Direct debit error

JK51

Hi

I have recently realised that money has continued to be taken from my bank account for months AFTER I had written to cancel my gym membership. Can I reclaim this or do I have no rights as I should have spotted that the company had continued to take payments myself? I know the gym received my letter to cancel my membership as they stopped writing to me to tell me about special events etc at the gym as soon as I cancelled my membership. The reason I didn't spot the error until very recently is because the name of the company the gym membership is paid to is very similar to the name of the company I pay insurance to, so I simply didn't realise these gym membership payments were still being made. Do I have to simply accept that this is my fault as I should have spotted the error earlier or do you think I can make a claim against the gym to have money returned to me as THEY failed to stop taking direct debit payments from my account after I had written to them to cancel. Thanks so much for your help!
Jane

agrinnall

I'm sure you'll get plenty of people saying you should indeed have spotted it earlier, but you didn't so let's move on from that.

How many months has this been going on? I'm not sure if there is a limit to how far back you can go with a claim using the Direct Debit Guarantee, but I'd certainly contact your bank and make that your first option. And get the DD cancelled with them (but be aware that the gym could reactivate it if you don't do the next step).

You should also follow it up with the gym. It doesn't sound like they confirmed to you that your membership had ceased, just that they stopped writing to you, so you are on potentially slightly dodgy ground. But at least as a first step you should write to them, explaining that you cancelled but they continued to take payments, and get them to confirm that the payments were taken by mistake and that they have now cancelled the DD.

If you have any difficulty with either of those then you should come back for more suggestions on how to take things further. The one assumption I have made is that you were actually entitled to cancel the membership when you did; if you weren't then you probably still have a contract in place that has to run its course.

MamaMoo_2

Make a list of all the dates the DD has been taken since cancellation. Phone your bank and tell them you would like them to invoke the DD guarantee and reverse them all. The time limit for doing this is six years, or within three years from when the customer ought reasonably to have been aware that there was cause for complaint, so you're well within the time frames if it has just been several months.

JK51

Yes I cancelled it after the 12 months minimum time. I never thought of contacting my bank to invoke the DD guarantee. I will try this and write to the gym to make a proper complaint. I would have spotted it sooner if it had said on my statement ' blah blah gym', but the payment was made to a none-descript finance company so I simply never realised I was still actually paying for the gym.... Feel such a twit for not twigging. I will try those suggestions and see how I get on!

unholyangel

JK51 wrote: »

Yes I cancelled it after the 12 months minimum time. I never thought of contacting my bank to invoke the DD guarantee. I will try this and write to the gym to make a proper complaint. I would have spotted it sooner if it had said on my statement ' blah blah gym', but the payment was made to a none-descript finance company so I simply never realised I was still actually paying for the gym.... Feel such a twit for not twigging. I will try those suggestions and see how I get on!

Some gyms will tell you that you have to serve notice of cancellation to the finance company, not the gym. I believe the courts disagree as it was raised in ashbourne v OFT and found to be an unfair term.

If you do have any problems with them, come back and let us know and someone will be able to help you out