Unrecognised Direct Debit on my account??

foreign_correspondent

Hi,
Went online the other day to check my bank account, and had a look at my direct debits. I appear to have paid £185 to Mid Devon District Council on the 1st of november, but..I have never lived in devon or had any transactions with their council!!
I have emailed the bank (smile, who have generally been excellent, btw!) asking what the transaction was and they replied saying it looked like a council tax payment.
I have only ever paid council tax in Nottinghamshire, so this is a mystery to me. I have let the bank know this and am awaiting their reply.
In the meantime, has anyone got any ideas how it could have got there, or what it might be for? I am puzzled!
thanks!

iceicebaby

Cancel the direct debit. Also ask your bank to indemnify the paynment (if they havent already) which will return the money into your account, Under the Direct Debit Guarantee they are obliged to do this if an error has been made.

It could be that a person who legitimately wants to pay this company has quoted their bank details over the phone and the person inputting the information has either mis heard a number or has entered a number incorrectly. It could be that the other persons account number may be only 1 digit different to yours. I know mistales like this shouldn't happen but they do, especially as direct debits are now allowed to be set up over the phone.

Don't worry you will get your money back via the indemnity and make sure the dd is cancelled to stop any future occurences.

Incidentally, is it a joint account as the other joint account holder could have set this dd up?

let us know how you get on.

debster369

Yep, the DD indemnity scheme will see you OK if it's not really your DD, but in the mean time if you're unsure as to whether this is legitimate or not ask your bank to give you the reference number and phone number for the originator and give them a call to find out what it's for. I would have thought the bank would issue you with this information the minute you queried the DD.

foreign_correspondent

thankyou! after a couple of emails to smile they have sorted it and returned the money to my account! phew!