Taking money without my permission

tommk4

Evening, I've just got a quick question about whether or not a company can debit my account without my direct permission and without a direct debit, i'll keep it as simple as possible to save your time.

I am self employed and recently put an advert for my company in a local directory, all the charges for this were explained to me and i agreed to place my advert in the directory monthly for 12 months (as this worked out much cheaper than doing it for a single month).

At the time I was asked to set up a direct debit over the phone, however, i couldnt find anythng with my account number and sort code and didnt know them off by heart, so i made a single payment, for the first month only, by giving them my card details over the phone. I said that i would call them back at a later date to set uo a direct debit.

However, of course, i forgot to do this and the next month they used my card details to take the payment from my account without asking for my permission! So what I want to know is, are they allowed to do this? Do they have the right to debit my account using the card details they kept on file without asking for my permission again?

Any help would be much appreciated, cheers, Tom

mc33033

Hi Tom
In this capacity you aren't a consumer, its a trade transaction. You entered a contract for 12 months and failed to keep to the original payment terms so they billed your card for money that you owe them - if you are really concerned about this then write to them giving them the account details for a direct debit and advising that you wish them to remove your card details from their system and not use them again. That way you might stand a chance with the bank if they do try using them again.

hollydays

On the other hand,complaining might cost you more if you breached your contract too.

tommk4

Right ok, what i didnt mention (to save time) origionally was that they broke the contract before i did, i wont go into how.

Also you havn't really answered my question, which is: Can they legally take money from my account without a direct debit in place and without my permission?