Direct Debit Indemnity Claims

premierfella

rickknight wrote: »

Hi,
I recently mad a purchase on eBay and paid via Paypal (Direct Debit from my bank account). The item I received was no good and I sent it back (seller confirmed receipt) but I haven't received a refund and the seller ignores my mails.

No, as the Direct Debit counterparty is PayPal and the payment that was taken was authorised by you to PayPal.

You should be raising this as a dispute with PayPal, who (I believe) are usually very receptive to refunding the purchaser in such circumstances and debiting the refund to the seller's account.

Aimez

My story is that it appear when I changed phone companies in May 2009 it looks like from what others are saying here in the same situation as me whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/02088388755
that this company supercoverinsurance.com/contact-us.php have been sold my details and set up a direct debit without my knowledge. I have no emails, letters to say I signed up for this.
My bank have cancelled the DD and put in an indemnity claim and I got back one month payment but in total they have taken about £170!
Can I get the rest of this back the guy at the bank said, oh they cannot be fraudulent as you have to be vetted to be able to use the DD system. What should I do now do they need to prove the DD in some was is legit? I want my money back, like other I feel embarrassed I never spotted it before.

jonesMUFCforever

You can get the whole amount back under the D/D indemnity scheme.
Go back and complain.

Aimez

Okay should I call the company taking the money and complain first or not bother and just go back to the bank then they gave me a reference number for the call.

jonesMUFCforever

The bank should refund you within 24 hours - if you did not owe any money to the company why bother to contact them at all?

olly300

Aimez wrote: »

Okay should I call the company taking the money and complain first or not bother and just go back to the bank then they gave me a reference number for the call.

And don't be fobbed off by the person serving you in the bank.

The reason banks try and fob you off is that they refund you before they get the money back, and sometimes they don't get the money back at all.

Aimez

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The bank should refund you within 24 hours - if you did not owe any money to the company why bother to contact them at all?

They have but only one month payment. The bank don't seem to believe me partly because the DD has been set up so long and the bank said companies that use DD are vetted so cannot be fraudulent.
I can see loads of other had the same thing happen to them from this company. Guess I have to call up and have another word with them then.

Found this example that seems similar to mine on FSA website;

When withdrawing money from his account via a cash machine, Mr M was very surprised to find he had become overdrawn. He checked his bank statement and found that two direct debits had been set up on his account without his knowledge.

The bank looked into this and found that a fraudster had somehow obtained Mr M’s bank details and set up direct debits to repay a car loan and take out car insurance. The firms that were taking the payments for the loan and the insurance were both members of AUDDIS (Automated Direct Debit Instruction Service). This meant they could establish direct debit instructions without needing to send paper instructions to Mr M’s bank.

In the past, a bank would always have received instructions to set up a direct debit in the form of a document signed by the customer. But increasingly, firms are carrying out these transactions electronically. This saves time and helps reduce costs but makes it less easy to spot a fraudulent instruction.

Although Mr M’s account number and the bank’s sort code were correct, the fraudster had given an incorrect account name. This should have alerted the firm that something was not quite right and it should have made further enquiries before proceeding.

The bank readily accepted that, in accordance with the direct debit guarantee, it should refund the direct debits incorrectly paid. But it refused to compensate Mr M for the additional losses he claimed to have suffered. He had a savings account with the firm, which fed his current account. He wanted to claim for loss of interest on the money that would have remained in his savings account if the firm had not paid out via the fraudulent direct debits.

He also said that since his earnings came from abroad, the firm’s error meant he had to make extra transfers from his foreign bank account to keep his account with the firm in credit. The unfavourable exchange rate and the foreign bank’s charges meant that these transfers were costly.

When the firm to refused to compensate Mr M for these additional losses, he came to us.

complaint settled
Mr M argued that the bank should cover these losses under the direct debit guarantee. He said its purpose was to protect account holders who had set up direct debits from mistakes in the way they were operated.

In this case, as Mr M had not authorised a direct debit, the direct debit guarantee was not strictly relevant. However, after we discussed the position with the firm, it offered Mr M a goodwill payment to cover his consequential losses.

Aimez

Phoned bank again today they told me again to call the company, there reason for not refunding back is that I should have spotted in on a statement. I pushed the guy on the D guarantee and he came back to me saying give them a name and number or someone at the company I speak to and they can try and give me back 6 months payments.

Bit like this other example on FSA site;

For some years, Mr and Mrs C had a joint bank account, out of which they paid a number of direct debits. But eventually they decided to set up their own separate accounts and they divided their direct debits between these two accounts.

Mrs C frequently shopped at a large department store for which she had a store card. The direct debit for this card should have been transferred to her new account but, in error, the bank transferred it to her husband’s account.

Mr C remained unaware of this for ten years until, after falling out with the bank over another matter, he took a close look at the direct debits on his account. He then found that he had unwittingly been funding all his wife’s spending at the store for the past ten years.

Mr and Mrs C both blamed the bank for the error and Mr C complained to the firm, saying that under the terms of the direct debit guarantee it was responsible. When the firm rejected the complaint, Mr C came to us.

complaint rejected
We were unable to deal with the complaint because it was outside our time limits. For us to consider a complaint, the event complained about must have happened within six years, or within three years from when the customer ought reasonably to have been aware that there was cause for complaint. In this instance, the bank’s failure to transfer the direct debit correctly had happened more than six years ago.

But even if this had not been the case, we would not have upheld the complaint. The payments had been coming out of Mr C’s account for many years and he received statements every month, so he had ample opportunity to spot the mistake and notify the bank. In the circumstances, we did not think it reasonable to require the firm to refund the payments as he had requested.

I had a go, politely at the company who took this money asking for proof this was set up. they are saying it was set up in the independent phone shop I set up the contract with. They have passed on my bank details so he is blaming them. Far as I am concerned they are taking my money and they are responsible. The phone shop got taken over my Phones for you so I cannot follow this up!!!
The company who took the money are supposed to call me back within 48 hours as I wanted to speak to a manager, been 24hrs heard nothing yet!

Yozer_2

Would be great if anyone could advise where I stand. I joined my local gym in January. It is not a one year contract and you can freeze your membership or so I was told. Anyway, I paid joining fee and first month by card. I set up direct debit but asked to freeze for two months due to work commitments. Having just checked my account they have still taken the last two months direct debit out even though they shouldn't have. I didn't cancel the direct debit with my bank as didn't think it would be necessary. The gym are claiming to have no record of my request to freeze so refuse to refund. I still have
A copy of the letter i sent them but does anyone have any advice on where I stand?

YorkshireBoy

Yozer wrote: »

...does anyone have any advice on where I stand?

In the absence of written confirmation from them, or 'signed for'/recorded delivery etc, then all you can do is appeal for some goodwill.

And, as I'm sure you're now aware, 2-3 months is far too long an interval for checking your bank statements. Have you considered online/telephone banking?