AMRP Payment Services Limited

I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. No private company would offer such a “service” without wanting payment. What is AMRP’s “cut” I wonder?

From their website..

The cost

The basic cost to landlords is £5.00 per transaction, payable only for each deposit received - there are no setup fees. On a two-weekly cycle, this is equivalent to £130 per year per tenant.

Applying the 8 week rule, based on a single under-35 rate of £55 per week, non-payment could cost £440

Always someone to jump on the bandwaggon isn’t there?

All sounds desperately dodgy to me.

Landlords would be likely to pass cost on to tenants?

Other concern would be that tenants joining the scheme could be made a part of tenancy agreements?

I suppose that as a concept it isnt immediately bad but the actual operation of it could mean that it is.

theres also the fact that in my experience the reasons people dont pay their rent run a bit deeper than just needing it portioned off.

Why would anyone do it when a direct debit was an option?

Edmund Shepherd - 17 August 2015 11:53 AM

Why would anyone do it when a direct debit was an option?

only real answer to that i suppose is that a DD will come off even if your UC hasnt been paid but i doubt such a circumstance will ever occur under that system of perfection but your right there isnt really that much point when you think about it.

Joe Collins - 13 August 2015 11:23 AM

There are a number of interesting aspects to this which i have not yet had time to think through but my first instinct is surprise that DWP has [apparently] agreed to pay a person’s full benefit to a third party private company with no requirement of vulnerability.

I don’t suppose it’s seen by DWP as a special measure, it’s just that a claimant has a general right to nominate any account for their benefit to be paid in to.

I’m not aware of any restriction on who’s name the account is in. Thus, many Credit Unions offer Child Benefit loan (or savings) accounts, where the contractual instalments are made in the form of Child Benefit being paid directly to the Credit Union.
(E.g. “Call the Child Benefit Processing Centre on 0845 302 1444. Tell them you want to pay your benefit to the credit union and give them our bank details, or complete our authorisation form and we can do the rest online.”)

Letter from AMRP responding to comments in this thread attached below -

Another company that offers this sort of service is Tasker Payment Services (http://www.taskerpaymentservices.co.uk). I don’t have any experience of either, but noticed that TPS only cost £4 per transaction. On the face of it, I think the scheme these companies offer seems good, but I agree that some of the private landlords may pass the cost onto the tenant. Has anyone got any experience of either?

Wolverhampton City Credit Union will provide a similar service for nowt.