Help, Barclays prob

sharry71

Am raising this on behalf of a friend, who has recently become unemployed a little while ago, so to avoid any bank charges he rang barclays and cancelled all his direct debits.

But 4 weeks later swift reinstated their direct debit and he was charged as no money in the account while he was awaiting JSA. He called the bank straight away and charges were refunded and direct debit cancelled again.

Low and behold if they haven't done it again today (the day his JSA is due to go in too) so he will now loose £30 straight away in charges, but Barclays are saying he has never called and cancelled his direct debits.

Is there anything he can do, how was he to know they would set up the direct debit again.

Many thanks

dc110

Is it possible the DD was cancelled and it was reinstated again by the originator?

Has he spoken to the originator to arrange another method of payment or cancelled the instruction with them?

sharry71

The bank say they can't cancel direct debits, and yes it must have been set up again by the company, guess he will need to ring every month and keep cancelling it, as they have ignored the letter he sent to the company cancelling.

dc110

I think what the bank meant was that if they cancel a direct debit they cannot do anything to stop the originator reinstating it again.

If the originator wont cancel it maybe its because he hasnt arranged any other method of paying?

Mightyowl

Yeah what dc110 said!

I had this problem with Natwest a few years ago, rang to cancel a direct debit and thought nothing more of it until the letter came through stating i had acquired a bank charge for returning this dd unpaid! Got on the phone and was told you need to cancel it at both ends not just the banks..

dc110

Yep

Cancel it with the bank (and only the bank) and this will trigger an electronic message to the originator that the DD instruction has been cancelled.

Said originator receives this and says "hang on, we are still owed some money here"

and promptly reinstates it.

Perfectly within their rights to do so.