direct debit for private individual

pacontracting

dr_adidas01 wrote: »

Why is a direct debit giving a merchant carte blanche to your account?

I think you're creating fear where there is none to be created!!!

Because once the merchant has set up the direct debit - they can take a variable amount directly from your account without informing you. That amount could be £10 or £1000.

eskbanker

pacontracting wrote: »

Because once the merchant has set up the direct debit - they can take a variable amount directly from your account without informing you. That amount could be £10 or £1000.

No, the guarantee you refer to insists that they notify dates and amounts in advance.

Archi_Bald

eskbanker wrote: »

No, the guarantee you refer to insists that they notify dates and amounts in advance.

And if they don't, or even if you don't notice they told you, you can still ask your bank to give you an immediate credit under the DD guarantee.

Of course none of this is a clever way to avoid paying for bills you owe, as the DD originator has the right to charge you for services requested or goods ordered by you (if those services and goods were as described, of course), and they will eventually catch up with you, and probably also award you a missed payment marker on your credit file.

pacontracting

Archi_Bald wrote: »

therefore there is no carte blanche

A userid and password is a million miles different from a sort code and account number. Sort codes and account numbers have been freely given out billions of times over the last several decades to total strangers (e.g. on cheques) and nobody has lost their bank balance because of this.

A slightly different issue - but Jeremy Clarkson fell foul of that one when he published his sort code and account number and dared someone to use it.

Someone did, set up a Direct Debit with Diabetes UK and Jeremy found £500 missing from his account a month later.

Of course - as it was fraud, he could have got his money back but he decided not to (as it was a charity and he did dare someone to cause mischief).

Archi_Bald

pacontracting wrote: »

A slightly different issue - but Jeremy Clarkson fell foul of that one when he published his sort code and account number and dared someone to use it.

Someone did, set up a Direct Debit with Diabetes UK and Jeremy found £500 missing from his account a month later.

Of course - as it was fraud, he could have got his money back but he decided not to (as it was a charity and he did dare someone to cause mischief).

the well publicised Jeremy Clarkson incident is just about the only incident in billions of DD transactions, so zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for mentioning it again.

Like everyone else, he could have made use of the DD Guarantee but he didn't because he had more sense than to embarrass himself any further as his money had gone to a charity ( do you have proof it didn't?)

Moving on - what is your issue with DDs?

pacontracting

Archi_Bald wrote: »

the well publicised Jeremy Clarkson incident is just about the only incident in billions of DD transactions, so zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for mentioning it again.

Like everyone else, he could have made use of the DD Guarantee but he didn't because he had more sense than to embarrass himself any further as his money had gone to a charity ( do you have proof it didn't?)

Moving on - what is your issue with DDs?

I was highlighting the risk of allowing individuals to make use of the direct debit system (which they currently can't). When a direct debit is set up, the merchant can take any amount of money from your account at any time (they are supposed to tell you how much and when - but mistakes can (and do) happen)

As such, it would be risky to give this power to an individual.

That's all.

polymaff

pacontracting wrote: »

I was highlighting the risk of allowing individuals to make use of the direct debit system (which they currently can't).

I, as an individual, do - and I doubt that I'm unique.

pacontracting wrote: »

but mistakes can (and do) happen)

Which is why the very comprehensive DD Guarantee exists - and when things go wrong - it works.

pacontracting

Archi_Bald wrote: »

therefore there is no carte blanche

A userid and password is a million miles different from a sort code and account number. Sort codes and account numbers have been freely given out billions of times over the last several decades to total strangers (e.g. on cheques) and nobody has lost their bank balance because of this.

Great. Why not step up then. Publish your sort code and account number on here.

SuperHan

pacontracting wrote: »

Great. Why not step up then. Publish your sort code and account number on here.

Because while it wouldn't cause financial distress, it would cause some disruption to my life - I would have to ring up and speak to the bank every time a DD was taken to get it refunded.

As such, I am happy to distribute the details to select companies and individuals, as even if something goes wrong, I'm unlikely to have to make more than a couple of calls.

Publishing it on the internet for abuse means that I could be making 2-3 calls a week for the rest of the life of the account. I wouldn't lose any money though...

Archi_Bald

pacontracting wrote: »

Great. Why not step up then. Publish your sort code and account number on here.

I am very happily giving the information to people with a need to know but will most certainly not provide it to people who do not have a need to know and who have nothing better to do than use it for mischief or attempted fraud. You are in the latter category.