Standing Orders!

justingldn

I have set up a couple of Standing Orders in order to pay off debts owed on two old credit cards to a debt collection agency.

My question is can the companies ever take more money from your account than you have set via Standing Order? E.g. If i have set it to, let's say £25/month could they one day decide they want to take out £100 from my account and do so without my consent?

Thanks in advance!

mum2one

with a standing order its a fixed amount that i set up, so if you say £25 that is all they will get xx

justingldn

The reason i asked is because one of the debts is a HSBC credit card, and i also have a current account with them. Before they sold off the debt to a 3rd party collection agency it was management by one of their own collections agencies, and one day they did exactly that. They just took an amount out of my account to make a debt repayment.

grumbler

Re HSBC card and account see Setting Off Rules

Re SO and taking money, no, they cannot take it without your permission just because you pay them by a SO.

justingldn

Thanks, that's great. Since HSBC no longer own my debt i'd say i have nothing to worry about there.

pmduk

The whole thing about a standing order is that you are in charge. The bank should keep paying the money, even if the recipient no longer wants it. Grumbler has already identified the issue here is setting off - it's nothing to do with the existence of a standing order.

Goldiegirl

With a standing order, the company is not taking money from your account - you are sending money to them, so you specify what you want to send.

It's a totally different thing to a direct debit. A direct debit is when the company takes money from your account - although they have to tell you what they are taking, and if you disagree, you can use the direct debit guarantee to get your money back.

So, in answer to your question, no they can't take extra money from you using a standing order- there is simply no mechanism for them to do this