evo360 (Oct 3, 2008)

ksm1985 said:


> It was due today, i have set up a direct debit, should i pay the amount i owe today seperately as surely by the time the DD is set up i'd be late, i'll phone tomorrow but what happens if you're a day late? :lol:


I never paid mine on the due date but always before the nxt months payment 
I paid my online


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## David 1150 (Jun 6, 2009)

My neighbour was ~ 1.5 years in arrears, nothing happened. He doesn't pay TV licence, gets a letter every month or so, has been getting chased for his water bill for more months than I can remember and has been in contempt of a court order for over 2 years, all without consequence, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over a few days being late with a payment.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

MirfieldMat said:


> from my experience of council tax, if it isnt paid by direct debit on the day they want it you will end up with court summons and bailiffs.


WTF?

Utter ********, and unnecessarily scaremongering. I'm 3 months behind on mine (the wife's forgotten to set up DD, we've had to close the account and get refund sorted, set up a new one etc. - utter **** about *** process!) and they've just said 'yeah, fine, don't worry about it - sort it as soon as.

In fact, 2 years ago (ish) the Mrs' ex quit his job and did **** all, and left her working out how to pay the bills. Her experience - council tax is the easiest one to just put off and worry about later...


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## ksm1985 (Dec 27, 2008)

lol ^^

thanks for all the replies folks, i just was unsure as all this is new to me


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## paulyoung666 (Jul 6, 2011)

David 1150 said:


> My neighbour was ~ 1.5 years in arrears, nothing happened. He doesn't pay TV licence, gets a letter every month or so, has been getting chased for his water bill for more months than I can remember and has been in contempt of a court order for over 2 years, all without consequence, so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over a few days being late with a payment.


and his credit record is ruined , he may not need to borrow money now , but if he ever does , he aint got a cat in hell's chance for a decent APR ..........


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Speaking as someone who used to run the CTAX system for the council that covers Kevs address, if you haven't already made the cash payment, then give them a quick call. They should be able to amend your DD amounts to take account of it. Worst case scenario, if you don't pay it either by cash or amended DD, is that you'll get a first reminder letter. (unless they've clamped down since my days there lol). Absolutely no fear of bailiffs or owt like that pmsl


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## justina3 (Jan 11, 2008)

leave the dd go and send them a chq thats what i do never had so much as a letter from them, post two is a bit bizzare i have to say


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## kh904 (Dec 18, 2006)

paulyoung666 said:


> and his credit record is ruined , he may not need to borrow money now , but if he ever does , he aint got a cat in hell's chance for a decent APR ..........


I think that's when you get a CCJ, and for that to happen it has to go to court and you lose.


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## justina3 (Jan 11, 2008)

kh904 said:


> I think that's when you get a CCJ, and for that to happen it has to go to court and you lose.


it used to be but these days collection reference companies source there data from loads of places other than just a court ccj only need a few low scores in the 3-4 late period and your up the creak without a paddle


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## kh904 (Dec 18, 2006)

justina3 said:


> it used to be but these days collection reference companies source there data from loads of places other than just a court ccj only need a few low scores in the 3-4 late period and your up the creak without a paddle


But how would the credit score drop? I thought that if there was a direct debit set up and there was no money in the account is one thing, so there will be a record on the bank account that it couldn't collect the DD. In this case the DD wasn't set up in time so there's no record on the bank side, unless the council sends the info that the taxpayer didn't pay in time to a credit reference company?
If so, that means that the council's computer system must log all late payers and send/keep the info for credit scores?

TBH i'm not sure how a credit score companies work, but i'm interested to know.

Can anyone shed some light?


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

Council tax doesn't register as an account with your credit score, neither do most electricity and gas suppliers. Mobile phones do, however. The former have to take you to court to affect your credit score, mobile phone suppliers (certainly some, O2 definitely) don't have to, as late/missed payments ARE recorded on your credit record.

Yet more ******** from people who are either to incite fear unnecessarily, or who have had fear put in them incorrectly.

Source: We host most of them.


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## 335dAND110XS (Dec 17, 2010)

Implied threats of ruining credit scores is how big business consumer firms control the masses (their customers). 

They then use any means to avoid tax, claim fraudulent expenses, etc.

Which is nice.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

335dAND110XS said:


> Implied threats of ruining credit scores is how big business consumer firms control the masses (their customers).
> 
> They then use any means to avoid tax, claim fraudulent expenses, etc.
> 
> Which is nice.


Indeed, they rely on the fear of ruining people's lives to ensure you give them what you owe them.


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## MirfieldMat (Mar 13, 2011)

OvlovMike said:


> WTF?
> 
> Utter ********, and unnecessarily scaremongering. I'm 3 months behind on mine (the wife's forgotten to set up DD, we've had to close the account and get refund sorted, set up a new one etc. - utter **** about *** process!) and they've just said 'yeah, fine, don't worry about it - sort it as soon as.
> 
> In fact, 2 years ago (ish) the Mrs' ex quit his job and did **** all, and left her working out how to pay the bills. Her experience - council tax is the easiest one to just put off and worry about later...


no scaremongering there mate, just a true account of what happened to us. All councils will work in different ways, mine just happens to go for people who they think are taking the **** and not paying. as it happens we were paying, but the automated service didnt recognise it.

Why would i want to make some ******** up to put the frighteners on someone?

Think about what your typing before accusing me of lying. Note the words I put, 'from my experience'. that in know way implies the OP will get buggered by the council tax people if they dont pay, it is simply my experience.


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## OvlovMike (Jul 19, 2011)

Which authority? As I've hinted at, we run the systems for most of them so it's fairly uniform and indeed doesn't 'vary' between the councils!


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