Had money taken from your account without permission?

xx-Scientist-xx

Archi_Bald wrote: »

Given that errors of the kind you have described rarely ever happen, there is no justification for implementing a vastly expensive solution.

I'm not sure about this. Do you have evidence that errors like this happen rarely or that implementing such a simple solution would be vastly expensive?

I'd rather take precautions than simply hope that mistakes won't happen or dismiss them when they do.

robatwork

preveleigh wrote: »

I applied for a 30 day Free trial for CreditExpert access with Experian. They asked for some payment details to confirm my identity ONLY. During the trial I found that the information and access was not all that great and so wouldn't be worth paying for ongoing.
I phoned up Experian and cancelled any further access before the end of the 30 days. I was also suspicious that this would default to opt me in and charge me.

This also happened to me with Experian.

I am a long time user of this forum and think of myself as reasonably financially shrewd, so am well aware of CPAs.

I knew I was signing up to one with Experian, and cancelled it shortly after signing up and getting the info I wanted.

They didn't cancel and I went through the same charade as this poster - the irony of having this issue with a credit reference agency hardly kept me smiling on the inside through the whole process.....

SailorSam

Did anyone see Paul Lewis on Bbc Breakfast. I switched the Tv on just as he was finishing so never heard the full story, maybe it will be on his lunchtime R4 Moneybox show.
But from what i heard he seemed to be talking about the likes of hotels taking cash from a card you had to hand in when you register. It seems a way to get around this is to have a spare card which isn't 'live' just to register, then pay with your real card before you leave. They can't go back after you've gone home and take more.
Did anyone see the full story ?

Maat

I had my home buildings and contents insurance with Asda one year but, being a good Moneysaver, I found a cheaper deal elsewhere for the next. I rang Asda Insurance 10-14 days before the renewal and asked the nice woman I spoke to to cancel my renewal. She assured me this had been done but advised me also to cancel the direct debit with my bank (Santander). This I did and thought no more about it.

At the time I was on Jobseekers' Allowance (so £70 a week) and could ill afford to lose any money. I used (and still use) a spreadsheet to track my bank account and ensure I'm always in credit. I cannot afford to be overdrawn. Having cancelled with both the insurance company and the bank I quite naturally assumed I was safe.

When I received my next bank statement I was horrified to find I'd had an additional payment I knew nothing about taken from my account, as well as £75 in bank fees for going overdrawn and them rejecting a further scheduled payment which I'd catered for.

When I spoke to the bank they told me they weren't prepared to refund the charges, although they did reclaim the amount taken by the direct debit. They explained their theft (in my opinion) of the money by saying that although I'd cancelled the direct debit, they'd received a new one and assumed I'd agreed to it. It hadn't occurred to them to check and I'd had no idea any money would be taken this way.

Eventually I had to claim compensation to get my money back, but in the meantime I was over a week's money down and needed the help of family in order to survive. Since I suffer very badly with depression this was a massive issue for me. It made my illness worse for many weeks and makes me afraid still to trust Santander and any company who may have access to my account.

My question was and is 'why can a new direct debit be set up without my permission or even my knowledge?'

xx-Scientist-xx

Maat wrote: »

My question was and is 'why can a new direct debit be set up without my permission or even my knowledge?'

Precisely! That's what I want to see stopped, too. If the account holder had to give permission every time, it would solve such problems in the future.

Archi_Bald

xx-Scientist-xx wrote: »

Precisely! That's what I want to see stopped, too. If the account holder had to give permission every time, it would solve such problems in the future.

What exactly is the problem? How would "giving permission every time" work, and who would pay for it? Why can't you check your bank account yourself once a month? Or every day, if you feel you are at risk on a daily basis? And simply cancel any DDs you do not recognise?

Do you regularly check yourself whether your front door is closed/locked? Or do you expect someone else to check for you?

knack92

Archi_Bald wrote: »

What exactly is the problem? How would "giving permission every time" work, and who would pay for it? Why can't you check your bank account yourself once a month? Or every day, if you feel you are at risk on a daily basis? And simply cancel any DDs you do not recognise?

Do you regularly check yourself whether your front door is closed/locked? Or do you expect someone else to check for you?

Now that internet and mobile banking is so widely used, I'd have thought an instant notification of new DD set up would be worthwhile and not difficult to implement. The request for permission would probably require more significant operational changes.

Vortigern

Archi_Bald wrote: »

How would "giving permission every time" work?

My bank(s) send me texts triggered by various events. It should be relatively easy to extend the list of events to include "new DD mandate"

Archi_Bald wrote: »

And simply cancel any DDs you do not recognise?

Because the beneficiary can simply reinstate the cancelled DD. I discussed this with first direct when an ISP tried to revive a DD over a month after I'd cancelled the service with both the ISP and the bank. Fortunately I noticed the "new" DD before it was used. FD said they have no way to prevent reinstatement of a cancelled DD but would put a note on my file.

The ISP claimed that I hadn't given sufficient notice of cancellation, so I owed them for a fraction of a month. They were persuaded to waive the charge.

xx-Scientist-xx

Archi_Bald wrote: »

What exactly is the problem? How would "giving permission every time" work, and who would pay for it? Why can't you check your bank account yourself once a month? Or every day, if you feel you are at risk on a daily basis? And simply cancel any DDs you do not recognise?

Do you regularly check yourself whether your front door is closed/locked? Or do you expect someone else to check for you?

I think others have already answered the first part and as for the second, sometimes I check the door sometimes my wife does. We then communicate with each other 'Is the door locked?' or 'I've locked the door' etc. It's this communication which is important because it saves effort for everyone. I don't need to check if my wife has already done it and vice versa.

What I want is some communication from my bank 'xyz say you want to pay them by DD, is that OK?' I can then respond approriately. I'm mystified as to why you persist in making this sound difficult. It isn't.

It's just occurred to me to think about those who still get their bank statements on paper. They certainly couldn't 'check every day'.

Archi_Bald

I haven't said it is difficult. Quite the contrary. It is ever so easy to check the DDs on your account.

What I have said is that it would be immensely costly to implement processes like the ones you want, and the benefits would be questionable since the problem is minute in the first instance.

It's all I have to say about it, so feel yourself referred to this post if you have further questions.