RAC repeat payment issue

coffeehound

Wonder if anyone can advise on this please. Just spotted a debit of £62.99 to RAC Financial Services on my bank account.

I deleted the RAC direct debit in the bank account list about a year ago and thought that would end it. So is this normal for them to be able to re-bill without a DD registered to the account at my end? Will I be able to recover the payment do you think?

molerat

Has a DD been set up again or was it a recurring card payment ?

YorkshireBoy

The DD Guarantee ends with...

You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify the organisation.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/pages/directdebitguarantee.aspx

Did you do that?

Did they send renewal documentation?

coffeehound

Thanks for the replies

molerat wrote: »

Has a DD been set up again or was it a recurring card payment ?

It quotes the debit card last four digits -- is that treated differently to a DD?

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The DD Guarantee ends with...Did you do that?

Did they send renewal documentation?

No I didn't contact bank or RAC, just deleted the DD from the list on my online account

If they did send any documentation it must have gone to a previous address. I haven't received any emails, which I would have expected these days.

Does this mean I have no come-back to reclaim the debit do you think? I don't even own a car anymore!

meer53

coffeehound wrote: »

Thanks for the replies

It quotes the debit card last four digits -- is that treated differently to a DD?



No I didn't contact bank or RAC, just deleted the DD from the list on my online account

If they did send any documentation it must have gone to a previous address. I haven't received any emails, which I would have expected these days.

Does this mean I have no come-back to reclaim the debit do you think? I don't even own a car anymore!

It's not a DD then, it's a debit card payment. You would have needed to cancel with them to prevent it renewing. You need to call the RAC to discuss it with them.

YorkshireBoy

meer53 wrote: »

It's not a DD then, it's a debit card payment. You would have needed to cancel with them to prevent it renewing. You need to call the RAC to discuss it with them.

Sometimes DD originators take the initial payment by debit card...maybe several years ago.

But it must be a DD, because OP says it was in their list of DDs within online banking.

alanq

You need to check the terms of the RAC contract. Presumably it was allowed for auto-renewal so you would need to pay until informing it that you wanted to cancel. Cancelling a DD would mean that the fee would still be due if you are continuing to receive a service (even if you no longer want it).

I wonder if the arrangement is something like I have with my ISP. If the DD fails it can take payment from a card registered with it.

coffeehound

Thanks a lot for the posts; I feel better informed for when I contact RAC in the morning.

DCFC79

Should always call to cancel a policy rather than just deleting it via your account.

agrinnall

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Sometimes DD originators take the initial payment by debit card...maybe several years ago.

But it must be a DD, because OP says it was in their list of DDs within online banking.

Yes, but perhaps when the RAC discovered that the DD had been cancelled they reverted to taking payment from the card details they held (whether they should have continued to hold those details is another matter).

coffeehound

I owe you an apology as I gave duff info here. It turns out they had sent a renewal email a month or so back that I had missed, assuming it was spam.

What must have happened is I thought I'd deleted a DD from my account a year ago when in fact I'd just ascertained that there was no RAC DD or SO in effect.

So as stated, it was a recurrent card debit – a concept I'd never heard of before. Even though it was now a month since the debit, RAC have run it through their complaints dept and agreed a partial refund of £43.65 which is pretty reasonable under the circumstances.

Thanks for the input.