Was the verbal agreement made face to face and in front of witnesses, or by telephone and was any form of credit included in the agreement? Also were you provided with a written agreement or statement of terms after making the verbal agreement?

In most cases companies trying to impose a surcharge for certain methods of payment might well, if challenged legally, have to justify their costs of collection and, indeed, their original terms of contract, should there be no provision for such a surcharge. However, particularly with a new company, or an existing company offering a new range of services (with no previous pricing scale for comparison) they would probably be within their rights to offer a discount (as opposed to a surcharge) for payment by their preferred method, the cost of which would, of course, be factored into their commercial costings when setting their prices. Obviously, if the discrepancy between the 'normal' and 'discounted' rates was excessive this might be subject to challenge as an unfair contract term, however, under current legislation, this might be more difficult to challenge.