Getting rid of direct debits

tenthdoctorfan

I want to cancel four direct debits I have from my bank account. Although it's only £22.50 a month, and the money is going to charity, it's £22.50 a month I cannot afford right now.
Does anybody know what sort of information I need to include in a letter to the company / to my bank cancelling the things? Is there a template anywhere that any of you could point me towards?

milliemonster

You just need to write a letter to the company stating that you have cancelled your direct debit with your bank as you no longer wish to contribute to the charity. Then ring your bank and they will cancel them for you over the phone, they will tell you to inform the recipient though. Expect a few calls/letters from the charities in question though putting the emotional pressure on!

good luck

moneypooh

.... Or do it all online and save costs. If you bank online you can delete payees and you could contact the charity by email too. I had to do this a few years ago, you are bound to get correspondence from the charity - be strong they do try to get you back. I would have thought most charities will be expecting this with the state of things at the moment.

tenthdoctorfan

milliemonster wrote: »

You just need to write a letter to the company stating that you have cancelled your direct debit with your bank as you no longer wish to contribute to the charity. Then ring your bank and they will cancel them for you over the phone, they will tell you to inform the recipient though. Expect a few calls/letters from the charities in question though putting the emotional pressure on!

Thanks; I'd rather not stop contributing to them, but I'm rapidly running out of money so there's no real choice involved (and I know all about the emotional pressure letters, the NSPCC sent a load of them when I cancelled my direct debit to them).

thepinkladez_2

i cancelled our dd to charity when we went on a dmp as we needed all our spare money and i was hounded for ages by the charity, which i think is really bad, they made me feel terrible until one day i just snapped! i really told the lady off saying i could barely afford to feed, cloth and keep a roof over my own dd's head let alone give money to other needy children- i think she got the picture!

tenthdoctorfan

moneypooh wrote: »

If you bank online you can delete payees

This is what I did last time (with the NSPCC, and forgot to also let them know so of course they wrote me loads of letters; they seem to have got the message finally because I don't get half as many letters any more!), but I was wondering if there was an official way of doing it.

moneypooh wrote: »

I would have thought most charities will be expecting this with the state of things at the moment.

True.

That makes me feel even more guilty about having to, though; especially as the reason I support them in the first place is because my niece is a special needs child.

tenthdoctorfan

thepinkladez wrote: »

i cancelled our dd to charity when we went on a dmp as we needed all our spare money and i was hounded for ages by the charity, which i think is really bad, they made me feel terrible until one day i just snapped! i really told the lady off saying i could barely afford to feed, cloth and keep a roof over my own dd's head let alone give money to other needy children- i think she got the picture!

That is bad. Not sure why they think that's going to make people change their minds about stopping their payments; emotional blackmail isn't going to get many of them recommending that their friends start donating, either.

milliemonster

Plus think of all the money they are wasting on constant calls and letters trying to persuade someone to set their DD back up???