Debt company accessing bank account!

neenaw_4

I've got a question here on behalf of a friend.

She has been chased by a debt company demanding council tax that she doesn't owe cos she has claimed council tax benefit (reasonably recently) along with JSA. Before that she was a student.

Anyway, she went hom the other day to find a letter from her bank saying the debt company had tried to withdraw money out of her account but couldn't cos her account is in the red and subsequently got charged £25 in bank charges!!!! :mad:

Are they allowed to do that? The debt company I mean. I was so shocked to hear that. And obviously she is fuming about the bank charge too. She spoke to the council tax people today so apparently that's all sorted but they said she would have to speak to the debt recovery people regarding the bank charge.

Does anyone know where she stands on this?

I've told her about reclaiming bank charges but she really doesn't want to change banks (I'd told her what I read about getting a 'parachute account'). What are the chances of a bank closing your account for claiming your charges back?

Thanks for any help!

guppy

How did they take the money out? Direct Debit?

There's no way they can just take the money out without authorisation, regardless of whether its owed to them or not. Assuming she didn't authorise collection agency to take the money, I would report it to the bank as stolen/fradulent.

neenaw_4

Apparently they didn't take it out, they just attempted to and because there were inefficient funds, it was declined.

There's no way she would have authorised the debt company to take money cos she doesn't owe it in the first place but I will check and then pass on your advice. Thanks!

cw18

If they have tried to take money from her bank account, then they have informed the bank they have a DD authorisation.

So either she has given them her bank details (I've actually set up some over the phone, so no signature has been given) or they've obtained her account details from somewhere else (the council? Or has she ever sent them a cheque, 'cos they could have got them from that) and used these to set up an unauthorised DD against all the regulations.

If the latter, then it really is important this gets reported. I believe (from what I was told when I reported a company for repeatedly changing dates and increasing payments without notifying me) that a company can have the authority to use the DD scheme removed if they abuse it.



If she hasn't already done so, then she needs to get her bank to cancel the DD at their end...... If it remains active on her bank account they can try taking the money again!!!

neenaw_4

Cool, thanks, I've told her this now so she's going to the bank on monday. They must have got her details from the council. I can't believe they did that!

ukdutypaid

Sounds like it's already been to court to me and her lack of correspondence/appearence has permitted some kind of default order.
Surely, your 'friend', would have noticed some form of court summons/paperwork?
If the council had her bank account details then that still doesnt' allow them to pass them on to a debt collection agency, to attempt a DD. Haven't the council ever tried to take a council tax payment before?

moneymare

Working in a Council Tax dept, when we pass on accts to collection agents, we do not pass on things like D/D details, we are not allowed to do so - your friend must have provided them with those details to enable them to attempt to make a collection ?