Unreasonable Dividend Replacement Charge

I have been a holder of shares in Diploma Plc for some years. As a personal Crest member I have been happy to receive dividends in the form of cheques. But registrar Computershare have decided that they will only be paying dividends via bank transfer in future. So they sent me a “Dividend Mandate and Claim Form” to enable me to submit my bank details which I duly completed and returned (I have no objection to receiving dividends that way because the postal service is not reliable now with strikes happening and my local bank has closed also).

But now Computershare are requesting an Administration Fee of £63 “in order to issue a replacement payment”. But no payment was ever issued so I have refused to pay. This is not the same as the situation where a cheque is issued but then lost.

Computershare also do not seem to understand that if a new holding is purchased via a personal (sponsored) Crest account or in certificated form, there is no way to record bank payment details unless they ask for them.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )

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