Direct debits

Philtheassassin

I just complained to my bank that they had allowed a DD payment even though I'd cancelled it - the reply I got surprised me, summarised below:

Thank you for your email.
Although you may cancel a Direct Debit through your online banking or by contacting us, this does not effectively cancel your Direct Debit Agreement with the company and you may find that payments might still be requested. As a third party Santander cannot deny the company access to your account, as the originator has the right accorded by the Direct Debit Agreement.

If this is true this means that any direct debit you've ever had could still be drawn on - anyone else come across this?

maninthestreet

Refer Santander to this:

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/Cancellationfailed.aspx

xylophone

And https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/cancellingpayments.aspx

I notice that contacting the organisation "pulling" the payment is also recommended - did you do this?

Philtheassassin

Thanks for the replies, I'll go back and quote the direct debit guarantee to Santander, although they seem to be quoting it as though it provides protection to the organisation rather than the individual. And yes, I'd also told the organisation pulling the payment that I wanted to cancel. I don't think there will be a problem getting my money back, it's just the principle I need to clarify with the bank.

glentoran99

Cancelling the direct debit with the bank may not stop the company requesting it, that however is irrelevant, the bank should have refused it

jonesMUFCforever

I think the bank has made a mistake - believe it or not this is not covered by the direct debit indemnity scheme.
The bank should refund the customer and accept it as an operational loss.

If the OP cancelled the d/d using internet banking then there will be a log of when the customer did this - any payments paid after that is down to the bank.

Ballard

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The bank should refund the customer and accept it as an operational loss.

Although the standard practice for a bank to reclaim a direct debit is a couple of days there is an option to reclaim after this time. It's been quite a while since I last did it so my memory is faded, though.

Westie983

It will depend on when the DD is cancelled as some companies start the process of claiming payments via DD three days before payment, an example of this is barclaycard, when you log into your account to cancel it says you cant amend DD amount as we are in process of claiming your payment, so if you cancelled a DD on the day before its due it may still get debited as it was already in the processing sequence.

This incidentally doesn't mean you are not covered by DD indemnity you can claim any payment that has come out, after cancellation or amount is incorrect, or on a different date then you were expecting.

Canceling a DD doesn't cancel the service or contract you have an arrangement to pay, for example cancelling a DD for a phone bill doesn't mean you no longer have to pay for it, it means you will have to contact the company to arrange alternative payment.

Always suggest contacting the company to cancel any DD as they have the instruction from you to reinstate the DD even if you ask the bank to cancel,they are the middle man in the transaction between you and the company offering the product or service.

Westie983

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I think the bank has made a mistake - believe it or not this is not covered by the direct debit indemnity scheme.
The bank should refund the customer and accept it as an operational loss.

If the OP cancelled the d/d using internet banking then there will be a log of when the customer did this - any payments paid after that is down to the bank.

Not all banks keep a long of when you cancel a DD just that it no longer shows, you can get a printout when its canceled but there may not be a virtual log of cancelled DD, or SO.

agrinnall

Westie983 wrote: »

Not all banks keep a long of when you cancel a DD just that it no longer shows, you can get a printout when its canceled but there may not be a virtual log of cancelled DD, or SO.

I find that very hard to believe, at least in the short term. They may cull data after a period (probably at least months) but I'd be very surprised to find that there is no timestamp recorded against such a change by any bank.

Vortigern

A few years back when I switched my internet provider, I gave notice to the ISP and cancelled the DD via online banking. Some months later the DD reappeared in the list of active DDs. I rang first direct to cancel the DD and asked why it had been reinstated after cancellation. The answer was simply that the ISP, knowing my sort code and account number could set up a DD whenever they liked.

The ISP claimed that I hadn't given them sufficient notice and they were trying to collect a few days pro rata rental. I protested that they were trying to take money from my bank account without giving me proper notice under the DD guarantee. They agreed to waive the charge.