General Billing

What is the payment cycle for Internode services? How does it work in timing terms?

Please note that this FAQ is not a substitute for the Internode Standard Form of Agreement, that takes precedence in case of any conflict in interpretation between this FAQ and those terms.

Internode operates on a calendar monthly payment cycle for its services and we normally charge for our services automatically from a credit card number that you provide to us when you sign up with Internode. You can also choose from a number of other payment methods, click here for more information.

The rest of this FAQ is written in the context of the normal/common situation (monthly charging with automatic payment by credit card). Quarterly customers should make the obvious adjustments in their reading of the following information, to accommodate their situation.

You will normally receive a bill on the same day of each month.

Your first bill is usually generated the day after your first service is initially activated. The day of the month on which that bill is generated then becomes your 'anniversary day' for subsequent bills.

As a minor exception, if the first billing day happens to be the 29th, 30th or 31st of the month, your subsequent bills will arrive on the 1st of the next month.

Internode, in accordance with normal industry practice, operates on the basis of receiving payment monthly-in-advance for the base monthly fees that apply to your service.

Any usage-based charges (such as excess download fees, if applicable, or hourly dialup access fees, etc) are charged monthly in arrears, on the same calendar monthly bills.

Because we send bills on a calendar monthly basis, want to give you plenty of warning (in particular, 28 days warning) in advance of collecting our base monthly charges and in-arrears charges from your credit card, in case you need to query them for any reason.

So in a given bill, you should expect to see some or all of these items:

• Any payments received from you since the last bill was generated.
• Any other charges or adjustments made since the last bill was generated.
• In-arrears charges for any usage-based or excess fees incurred last month.
• In-advance base monthly charges for the month commencing in one month from now (with the starting and ending dates for that period specifically noted)

For instance, if your anniversary date happened to be the 10th, and you then received a bill generated on the 10th of April, you would expect to see:

• Payments received and any adjustments made since the last bill.
• Any charges in arrears for any excess usage fees incurred prior to the 10th of April.
• A new charge (in advance) for your access for the month beginning on 10th May and ending just before the 10th of June (with those dates noted in the line item).

These charges are due for payment 28 days after issuing of the bill.

This means that we intend to collect your payment for the subsequent month just a few days before that subsequent month starts.

It also means that you have 28 days in which to consider, and (if necessary) to query your bill before any charges are made to your credit card by our billing system.

Normally, charges which will be collected via our automatic credit card charging system will be specifically documented at the bottom of the first page of your bill.

We provide this specific information about how much we will charge, and on what date, so that you have a clear expectation on when we will collect that fee, and how much that fee will be.

If you have a query about that amount, or you wish to cancel that automatic payment for any reason, please contact our accounts staff prior to the date specified and request that we cancel this automatic charge.

How do my bills arrive?

Internode normally sends bills via email.

Bills are normally sent to the Internode email account that is associated with your Internet service with us. So you do need to check that account in order to read your bills each month.

If you would like us to deliver your bills to another email address, or to fax or post them to you instead, you can change this by logging into My Internode.

Please note posting of paper invoices is available but discouraged for environmental reasons, and if requested will attract a $1.50 surcharge per invoice.

As a result, we strongly recommend that you save a tree, and un-necessary expense, and continue to use electronic (email) generated bills.

How can I pay for my Internode ADSL service?

For information about payment methods click here.

When Internode ADSL is first connected, what bills can I expect - and when?

When your ADSL service is first successfully connected, we need to catch up with the billing needed to bring your account into line with our normal operating billing cycle (as explained above).

To do this, we issue you an initial bill (the day after your service is first successfully connected), which includes the following charges:

• The bill for your ADSL 'modem' (if you purchased it from us).
• Your ADSL setup fee.
• Your first months' bill.
• A credit card payment for the previous two items (if you are paying by credit card)
• Your second months' bill.

Since we charge your credit card for the setup fee and first month during the issuing of this first service bill, your remaining balance to pay will be for your second months usage - and this amount will be collected 28 days later.

When does my credit card get charged?

Internet services fees are charged to your credit card. Where a fee is a routine periodic charge based on a previous bill, that previous bill will contain documentation telling you scheduled point at which we plan to collect funds from your card, and the amount of the scheduled transaction.

There are also some circumstances where a charge may need to be collected from your credit card on an un-scheduled basis, without the amount or timing being stated in a previous bill.

These are the circumstances in which this may need to be done:

• When your service is initially connected and transitions to 'active', your setup and first periodic access fee are debited immediately (as noted in the previous question, above), and this charge will then appear on your subsequent bill.
• If your credit card provider rejects our scheduled collection attempt, we will try again each day for several days to collect the funds, in case your card was just 'temporarily over' on its credit limit. In this case, you may see the charge on your card appearing a few days later than predicted (but still for the predicted amount).
• Before we issue each bill to you, and if regular card charging has been unsuccessful, we try once more to collect only the overdue amount outstanding on your bill, just before we issue that next bill. If this last attempt to get your account up to date is successful, you will see a record of that charge on the new bill.

All fund collections are documented on your subsequent Internode bill, including the date and amount of those collections. You can also view your pending transactions including such card charges using the Internode online accounts web pages.

What do the various parts of my bill mean?

The Internode bill is modeled on the format of bills from utility companies.

It contains an 'account summary strip' which summarises the financial status of your account and of the charges noted on this bill, followed by a detailed item-by-item summary of the new charges and payments rendered on this bill.

The 'new charges' noted on this bill are used to calculate and determine the planned automatic credit card charges that you will see documented on the bottom of the first page of your bill (if you are operating on automatic credit card based charging).

You should plan on paying (or on allowing our automatic system to pay) all 'new' and any older unpaid (and hence 'overdue') charges by the due date shown on the bill.

Note that any overdue charges that could not be collected in the past may be separately collected from your credit card by the automatic secondary (overdue charges) collection mechanism noted in the previous FAQ item, just prior to the issuing of your next monthly bill.

I think I've been double-charged or wrongly charged on a bill - what should I do?

Chances are that you haven't been double charged at all.

On rare occasions, you may not have received a regular month bill in advance for some reason (including some historic bill timing issues that have since been corrected).

If this occurs, the subsequent bill will 'catch up' on these charges - in just the same way that your very first bill 'catches up' on the setup fee and first months' charges.

Also, for some of our longer term customers, you may find that you are just seeing our billing system belatedly adjusting your service charge timing so that you are now operating on the correct charge timing basis, as documented in this FAQ.

We regret the inconvenience and confusion that these 'catch up' bills may have caused in some cases. However, the process of bringing everyone properly into the correct charge timing sequence guarantees that your future bills will be far simpler to keep properly aligned in time - and predictable - going forward.

What you should do if you receive a bill which contains more than a single monthly charge, is first check the months which the charges apply to. You should find that even if you have two monthly charges on your bill, that the months are not months for which you have previously been charged at all - and these are just showing you one of these 'catch up' events as noted above.

If you remain unhappy with your understanding of your bill, however, you can and should just contact our accounts department in order to clarify any billing issues that you have.

We recognise that mistakes are possible, and we're not claiming to be perfect. We're more than happy to investigate, explain, and if necessary to correct, anything that is actually incorrect on your bill, should that happen at any time. Just contact us and we'll be happy to help.

What should I do if I need further information or help with a bill?

Just contact our accounts department.

Should you find any issues are not resolved to your satisfaction, you have the option to follow our escalation procedure to further pursue your issue with Internode.

What if I want to cancel my Internode ADSL account?

We hope that you won't ever cancel your account - but of course sometimes circumstances and needs change and you may need to do so in the future.

In the hopefully unlikely event that you are contemplating canceling your account because you are not happy with the service that you have received, and if you feel that this service is inconsistent with the expectations explained in detail in the Internode ADSL FAQ, we'd welcome your feedback.

You can send that feedback to us from this page, regarding what we might be able to do in order to change your mind - we'd much prefer to resolve any issues you might have, if at all possible, rather than to see you go.

If you do leave, the only factor to bear in mind is that early cancellation charges may apply. For example:

• ADSL signups from 11th November 2008 have a choice of free setup and a 24 month contract; or paid setup and a one month rolling contract. Internode Ultra services are only available with free setup and a 24 month contract. An early cancellation charge of $199 applies if a 'free setup' service is cancelled within the first 24 months.
• All ADSL signups from 6th May 2008 to 10th November 2008 have an early cancellation charge of $65 if cancelled within the first 12 months.
• Prior to 6th May 2008, the early cancellation charge applied for the first six months only, so these should no longer be an issue.

To cancel your service, please email accounts@internode.on.net or fax 08 8235 6999 clearly specifying your instructions in this respect. You can also cancel your account online, by clicking here.

Any payments already collected (in advance) for months not yet served will be refunded to you. However, payments received for the current month are non-refundable. Our accounts staff will take the appropriate steps to reconcile your account and cancel your services at the end of the monthly billing period that you nominate.

Trading Terms and Suspensions

What are Internode's trading terms?

Internode's trading terms have not changed. They remain 28 days from date of invoice, and an account will remain in "normal" credit status until the 28 day period has expired.

Will I receive a reminder?

If an account is not paid within 28 days from date of invoice it is in default, and a "First and Final Notice" will be sent out via your normal billing method (e-mail, fax or post) as well as via post (if this is not your normal billing method). This notice will stipulate the amount and date that payment must be received by in order to maintain system connectivity.

What will happen if payment is not received by the date specified on the First and Final Notice?

If payment is not received by the date specified on the First and Final Notice, a suspension of service will occur, and a suspension notice will be sent out. Suspension of service means that all services under a particular account will be temporarily suspended (disconnected) until such time as the default amount has been received by Internode Systems Pty Ltd.

If my account gets suspended, do I still need to pay for this period?

If your account goes into suspension due to a default on the account, you will still be required to pay for the service during this period of time. The suspension on the account has occurred due to non-payment, and as such no credits will be issued for the suspended time period.

How does a suspension of service work?

Suspension of services affects all services under an account. This means that when an account remains unpaid after the date specified on the First and Final Notice, all services will be temporarily disconnected.

If Suspension occurs, How Can I Get my Services Reinstated?

If an account goes into suspension status, payment of the default amount must be received to remove this suspension. Payment can be made any time via credit card using either our online payment gateway located or via our Pay By Phone service on 1300 553 233. Payment can also be made via cheque, cash or money order.

Payment made via credit card will automatically be updated to our billing system, and your services will be re-instated within 2 hours of payment being received. If paying via cash, cheque or money order, payment will need to be received by Internode and applied to your account. Services will be re-instated within 1 hour of the processing of this payment.

What do I do if I have a query with my account or bill?

If you have a query with your account or invoice, you can contact our Accounts Department to discuss this. The accounts department is opened Mon-Fri 8am-6pm CST. Click Here for Contact Details

If I Query my Account, Will I Still Get Suspended?

All account or invoice queries should be addressed within the 28 day normal trading period. All queries will be responded to as soon as possible, and should not impact on the date of payment. In a rare situation where an issue requires investigation that may proceed further than the 28 day trading period, an extension may be granted.

What if I am unable to pay due to financial hardship?

If you are temporarily experiencing genuine financial hardship due to unforeseen circumstances you may be eligible to apply for assistance under Internode's Financial Hardship Policy. Customers who are merely seeking to defer payment will not be eligible. A summary of the policy is available here.