Direct Debits - License to print money!

[LSainsbury]

Seeing this thread about Digital's £105 NTL bill got me thinking...

Listen up....

Direct debits...now - when they introduced DD's - it was always marketed in a way that it's easy for Mr & Mrs Consumer to pay variable monthly bills - Sky, telephone, mobile etc...

However - when Mr Supplier gets it wrong and overcharges - wallop - money is still take via DD and leaves Mr & Mrs Consumer out of pocket.

Mr & Mrs Consumer then has to sort the mess out.

In the mean time Mr Supplier has your money in their bank and Mr & Mrs Consumer could very well need that extra bit of money this month for xyz.

The GF is currently involved in a ongoing battle with a mobile supplier who shall remain nameless - no - bugger that - it's CarPhoneCrapHouse.

Her contract is up shortly but they have messed up the last 3 / 4 months bills - but again - via the DD system they have still taken her money regardless.

A prime example of how DD is a license to print money!

Off my now...

As they say on AOL.... /discuss

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by lsainsbury

As they say on AOL.... /discuss

which would actually mean end of discuss


A charity recently made a mistake of adding an extra couple of zeros onto the money they were taking, so if you were donating £5 a month, they took £500 by computer muck up.
This left many people in the brown stuff, and the charity saying "don't worry, you'll get your money back in a few days and any charges will be refunded" wasn't much help to those who were suddenly without cash!

[Paul M]

Whenever a company messes up one of my DD's (which is very rare btw) I just instruct my bank to reverse it under the DD rules.

[LSainsbury]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Whenever a company messes up one of my DD's (which is very rare btw) I just instruct my bank to reverse it under the DD rules.

Interesting...didn't know you could do that!

Do you have info on how to do that? How long it takes etc?

Originally Posted by Xaccers

which would actually mean end of discuss

So it does!!!

[danielf]

Originally Posted by lsainsbury

Interesting...didn't know you could do that!

Yes, it's called the direct debit guarantee.

Do you have info on how to do that? How long it takes etc?

Contact your bank. They will sort it. I'm not sure how long it takes, but I would guess a few days.

[LSainsbury]

Originally Posted by danielf

Yes, it's called the direct debit guarantee.

Cool - just did a search - result here!


...and another

It's guaranteed
You are protected by three important safeguards:

* An immediate money back guarantee from your bank in the event of an error
* Advance notice if the date or amount changes
* The right to cancel at any time.

[basa]

My better half is currently embroiled in an argument with a catalogue over DD.

She has been paying them by DD for several years, no problem. Then a couple of months back they complained the DD had been rejected by our bank. She phoned the catalogue to be told she didn't even have a DD !! She paid by credit card there and then over the phone.

Next thing we know is they've taken a double payment by DD (presumably for the current month plus extra to cover the previous rejected payment, but which had been made good by the phone transaction). We again phoned to complain and were told they couldn't credit us and anyway our account was obviously good for it !!

We cancelled the DD.

This month we again paid over the phone, but when we received the statement we note a £15.00 penalty because the (cancelled) DD was returned.

Our agreement with this catalogue doesn't insist a DD is set-up for servicing accounts, so how can they penalise us for a non paid DD especially as we paid the account 'manually' ?

[monkey2468]

I hate direct debits. I had car insurance with tesco, and for some reason they took 8 DD payment (over £600) over 4 days which wiped my bank out. It took me weeks to get it sorted and get charges back, but the worst part was because they wiped my bank account out, I was unable to pay any of my credit cards/loans which now shows on my credit file as non payment/ late payment.
Another instance (with a different car insurance company) the DD randomly stopped taking money from my bank. ( I hadn't noticed) They never informed me, and the first I knew about it was when my renewal quote didn'e come through. I called them and they told me that they cancelled my car insurance 4 months ago. The credit company which the premiums go to admitted that it was totally there fault. They didn't sent me a letter to inform me of non payment or canceling of insurance so I had been driving without insurance, rinsking procecution and/or been sued if had an accident.

I now watch my DD's carfully. Never trust them.

[etccarmageddon]

my ebay account has just bounced the direct debit for January of about £2 due to the direct debit being rejected - Ebay have said it will be assess and I may get a charge for this rejection. The DD was setup 18 months ago but they only tried to use it in January.


I contacted Nationwide and got this reply:-

"Dear Mr xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your message.

I can confirm that there is not a Direct Debit set up on your account to
Ebay.

If a Direct Debit is not used for 13 months then it automatically drops
of the system. I can confirm that the 13 month automatic cancellation is
not a Nationwide Policy, it is in the Direct Debit Scheme and all
Originators (companies) should know that if they do not claim a payment
within 13 months from the last claim then the Direct Debit will have
automatically fallen off the system. Unfortunately if a Direct Debit
does drop of the system as it has not been used for 13 months then we
can not re-instate the Direct Debit a new mandate will have to be
completed.

When setting a Direct Debit up on a customers account the company can
tell their sponsor bank that they need a longer dormancy period and this
will allow the Direct Debit to stay live for longer than 13 months.


If you have any other queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Miss xxxxxxxxxx
Customer Service Administrator
Payment Enquiries"

---------- Post added at 12:02 ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 ----------

So are Ebay going to charge me for something which has happened due to their system not keeping the direct debit in place?

[basa]

Originally Posted by etccarmageddon

..................... I can confirm that the 13 month automatic cancellation is
not a Nationwide Policy, it is in the Direct Debit Scheme and all
Originators (companies) should know that if they do not claim a payment
within 13 months from the last claim then the Direct Debit will have
automatically fallen off the system. Unfortunately if a Direct Debit
does drop of the system as it has not been used for 13 months then we
can not re-instate the Direct Debit a new mandate will have to be
completed.

.......................So are Ebay going to charge me for something which has happened due to their system not keeping the direct debit in place?

It wasn't eBay's or Nationwide's fault

It is simply that DD's not used for 13 months drop off the system. This is part of the DDs Guarantee scheme.

[etccarmageddon]

so Ebay should have known this when they sent me an email complaining the DD had been rejected instead of wasting my time chasing nationwide to find out where the DD has gone.

[Bifta]

A while back Singlepoint took £100 out of my account (on top of the monthly call charges) for an upgrade mobile phone that was supposed to be free, I called my bank that afternoon and they immediately credited my account and chased SP for the money they'd taken, no mess, no fuss.

[Scarlett]

I'm moving off of DD's. Half my bills go by standing order, I can say when they go and how much, more useful than DD's (that do randomly stop, I don't care what people say).

I started moving the stuff over after the most almighty screw up by the then local council who failed 4 times to set up a DD and then threatened me with court twice for non-payment. I now set up the payments myself and I know when they are due to go.

[basa]

Originally Posted by Scarlett

I'm moving off of DD's. Half my bills go by standing order, I can say when they go and how much, more useful than DD's (that do randomly stop, I don't care what people say).

I started moving the stuff over after the most almighty screw up by the then local council who failed 4 times to set up a DD and then threatened me with court twice for non-payment. I now set up the payments myself and I know when they are due to go.

That's probably the best advice, or if you use on-line banking set up regular manual payments.

[LSainsbury]

Crikey!! Sounds like I have opened a complete can of worms regarding Direct Debits!