creative ideas for an elderly relative who "doesn't believe" in direct debits

jasonwatkins

believe me, i've tried for years to persuade her that direct debits are the way to go for paying bills and that they're quite safe but she won't have it.

she swears blind she doesn't want to give her "personal information" to "any old company" and just won't have them, so consequently pays through the nose with non-dd charges.

she's also very, very strongly against any form of credit as well so there's no chance of a visa card.

if anyone has any creative ideas to solve the problem then i'd be most grateful

I've suggested two things - one is to open a seperate basic account purely for DD's, so she can keep her main account private and just have this one as a sort of 'throwaway' account for bill paying.

the other one i'm thinking of suggesting is to see if a prepay visa card would work - if you can have DD's on those, she might go for it, considering you can usually top up at a paypoint.

I guess it would depend if the likes of BT, EDF e.t.c.. would set up DD's on a prepay account like that.

Any help or ideas most welcome .. thanks

Lokolo

You can get VISA debit cards which are free. These are not credit cards. Whats wrong with getting one of these?

Prepay cards are expensive and a waste of money.

freezspirit

Yep I have a similar problem with my dad with DD's and purchases over the internet. Although he is happy to pay for things on his credit card in shops etc. Take the bt line rental bill/ water/gas and electricity bills to the post office and pay them.

So alot of the DD's in the house I pay for, like sky and phone calls. I purchase the cat food online then he gives me a cheque for the amount.

It might be a generation thing. He like to be in charge of his finances and feels DD's and Standing Orders give others more control over his money.

thatsean

*some* companies will set up a recurring charge to a Visa or Mastercard, but given that there is no DD guarantee or even an easy way to cancel these then they aren't always the best - some suppliers charge extra for them too. So, given this, and as Lokolo says, they are expensive then this may not be a good option.

I'd go down the route of a separate basic account as the best way to get round this.

CLAPTON

how much per year is it costing her?

Dave101t

im 26 and i dont believe in direct debits.
simply take 10 minutes on a designated day to pay all your bills, and keep a tally on an excel spreadsheet. that way there are no 'payment increases' that may cripple your finances

goggle

I am also not "old" and do not like DDs
I will use standing orders as that is my authority to push £x to a certain company (who give ME their details) every month or whatever.
I do NOT use DDs where I must give my details to a company and instruct them to take as much as they like when they want to (they will NOT take it on a set date, they can vary the amountw ithout your authority as long as they have written & told you they are going to do it)

I would rather pay £10 extra here & there to know I am in control of my finances. Don't force the poor woman to do something she doesn't wnat to do!!

Oldernotwiser

Standing orders are definitely the way to go - all the advantages of DDs and none of the disadvantages.

Extant

She's clearly insane. Have her declared as such and seize control of her finances.

Or, let her pay the slightly higher charges if she so chooses too - some people (myself included) would rather pay that extra £1.25 or whatever it may be to keep complete control of their finances.

Alternatively - tell her you'll sort her bills, pay them from your account by DDR, and then have her re-imburse you.

olly300

I don't use direct debits either particularly for gas and electricity.

If the elderly relative lives on her own you should look at all different tariffs for gas and electricity as some of them don't require you to pay by DD to get a cheap enough charge.

Water and council tax don't charge you less for paying by DD which leaves the telephone.

If the telephone is the only bill she is losing out on then it won't kill her not to pay by DD.

jasonwatkins

freezspirit wrote: »

It might be a generation thing. He like to be in charge of his finances and feels DD's and Standing Orders give others more control over his money.

I think this is a lot of what my mum thinks actually. I spoke to her about it yesterday and she's reasonably open to the idea of a basic bank account purely for bill paying so I might go down that road a little further and see how she feels. She pays £4.50 a quarter on her BT bill for non-dd and I think it's similar for Gas and Electric as well.

BarclaysManager wrote: »

She's clearly insane. Have her declared as such and seize control of her finances.

That's my mum you're talking about

Anyway, thanks for everyone's response as well.