Direct Debits

Mary_Cadman

Thanks to all for taking the trouble to respond.

My situation is that we had membership of English Heritage. I wrote to cancel our membership in 2003 which I remember them acknowledging in writing. The annual DD was going out of my husband's account. He sometimes misses detail on his bank statements as he is dyslexic and I don't normally look at them. We moved house in 2004 and all our stuff went into storage while we lived outside during a build...we eventually moved into our house and the build is ongoing..we are gradually sorting ourselves out ...many of you will have this t shirt I am sure!

I was filing household papers recently and noticed that a DD had gone out between Christmas and New Year. When I checked back, I found that payments in annually increasing amounts had been going out every year. I phoned English Heritage and they admitted that our membership docs had been returned as "not known at this address" years ago but that they had continued to take our money. They also denied having received my cancellation letter.

My understanding was that as the payee actions the DD, they have some responsibilty for cancelling it or at least ceasing to request payment. Also the terms state that if the amount requested changes then advance notice would have to be given. This obviously did not happen because they did not have our address. However, as they had our bank details they would have had a conduit for communication there.

I don't need anyone telling me my husband should have been more vigilant - there was alot of traumatic water going under the bridge for a long time in our household, but does anyone have a realistic feel as to what the chances are of at least getting some of this money returned?

Thanks for reading.

grumbler

Mary_Cadman wrote: »

...
My situation is that we had membership of English Heritage. I wrote to cancel our membership in 2003 which I remember them acknowledging in writing.

It would be nice if you had this acknowledgment. I guess you don't have it.

My understanding was that as the payee actions the DD, they have some responsibilty for cancelling it or at least ceasing to request payment.

They do, but they deny having ever received cancellation notice from you.

Also the terms state that if the amount requested changes then advance notice would have to be given. This obviously did not happen because they did not have our address.

They have not done anything wrong. You would have been in the same situation if the new owner just binned the letters instead of returning them.

....does anyone have a realistic feel as to what the chances are of at least getting some of this money returned?

IMO, you don't have a case for DD guarantee and your only recourse is EH. Ask them for a partial refund, but they will be right to refuse as I guess they don't even have a system in place to check that you have not been using the membership card during these years.

Hazzanet

grumbler

It would be nice if you posted a link/source.

EarthBoy

Mary_Cadman wrote: »

I wrote to cancel our membership in 2003 which I remember them acknowledging in writing. .

Even if you could theoretically claim the money back under the DD guarantee, in practice this wouldn't be possible because banks aren't obliged to keep records longer than 6 or 7 years, so the bank wouldn't be able to refund payments if they no longer have a record of them.

Archi_Bald

The Payments Council says (my bolding):

The PSRs introduce a long-stop 13-month time limit after the date of debit for a customer to claim that a transaction was unauthorised or incorrectly executed. However, these claims should ideally be made straight away. In the UK a policy decision was taken not to change the unlimited period of the Direct Debit Guarantee. So a 13-month time limit does not apply to claims against Direct Debits.

http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/what_do_we_do/european_payments/the_payment_services_directive/

Hazzanet

grumbler wrote: »

It would be nice if you posted a link/source.

It is from The Service Users Guide and Rules to the Direct Debit Scheme.

It remains a bone of contention among Service Users as they all want it reduced to 13 months per the rest of Europe, however there is reluctance to do so by the banks as it may undermine confidence in the scheme.

The matter is frequently raised in BACS Affiliate meetings. The most recent resurrection of the subject was last Wednesday.

jonesMUFCforever

Hazzanet wrote: »

The important word is VALID.

Hazzanet

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The important word is VALID.

Indeed, but virtually no checking is done front of house by bank staff so the service user is left to pick up the pieces.

jonesMUFCforever

Hazzanet wrote: »

Indeed, but virtually no checking is done front of house by bank staff so the service user is left to pick up the pieces.

We will have to agree to disagree on this.