current account switching service direct debit nightmare

Miss_Teabag

Hopefully my bad experience will help other moneysavers avoid the same prediciment!

I have recently switched current accounts from HSBC to First Direct. I used their switching service, which got the details of all my Direct Debits from HSBC and provided the companies with my new First Direct account details. This worked fine for all of my Direct Debits apart from that with T Mobile, who despite receiving the details failed to take the payment. As soon as I spotted this I phoneed them up and it was rectified, but resulted in a late payment. First Direct told me that they had provided T Mobile with my new details but that they had failed to request the payment and now I have two Direct Debits on my current account for T Mobile (the transfered one and the one I provided manually over the phone when I realised they'd not taken the payment).

It doesn't end there though. I am going abroad next week and phoned T-Mobile to check that I can use my phone abroad and discovered that I can't, or rather that they won't let me because my credit score with them is low as a result of that late payment! The only way they will let me use my mobile abroad is if I deposit £150 with them, (which they will return to me) presumeably as insurance in case I fail to pay them again! After hours on the phone to them I discovered that whilst they admitted they had received my new account details from First Direct, they couldn't use them to collect payment without my personal authorisation. I didn't know this, they didn't tell me and nor did they have any intention of ever contacting me about this. I did not realise that Direct Debits could work in this way and believed I was protected. T mobile explained that it would never be sufficient to receive a change in payment details in the way that any switching service provides them, that they would only ever use them if provided directly by the customer.

This has caused me to check my credit report on line (at a cost of £5.95) and fortunately it has been unaffacted, presumeably because only one payment has been missed, but more would have been had I not spotted it. I am still unable to use my mobile phone abroad next week.

I recommend that those moneysavers using switching services to switch current accounts check that all their Direct Debits have been switched and that the companies (especially T Mobile!) will use these new details to take payment. I plan to write to T Mobile and First Direct about this and have also posted this in the mobile phone section of the forum.

flossy_splodge

Yes the intricacies of 'switching' are amazing! I went from LLoyds to Alliance and Leicester and luckily, chose for them NOT to close my LLoyds account, I would do it myself later.
All my DD's and SO's were switched EXCEPT the incoming money!
I wont bore you all with the appalling time I had trying to resolve this and query all the charges A&L put on the new account as a result of money going out and none coming in (!) but suffice it to say that if you find yourself in the situation I was in where the money being paid in was NOT your salary or wage, they will NOT transfer this unless you tell them to separately!
A volatile conversation or ten later when I struggled to get someone who spoke English well enough to comprehend my point that I really didn't care HOW they organised things as long as they told me so I could take any other steps necessary! Their reply was 'we've always done it this way'! I intimated that whilst I was sure their systems were transparent and clear to the A&L employees, they were not obvious to me!
All now resolved and all charges cancelled but what a to do because there are too many oiks out there setting up systems and writing the detail with an inadequate ability to comprehend that communication is at best fraught and one cannot assume that the words leaving one persons mouth (or pen!) will mean the same to the recipient!
Rant over.:eek: :mad:

Extant

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Yes the intricacies of 'switching' are amazing! I went from LLoyds to Alliance and Leicester and luckily, chose for them NOT to close my LLoyds account, I would do it myself later.
All my DD's and SO's were switched EXCEPT the incoming money!

Huh? This has always been the case with account switching; we can't tell the people sending you money to change, you need to do that bit.

And I just sat and switched my direct debits myself when I changed between two accounts. Much easier. Most of them could be done online, and then the few that couldn't took maybe half an hour on the phone.

All done in an afternoon, no worries.

Miss_Teabag

Perhaps I misunderstood, but First Direct explained to me that they provide you with a form listing all your Direct Debits (which they get from your existing bank), which you check, sign and return to them. They then send it to all those companies you pay by Direct Debit. This worked for all companies I have Direct Debits with, apart from T-Mobile.

What is the point of a switching service if you have to do it yourself? More to the point, I wouldn't have minded if I had been told I had to do it myself, because I would have been more than happy to had I been informed that this was the only way for it to work. My issue is more with T-Mobile not informing me that they had new Direct Debit details for me, but that they would not use them without me personally verifying them, yet there was no way for me to know this.

taxi73

There a few companies like that .National insurance and Bannatynes gym are the same.Some companies will not change banks without speaking to the customer.Out of 30 DDs transferred these were the onlt two that didn't go through on a switching service.

Mikeyorks

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Huh? This has always been the case with account switching; we can't tell the people sending you money to change, you need to do that bit.

From Halifax .... as just one example!

If you want to enjoy the benefits of switching your bank account to us, let us do it for you.
We make switching bank accounts easy. All you have to do is sign two forms and our switching team will do the rest. We'll transfer all your standing orders, direct debits and regular payments ( such as your salary) to us. This will save you the time and effort it usually takes to switch bank accounts.

Not that I'd recommend it .... but most switching services offer the entity. Bit pointless otherwise

scott_lithgows

Good luck with the switching,I,m moving to Yorkshire BS from the soon to be renamed Bradford and Bingley,One phone call to wages and 23 first class letters for me though.
If T-mobile are giving you grief,there is always plenty of other mobile phone companies out there,perhaps you should remind them of that!
Good luck

Extant

Mikeyorks wrote: »

From Halifax .... as just one example!

Not that I'd recommend it .... but most switching services offer the entity. Bit pointless otherwise

Hmm, looks like things have changed. Based on what the Halifax forms include, it looks as though any banking doing this just writes to your company.

That said, though, as the bank has no direct control over your salary (as opposed to direct debits/standing orders), the responsibility ultimately lies with your employer, and I doubt that this would be covered under the Fairness Commitments of the BC.

Mikeyorks

BarclaysManager wrote: »

Hmm, looks like things have changed. Based on what the Halifax forms include, it looks as though any banking doing this just writes to your company.

Which is exactly what they do with DDs! The new Bank has no 'direct control' over Mandates filed with the old Bank. They're not transferable entities.

They get a list of DDs from the old Bank .... get you to endorse your approval ... then spray it out to the DD initiators for them to close the old mandates / open new ones.

As first para of post #4. But a very error prone process to entrust a 3rd party with.

Extant

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Which is exactly what they do with DDs! The new Bank has no 'direct control' over Mandates filed with the old Bank. They're not transferable entities.

They get a list of DDs from the old Bank .... get you to endorse your approval ... then spray it out to the DD initiators for them to close the old mandates / open new ones.

As first para of post #4. But a very error prone process to entrust a 3rd party with.

Direct debits are slightly different. The reason we make the fairness commitment is because we could refuse to provide a list of your regular payments, but we don't. We ultimately control your outgoing payments, but we do not control your incoming funds - we can provide you with a list of your payments, but we cannot provide you with a list of your receipts in the same way.

The process is different.

Cat695

WHy do people use this service?

it takes is 15 minutes of your time on the phone ringing round and changing your DD, why let a stranger do it for you?? and obviously as these threads show, mess it up...which I'm sure is not always the case.

can you really not spare 15 minutes out of your life to sort out your own finiances?