Santander recovering an indemnity claim

ripp0n

Hi

I have today received a letter from Santander stating that I am not entitled to a partial indemnity claim I made in August last year and that they will be debiting my account in 2 weeks time.

I made the indemnity claim on my gas companies instruction after they raised my bills too much.

The letter says that they are legally entitled to do this but not sure i believe them.

Could anyone offer some advise please?

Much appretiated

System

You could not have made an indemnity claim. You could have demanded your right under the direct debit guarantee to a full refund of a direct debit you considered to be erroneous. As far as I know, you could not have demanded a partial refund.

If you demanded a (full) refund, then Santander would have invoked the indemnity the gas company has to give its bank, so that Santander and the gas company's bank could reverse the direct debit payment.

If the gas company now believes it was after all in the right, it could now have asked its bank to challenge your invocation of the direct debit guarantee, and Santander, rather oddly in my opinion, could have decided it will appoint itself referee in this dispute, and charge you again. More transparently, the gas company could have contacted you direct and told you that it believes you owe it £x and it proposes to take this by the (presumably still existing) direct debit authority.

I suggest you ask Santander to explain exactly what they are doing and why. If they don't give an intelligible reply, tell them that they have no right, ever, to take any money from your account without your express or implied authority.