would you give your sort code and bank account number at the door?

Pollycat

would you give your sort code and bank account number at the door?

It's just a different version of those high street chuggers.

They also ask for these details.

To answer your question, 'no, I wouldn't give out my details' because if I wanted to donate to a specific charity I'd arrange it myself, not react to someone knocking on my door or approaching me in the street.

They were probably 'edgy' because they were anticipating your reaction when they asked for your bank details.

My standard response to anyone who asks if they can 'have a minute of my time' is to say 'if you are going to ask for my name, address, telephone number or bank details, the answer is no you can't'.

soolin

arcon5 wrote: »

That's not true. Remember what happened when Jeremy Clarkson gave his bank details out? In a newspaper column wasn't it?

In the wrong hands fraudsters could abuse the DD feature in order to obtain services. It's likely op would be refunded but not sure how the bank would react knowing op hadn't taken reasonable care of these details.
Just because its on her card and cheque book doesn't change this - these things still should be protected from access by third parties.

Yes I do remember, the direct debit guarantee did exactly what it was supposed to do and protected him.

bris

soolin wrote: »

Yes I do remember, the direct debit guarantee did exactly what it was supposed to do and protected him.

Exactly, thats what the DD guarantee is for.

Those details are perfectly safe and I would rather give those details to perfect strangers to get paid by BT rather than paypal any day.

Viberduo

soolin wrote: »

Yes I do remember, the direct debit guarantee did exactly what it was supposed to do and protected him.

Some banks are a pain though, once when the bank sent a new card to an old address(all their fault actually) the new tenant used the card to buy things then used my direct debit details to get mobile phones.

The bank refused to refund me until they investigated it.

bod1467

My wife is treasurer of the local school PTA. At times she has had real issues getting the bank to reverse a debit made by the RAC ... I mean, why would a PTA even need RAC cover? (It's happened at least twice - in Sept 2010 then again in Sept 2012. But the RAC didn't make a debit in 2011, so she was really surprised to see it appear again in 2012. Interestingly it didn't appear in Sept 2013 either - I wonder if they'll try again this year?). In 2010 the bank were reasonably OK about it - in 2012 she had to cajole them for over 6 months, and threaten court action, before they pulled their fingers out!

So - yes, DD guarantee does work. But some banks can be real barstewards to pull into line and make them do what they are LEGALLY OBLIGED to do!

soolin

Viberduo wrote: »

Some banks are a pain though, once when the bank sent a new card to an old address(all their fault actually) the new tenant used the card to buy things then used my direct debit details to get mobile phones.

The bank refused to refund me until they investigated it.

That sounds more like a continuous payment authority. The direct debit guarantee is absolute..once you notice a direct debit set up that you do not recognise you can cancel it.

SuperHan

bod1467 wrote: »

My wife is treasurer of the local school PTA. At times she has had real issues getting the bank to reverse a debit made by the RAC ... I mean, why would a PTA even need RAC cover? (It's happened at least twice - in Sept 2010 then again in Sept 2012. But the RAC didn't make a debit in 2011, so she was really surprised to see it appear again in 2012. Interestingly it didn't appear in Sept 2013 either - I wonder if they'll try again this year?). In 2010 the bank were reasonably OK about it - in 2012 she had to cajole them for over 6 months, and threaten court action, before they pulled their fingers out!

Threatening with the Ombudsman usually does the trick. The bank will be charged for every complaint upheld (and with Barclay's I believe the customer gets paid for all complaints), and so will be much more likely to back down to avoid the charges.

That said, that is providing it is a direct debit that is being set up, and not a card charge or something similar.

grai

thanks for all the replies I thought I was being over cautious and was expecting every response to say "what Century are you living in?"

so the ambiguous amount of conflicting answers about this makes me happy I erred on the side of caution

I think charities should set up a system where the door callers are the first step and you could later be contacted by your bank who has been asked to ok the donation with you

something that feels a little more legit

of the door collectors should save their own time and start by saying "would you be comfortable giving details which are perfectly safe"

it feels like these door collectors who were very pleasant are missing a link somewhere with the charity organisers that would make their job easier

I could tell the bank and sort code was a clincher for them so I obviously wasn't the only person to get edgy at the last minute because they held their breath as they asked and were really !!!!ed off when I said no