Can someone answer my basic questions?

Angelic

I know I should know the answers to my following questions given my age but..I don't:o

david78

With a Direct Debit, the company can take money from your account at any time but only under the terms of the payment arrangement you made with them.

You can't change the amount of a Direct Debit. Only the company who you set the payment instruction up can do that.

Having an unused overdraft is good. It is not debt until you use it.

somethingcorporate

They have 6 years to chase the payment.

Edit: Whether it comes from your account or not does not change the fact you owe the money. So even if you close your account they can still invoice you.

somethingcorporate

Angelic wrote: »

I don't owe anyone money so there's nothing to chase.

Angelic wrote: »

I bought an item and the company haven't debited my account yet.

Can you clarify what you mean then? If you haven't paid after "buying" an item then you owe for it.

david78

Angelic wrote: »

So the only way to change the amount I give is via writing to the company?

You can usually give instructions over the phone or online depending on what the payment is for and who the company is.

The company will change the payment automatically if they need to take more or less so you don't usually need to do anything.

I think somethingcorporate is refering to the recent purchase which has not been debited from your account yet.

david78

If the DDs are for variable amounts set by you, you have to change the amount by giving an instruction to the payee.

hermante

Angelic wrote: »

It's a voluntary DD so up to me how much I donate.

Maybe it's just my bank that won't allow such changes online. Very annoying !

No bank allows you to change a DD amount, for DDs that you "control", you have to do it via the company / charity who will then debit that amount from your bank. Standing orders are controlled by the account holder through their bank.

somethingcorporate

DD is merely the payment method - whether a company sets one up or not does not extinguish your requirement to pay for it (whatever it is that you have agreed to pay for).

Gromitt

Angelic wrote: »

One company has written and will take payment on the 19th , the other conpany hasn't been in touch at all. I just wondered why as i'm used to buying a product , receiving the email conformation and the payment being taken.

If you paid by card they'll have an authorisation token on your account and can claim the funds when they decide to (within reason). If they forget, they can send you an invoice upto 6 years later.

If they have not claimed the funds within 6 years, then you need not pay them.

Mikeyorks

You need to weigh the convenience against any perceived heightened risk? If you use their '1 click' facility (eg buying kindle books via the device) there's no option. I tend to store data with Amazon and M&S .. but decline everywhere else.

All my fraud has come from use of cards at garages and one instance with PayPal. In the latter case almost certainly someone within my Email provider selling data. It hadn't clicked with me at that point that any site where your logon is your full email address - you must have different passwords! But no fraud from stored card data with blue chip companies.

Mikeyorks

Angelic wrote: »

Sorry to hear that ?

It wasn't really a problem .... PayPal were really good and alerted me to 2 purchases in transit, they were suspicious of, and stopped them before they were finalised. But I'm still bemused as to how someone in Korea was using my account from the US. Made me feel quite 'worldly'.

Your email provider sold on passwords? Or have I misunderstood

Someone with access to that data. PayPal rang me very early a.m on a Bank Holiday - I couldn't boot up my PC quickly enough and they neutralised my account - whilst sending me an Email to links to both re-activate the account and formalise a statement that the purchases were not mine.
Quickly realised, when I went to access it, that I'd had Emails opened in both my Inbox and Spam box overnight. And fairly quickly dawned that the folders holding stored Emails gave some insight as to where I shopped / had accounts. Took a further 10 mins to realise that every account where the ID is my email address .... all have the same password as my Email account. Pretty stupid? But there's no doubt that the 'in' ..... was via my Email account.

Needless to say - all the passwords were varied before the morning was out.