Direct debit guarantees - help!

Jasper234

New to this, so please bear with me!!

In September last year I changed the direct debit details with my car finance company, to take the payment from our joint account. Each month since then, they've taken the money from the wrong account, and three times they've acknowledged it and assured me it wouldn't happen again. Each month I've had bills bounce because cash is in the wrong place.

The bank have now said that they can stop it and have amended their system, but today's post has another £24 in fees for bounced direct debits as the payment has been incorrectly taken again. Incidentally, the bank can see that the finance company cancelled the DD but then took it from the wrong account two days later!!!!!

Question is: what (if anything) can I get from the finance company under the direct debit guarantee scheme or anything else? Someone's told me I can claim the payments back and the finance company will have to stand them, but that sounds a bit far fetched to me.

Can anyone help??

jonesMUFCforever

The direct debit guarantee only gets money back wrongly deducted from your bank account.
It does not in any way mean you are entitled to 'keep' repayments wrongly taken from the wrong account in this case.

I think a letter of complaint to the finance company is due here and see if they are under the jurisdiction of the FOS.

System

As jones etc says, the finance company is entitled to the correct monthly payments. When they took them from the wrong account, you were entitled to an immediate reversal of the wrong debits by your bank, and the finance company should then have re-claimed the correct amount from the correct account, and not attempted to charge any late fee or additional interest, because the (minor) delay was their fault.

Assuming the finance company has now got the correct amounts, you are now entitled to damages for their messups. You are entitled to expect that they will conduct your account with reasonable care and skill. You can write to them, politely but firmly, demanding
(a) obviously, that they pay you any bank or other charges you have incurred because of their errors;
(b) compensation for your wasted time and stress. Demand, for example, £100.

If you do not get a satisfactory response, send a LETTER BEFORE ACTION stating that you will make a Money Claim in the County Court if they do not pay up by a stated date. You can make such a Money Claim on-line. (Google Money Claim on Line.) You will have to pay a modest court fee, but you add this to your claim, and when you win, the finance company will have to pay this court fee as well as your losses and damages.

[Deleted User]

It seems to me that as an example of blatant question begging, the direct debit guarantee is meaningless.

jonesMUFCforever

jack_pott wrote: »

It seems to me that as an example of blatant question begging, the direct debit guarantee is meaningless.

Please elaborate.
Today at work was a hard slog and I could do with a laugh

ICan'tStandIt

jack_pott wrote: »

It seems to me that as an example of blatant question begging, the direct debit guarantee is meaningless.

It is not meaningless.

If you ask your bank to cancel a DD and they do not do that and money still goes out of your account, they have to refund you as soon as you discover their error.

The bank refund you from their own funds and claim the money back from the company.

What can be a problem is a member of bank staff knowing what to do when this happens. Often they ask the customer to call the company who the DD was for and the company send them back to the bank....and so it goes on....

This is often despite bank staff beautifully reading out the DD set-up script when setting-up DDs for their own products, but not actually knowing what it means.

I don't think that the DD Guarantee helps Jasper though.

Ferrer

I can't bear with you. I can even live with you

[Deleted User]

ICan'tStandIt wrote: »

It is not meaningless.

If you ask your bank to cancel a DD and they do not do that and money still goes out of your account, they have to refund you as soon as you discover their error.

What if the bank denies that you told them to cancel?
What if the debit is a retailers error?

talana

jack_pott wrote: »

What if the debit is a retailers error?

Whether the error lies with the bank or the originator, doesn't matter. Guarantee still applies.

What if the bank denies that you told them to cancel?

You have to put it in writing. You then get proof of delivery, they can't deny receiving it. Problem solved.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/27/27-directdebit-guarantee.htm

[Deleted User]

The "guarantee" says:

"If an error is made........you are entitled to a full and immediate refund"

and

"If you receive a refund you are not entitled to you must pay it back"

If both parties agree that there has been an error then there is no dispute in the first place. If they don't agree, then the guarantee simply begs the question: has there been an error and are you entitled to a refund.

Without the guarantee you are entitled to refund if there has been an error.
With the guarantee you are entitled to refund if there has been an error.

The guarantee makes no difference, doesn't resolve the dispute, and is meaningless. The dispute is only resolved when both parties come to agree about whether there's been an error or not, an no "guarantee" can change that.