Who should cancel a DD??

agrinnall

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

OP hasn't got POA yet. Indeed, they say it "will take many weeks" to obtain.

In which case it could be "many weeks" before EDF will cancel the DD from their end. It's still their right (and I would argue their duty) not to accept instruction from anyone other than the account holder.

YorkshireBoy

agrinnall wrote: »

In which case it could be "many weeks" before EDF will cancel the DD from their end. It's still their right (and I would argue their duty) not to accept instruction from anyone other than the account holder.

I think there's a lesson here not to leave it too long before starting to help ageing relatives with their finances. Not necessarily POA though. For example, I'm "agent to operate" on my dad's current account with Yorkshire Bank, so can do anything he can do in branch. I could, for example, stop a DD.

Also, a growing number of companies (in my experience anyway) allow other people to represent you on the phone. I'm registered with a few of dad's utility providers and also his insurance companies for such as car and buildings/contents.

agrinnall

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I think there's a lesson here not to leave it too long before starting to help ageing relatives with their finances.

Absolutely, that's why my sister and I have LPAs for our mum, we haven't needed to use them yet but if that time does come it's a hell of a lot easier to already have something in place than have to go though the time and expensive of getting it through the Court of Protection.

Anthorn

knightstyle wrote: »

So I am sorting out my MILs affairs as she is now in a care home. All fairly straightforward but EDF say I have to cancel the DD to them. The bank won't let me do this till we have power of attorney, this is applied for but will take many weeks. Meanwhile the EDF account builds up credit, £500 so far as her house is empty!
Other suppliers managed to cancel the DDs so why not EDF?

In my experience, lots of payees do not cancel their direct debit when an account is closed or the payment method is revised. Not only that some payees such as isupplyenergy will penalise you with a flat-fee if you close a direct debit even though it's an old one and they have a new one in place.

Look for an energy supplier such as my local energy club (OVO) arranged by the local authority which pays 3% interest on balances. I'll be moving to that in March since my typical credit is £250 even over the winter bill.
http://www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk/

ChiefGrasscutter

HappyMJ wrote: »

It does get hard when you forget (or lose the written copy of) all the passwords. I've recently opened a First Direct account and there are 6 different answers I must remember forever, a password and a string of numbers. There's no way I can remember all that so I have to write it down defeating the point of high security.

Try Keepass password manager..
http://keepass.info/

Eco_Miser

HappyMJ wrote: »

There's no way I can remember all that so I have to write it down defeating the point of high security.

I use Password Safe http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ to keep all my passwords,'memorable' data, and other log-in info safely encrypted, and to auto-type into the log-in screens.

dunstonh

EDF would accept a written instruction from the MIL. If the MIL is not capable of providing that any more then it is too late to apply for a POA and a different (more expensive) method is required.

eddddy

knightstyle wrote: »

All fairly straightforward but EDF say I have to cancel the DD to them.
..
Other suppliers managed to cancel the DDs so why not EDF?

Bizarrely, I've come across a few companies over the years who accept immediate cancellation instructions over the phone, but ask me to cancel direct debits anyway, because their admin systems need a long lead time to stop DD requests.

Not sure if EDF fall into this category.

(Even more bizarrely, one time I cancelled an insurance policy, the insurance co told me to cancel my DD as well, and also told me to ignore the scary automated 'DD failure' letters that would follow.)