Cancelling direct debit without cancelling contract

MBLTd

Hello

I called a well-known mobile phone company last year to cancel my phone insurance. At the time they said they couldn't cancel it as their systems were down and I would have to cancel the DD through my bank - they gave me a reference number for this - but I forgot to cancel it (a lot going on). I only realised last week (as I say, I have a lot going on) that I've been charged the insurance for nearly a year. The mobile phone company say they have a call logged from me saying I want to cancel but for me to go to my bank to cancel instead. I didn't think you could cancel a contract through cancelling the DD - surely the contract with the supplier is still be valid if you don't cancel it with them?

Do I put this down to stupid tax or do I have a case?

Best wishes
MB

~Beanie~

Nope - when I got my last contract phone last year, it came with the insurance already and the first month was free. It said that if I wanted to cancel the insurance, all I needed to do was cancel the direct debit with my bank (which I did).

As they obviously have a call logged which states that you want to cancel, perhaps you could try appealling to their better nature? At the end of the day though, you should be keeping an eye on your bank account and should have noticed that you were still paying it!

MBLTd

I know, I know - wrist slapped! Thanks

forgotmyname

You called them last year? And now want a refund?

You called to cancel and were told to cancel the DD payment.

You didnt so they assumed you had changed your mind and continued the cover.

Its taken 11 months to notice you didnt cancel?

somethingcorporate

A lesson learned unfortunately.

fred7777

MBLTd wrote: »

Do I put this down to stupid tax or do I have a case?

Usually you would expect to cancel a contract with the other party involved rather than cancel a payment in order to cancel a contract.
In some cases simply cancelling the payment method would lead the other party to pursue you for the payments detailed in the contract.

Unfortunately with your direct debit only you can instruct the bank to set it up or cancel it so some companies simply cancel when the direct debit stops. They can word their contract to say it stops when payment stops and use the stopping of the DD as a trigger to cancel the contract.

You may be able to chase the company for a refund as you informed them that you wished to cancel so the extra payments are in error.
It depends on what their terms and conditions say about cancellation?

fluffnutter

Another point that might be in the OP's favour. The company said they couldn't cancel because 'their systems were down'. As well as advising the OP to cancel the DD, why then, didn't they also take a note of the call and cancel when their systems were back up?

FunnySaving

I would have thought that something like insurance would be hard to cancel retrospectively as you have been covered for the year now and hence have had the theoretical benefit of the service.

tomwakefield

fluffnutter wrote: »

Another point that might be in the OP's favour. The company said they couldn't cancel because 'their systems were down'. As well as advising the OP to cancel the DD, why then, didn't they also take a note of the call and cancel when their systems were back up?

Giving the company the benefit of the doubt, they could believe that, since they advised the OP to cancel the direct debit to cancel the contract, and they didn't, the OP had changed their mind.

Pushing it a bit, probably, but it could be seen to be legitimate.

Quentin

fred7777 wrote: »

Unfortunately with your direct debit only you can instruct the bank to set it up or cancel it so some companies simply cancel when the direct debit stops.

No, this is not how the DD system works at all. Although you can instruct the bank to cancel a dd operating on your account, you cannot set it up yourself (the merchant sets it up), and the merchant can instruct your bank to cancel it.

(You may be thinking of "standing order" payments which the account holder is completely in charge of, and can set them up and must cancel them themselves if they no longer wish to pay by that method)

bod1467

I echo those thoughts.