Direct Debit Pain

Hyp3rion

My girlfriend took out a buy no pay later deal on some computer equipment in 2007. She believes the forms were filled out correctly but something has clearly gone wrong.

Once the pay later deal had reached the end of its time direct debits were being taken but not from her account. She did not realize that the driect debits being paid to the Edge card account were not comming from her account and she was only made aware of the problem when she had a letter through stating one direct debit had failed. Instead of setting up another DD she set up a satnding order and thought nothing of it.

Now the Edge card have had all of the DD payments reclaimed by the bank leaving my girlfriend with a huge balance to pay.
Interest has been paid on these payments the first time around and now they are going to incur more.
We are not sure if the DD error is something that they have done or she has done.
What can she do in this situation? There is no problem with her paying the payments but it does not seem fair that she may be being penalised due to an error that they may have made.

McKneff

So whose account were they coming out of then.

Ask to see the original paperwork, there may have been an error on the bank account no. If she has filled in the wrong account number she is probably liable.

Moggles_2

Buy-now-pay-later schemes are okay, provided that you budget to clear your borrowings before the interest kicks in. Having signed this agreement, your girlfriend really should have noted (calendar, diary, computer, knot in hanky) when payment was due. Interest charges - even without this added complication - are usually hefty.

I would complain and request that charges are reduced to the level she would have incurred had the payments been debited to her account, as agreed.

Meanwhile, I'd concentrate on paying off as much as possible each month. If she has rainy day savings, so much the better. From feedback here, these issues are seldom resolved quickly. Clearing this debt ASAP will reduce the interest she pays, whatever the outcome.

Hyp3rion

We are not sure where the payments have been comming from, hopefully whoever has been paying it has not been put under any financial burden due to it, luckily they have managed to reclaim all the money that was taken.
I will write to the company and ask to see the direct debit paper work, if it still exists, as this may be the only way of finding out where the mistake was made. Are the obliged by law to present this information should i request it?