Direct Debit guarantee ?

emmaBZ

can a bank take back payments totaling £1300 from a current account to pay towards a loan without the account holders being informed ? would this be covered under direct debit guarantee ?

Bossyboots

If you have the loan with the same company as the current account and you have missed payments then yes, they can take the money from the current account to cover the loan. This should be in the t&cs but the banks have the right of offset in any event.

The loan and the current account do of course have to be in the same names as each other.

MarkyMarkD

Bossyboots wrote:

The loan and the current account do of course have to be in the same names as each other.

I don't believe you are quite right there, BB. Surely if any of the names are the same, on either account, they have the right of offset?

In other words, they can take money from a joint current account for a single named loan, or vice versa.

Bossyboots

Sorry, I could have explained better. You are quite right. It made sense when I typed it but I can see now it is not clear.

regularsaver1

It would not have been taken as a direct debit, but an internal transfer, so no

and seeing as a DDI is given to you and then the bank claims it back, if they reject it the £1300 will only be debited again

Mikeyorks

emmaBZ wrote:

would this be covered under direct debit guarantee ?

No - because no 'error' has been made ... and that's a fundamental part of successfully invoking the guarantee.

amandathepanda

It isn't covered under the direct dbit indemnity scheme because it isn't a direct debit, it is a standing order/internal transfer.

pfpf

Rather than start a new thread can i just tag onto the end of this one??

i only need one knowledgeable answer anyway



my sister had a DD payment taken from her account for £80.00. this is not the normal monthly DD figure, it was taken on a different day of the month, and the company involved, Pipex(some of you may know of this companies recent business practices)gave no notice/reason whatsoever for the payment.

ok, issues with the company are one thing, but my main point:

the £80.00 payment took my sister OD which she didn't know about for about 3 days. in that time other items to her account have meant she has incurred £108.00 in charges.

when she went into the bank(Abbey)they told her they couldn't refund her DD, she had to take it up with Pipex

in the end she rang Abbey HO and got the 3, yes 3 DD's that pipex had setup on her account canceled, we will sort that issue later.

however, again Abbey said they couldn't refund the £80.00 straight away but they could put in a "claim"...they would NOT do ANYTHING about the charges, thats "between you and Pipex".

anyway today Abbey have indeed refunded the £80.00 DD, but say they WILL NOT reverse ANY charges.

is it just me or are aspects of some, if not all of the above just plain wrong? i thought the DD guarantee was very clear?? regarding the charges, there's no surprise people are reclaiming them (which i personally am against). i will be helping my sister from today start the reclaiming procedure if need be.

i would just like more knowledgeable peoples view on whats gone on.

thank you.

PBA

This is unfortunately correct, and is a flaw in the direct debit guarantee. If a company takes a DD that you haven't agreed to then your bank can claim it back on your behalf. However this right does not extend to any charges you may have incurred as a result of the DD. Assuming your DD indemnity claim was upheld I wouldn't see you'd have any problem getting the charges refunded by the company involved, although this would potentially take a while.

JohalaReewi

pfpf wrote:

...
when she went into the bank(Abbey)they told her they couldn't refund her DD, she had to take it up with Pipex
...
however, again Abbey said they couldn't refund the £80.00 straight away but they could put in a "claim".

Very naughty banks like to claim this but the direct debit guarantee is very specific and it is the BANK which has to make a FULL and IMMEDIATE [within 24 hours] refund of any DD in error.

BACS have a help line and used to be very helpful in getting banks to toe the line but last time I used them, i just got an unhelpful help person who said it was between me and the bank to sort out.

Looks like the direct debit guarantee scheme is becoming a bit of a farce and banks are paying lip service to it (or even less if they can).