# Household charge website seems to be working better now, but it's not perfect yet



## Brendan Burgess (8 Mar 2012)

I had suggested in this post that people should not bother to attempt to pay the charge until the website was working properly. 

I have managed to pay it now without a hitch. Very simple. Very smooth. 

I would recommend to people to pay it now and not leave it until the 31 March when the system is bound to be inundated. 

Brendan


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## Brendan Burgess (9 Mar 2012)

I have just registered and paid on behalf of a relative and the whole process took 8 minutes. 

The only small problem was the captcha which took 2 goes. 

Brendan


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## Gondola (10 Mar 2012)

Thanks for the update, Brendan. I am going to register for our house and that of a relative of mine this week end. Hopefully my experience will be as smooth as yours. Will post if any issues.


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## Gondola (11 Mar 2012)

hello Brendan, the captcha turned out to be awful. I lost count of how many times it took. At least 20, and it is not clear whether one has misread the words or whether the password or user ref. has a mistake. The whole process took an hour. (As regards the audio option, why was this recorded in a pub with a cassette player from the dear old 1970s? On top of that, the accent of the speaker seems to be from somewhere in Canada, just to make it even more uncertain what the person is saying.)


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## Brendan Burgess (11 Mar 2012)

> it is not clear whether one has misread the words or whether the password or user ref. has a mistake



That is exactly the experience I had when I first tried it in early January.

It is better now, but obviously not good enough. 

I don't understand the purpose of the captcha? Why would anyone bother setting up a computer to register falsely for the charge?


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## serotoninsid (11 Mar 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I don't understand the purpose of the captcha? Why would anyone bother setting up a computer to register falsely for the charge?


To fill their database full of crud and/or to bring down the server?


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## becky (11 Mar 2012)

I paid last week with no issue except I did have to refresh the captcha twice ot three times but that was all.


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## PaddyBloggit (11 Mar 2012)

*It's not working for me*

It keeps looping back to the captcha when I try to login.

My reference number was entered correctly, as was my password.

I even reset my password but it still kept on looping back to the captcha.

It's bad enough having to pay a bill but it's worse when the method of paying it doesn't cooperate.

I have emailed support .... we'll see what they have to say for themselves.







[broken link removed]

​


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## ajapale (11 Mar 2012)

I paid for an elderly relative today. Got the captcha wrong twice before I got in. It was painful. What is the purpose of the captcha?


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## PaddyBloggit (12 Mar 2012)

I got it to work .... I cleared all cookies and restarted Firefox.


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## coldcake (12 Mar 2012)

Have to agree about the captcha. It's is very difficult to read and took me a few attempts. I come across this feature a lot on other sites but never had as much difficulty working out what to input. One of the words seems to be a 'real' word and the second part seems a jumble of letters making it much more difficult to read. I'm sure this will drive some folks crazy. Other than that the rest was grand.


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## ANORAKPHOBIA (12 Mar 2012)

"I would recommend to people to pay it now and not leave it until the 31 March when the system is bound to be inundated. 

Brendan "


Do you not think most people are capable of making up their own minds about if and when they will pay this charge. If someone asks for advice re household charge that is the time to express your opinion. Meanwhile could you stop badgering the people who are well equipped to decide about their tax liabilities. It is beginning to look like there is an agenda here.


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## ajapale (12 Mar 2012)

This thread deals with the _*mechanics*_ of paying the Household Charge.

Posts which do not deal with the mechanics of paying will be deleted or moved.

aj
moderator


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## Jazz01 (12 Mar 2012)

> It is beginning to look like there is an agenda here.



Yip, have to agree ...


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## Molly Bloom (12 Mar 2012)

Just wanted to echo what earlier posters have said about the ease of using the website -

I registered and paid on line on Friday - all very smooth, bar the captcha. I felt my (forty-something) eyesight was deteriorating by the minute, and had to refresh it a few times before I saw a version I could decipher.

Clearly the powers-that-be are watching AAM (wise people!) as they've done some work on the website to rectify faults reported earlier. Maybe they'll refine the captcha as well?


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Mar 2012)

ANORAKPHOBIA said:


> "It is beginning to look like there is an agenda here.



You are quite right. It's the exact same agenda as in this post

Don't bother trying to pay your charge yet - the site is not working properly.

That was put up to save people the hassle of dealing with a difficult site. 

This thread was intended to show that it had improved.

Joe Duffy  will be full of complaints on 31 March from people saying that the site crashed and they wanted to pay their household charge but couldn't.  Save yourself the hassle - pay it before the rush.

Brendan


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## amtc (13 Mar 2012)

I just had my eyes lasered and have better than 20/20 vision and that capitcha was a nightmare.


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## dereko1969 (13 Mar 2012)

maybe i was just lucky, but "my" captcha was fine, was done and dusted on the site in 5 minutes.


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## Ceist Beag (13 Mar 2012)

No issues here with the captcha either, was fine. I'm using a screen resolution of 2048*1152 so maybe on some resolutions it's quite hard to make out.


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## PaddyBloggit (13 Mar 2012)

I got a reply from 'support':

_"Thank you for your email.

We experienced a small number of issues with our website over the weekend. Unfortunately this coincided with scheduled maintenance resulting in a longer disruption than anticipated._ _

We apologise for any inconvenience"_


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## stephnyc (14 Mar 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I have just registered and paid on behalf of a relative and the whole process took 8 minutes.


 
I did this, using their PPSN and my email address (they dont have one, and I didnt want to miss any correspondence). I subsequently went back to register for myself, and it seems I cant reuse the same email address with my PPSN (or else I'm guessing that their PPSN will be associated with the payment for my house?). I thought the PPSN or house address would be the unique key, not the email address?

Any suggestions? Thanks


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## callybags (14 Mar 2012)

You only register one account.

There is a facility to "Add another property" when you log in.

The payment is then registered against the address you give for the additional property.

They don't care who pays the money; just that the address has the payment registered.


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## stephnyc (14 Mar 2012)

thanks callybags, based on your response I logged back in and tried the 'Add another property', but there is no where to put in my own PPSN. I dont want to register my house with a relatives (I assume they are collecting this info for a reason), and I dont have a 2nd email address. Theres nothing in the FAQ about PPSNs, so I'm going to try their support email support@householdcharge.ie


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## callybags (14 Mar 2012)

stephnyc said:


> thanks callybags, based on your response I logged back in and tried the 'Add another property', but there is no where to put in my own PPSN. I dont want to register my house with a relatives (I assume they are collecting this info for a reason), and I dont have a 2nd email address. Theres nothing in the FAQ about PPSNs, so I'm going to try their support email [EMAIL="support@householdcharge.ie"]support@householdcharge.ie[/EMAIL]


 
Ah... I see where you are coming from.

I registered my own house first and paid the €100.

I have a share in a second property with three others and just added it on to my account, so it is under my PPS number as well.

Hopefully their support will be able to help.


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## PaddyW (14 Mar 2012)

Who here got D/D taken from bank today?


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## Marion (14 Mar 2012)

PaddyW said:


> Who here got D/D taken from bank today?



Me.

Marion


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## PaddyW (14 Mar 2012)

Cheers Marion


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## Brendan Burgess (14 Mar 2012)

> Who here got D/D taken from bank today?



I, too. 

Brendan


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## diem (14 Mar 2012)

and me.


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## ledger (25 Mar 2012)

Two queries that I hope someone can help with please. I just registered without any problems but when I went to the payments section it is telling me that there are no payments due ?? Has anyone else experienced that. Secondly, is direct debit the only payment method ?


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## PaddyBloggit (25 Mar 2012)

Re, Direct Debit .... you can't sign up for that as the March 1st deadline to register for that method of payment has come and gone.

I paid with Laser card .... as easy as any method.

I can't answer your other question ... unless they have decided to not charge you!


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## DrMoriarty (25 Mar 2012)

PaddyW said:


> Who here got D/D taken from bank today?


Mine came through a while ago, but it took me a moment to figure out what it was, as the reference supplied was just a string of apparently random numbers and letters. Would it kill them to put something like "Household charge" or "Revenue" in there?


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## ledger (25 Mar 2012)

Thanks Paddy,
Wouldn't it be great if they forgot all about me  !


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## Marion (25 Mar 2012)

Must be your bank Dr M.

My direct debit showed as Op/household charge DD.

Marion


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## DrMoriarty (26 Mar 2012)

Typical private sector inefficiency...


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## Brendan Burgess (26 Mar 2012)

DrMoriarty said:


> Typical private sector inefficiency...



Good one. 

It showed up as "POS Household char" for me as well. 

Brendan


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## ClubMan (26 Mar 2012)

Mine showed as 


> 14/03/2012    DD OP/HOUSEHOLDCHARGE    -25.00


I can't remember if the online form asked me to put in a payee reference to appear at my end?


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## rangerscym (26 Mar 2012)

Paid by VISA this morning without any problems- personaly I don't give anyone a direct debit and access to my bank account if I can avoid it.  When things do wrong I have found that credit card comapnies are a lot more effective when resolving disputes.


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## DrMoriarty (26 Mar 2012)

Marion said:


> My direct debit showed as Op/household charge DD.





Brendan Burgess said:


> It showed up as "POS Household char" for me as well.


NIB gave me "SE8U75EMA8USXG69HJ". Måske er det dansk...?


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## becky (26 Mar 2012)

Mine showed as Household Charge on my ptsb visa.


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## ajapale (31 Mar 2012)

How is it tonight?


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## seantheman (31 Mar 2012)

Flying, paid my Mum's for her


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