DD issue

ivan_dunne

Hello,

Go a question on the DD Guarantee, how long does this give a company the permission to set up a DD payment and take money out of my account? is there a set time limit when they need to set the DD up and take the first payment out or can they do this when they fell like it and have no time limit? like, set up a DD payment after you have left the company.

Willing2Learn

If a company has taken a DD from your account and the payment is an error, then I believe the DD Guarantee will apply. Just phone up your bank and ask them for a refund under the DD Guarantee.

PRAISETHESUN

A company cannot set up a direct debit mandate unless you specifically authorise it. Unless you specifically cancel the DD with either the company or your bank, the DD mandate will stay active for 13 months or so after the last payment was taken using it. They have to take the funds as agreed with you when you first set up the mandate, or notify you in advance if they intend to change this. This is all spelt out in the DD guarantee that most DD-accepting organisations adhere to. You are entitled to a full refund of any money taken, plus any fees incurred or interest charged by your bank if something goes wrong.

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

agrinnall

Perhaps if you explain what has happened we could give you a more precise answer rather than speculating on what issue you are looking for help on.

ivan_dunne

agrinnall wrote: »

Perhaps if you explain what has happened we could give you a more precise answer rather than speculating on what issue you are looking for help on.

Yeah, I was going to post the whole question but changed my mind.

But here is the full question with all the information, its a bit long, and hopefully everyone will understand what I'm asking.

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Before I start, I knew the below issue would catch up with me one day. so got no issue with it, so on to the issue.

I signed up to a power company sometime in 2017, fixed tariff until June this year.

Signed the DD Guarantee for the payment to come out, got an email from company and bank to say the DD has been set up. Got all my paperwork from the company, so far so good.

3 or 4 months into the contract the power Company still hasn't taken any payments out.

So I cancelled my DD, got an email from bank to say DD has been cancelled but nothing from the power company, no letter, no email, no call, nothing. Wasn't going to have them take 3/4 months payment out at once. I wasn't going to chase the company.

Onto this year, the end of the fixed tariff (June), I changed companies to a new provider onto a new fixed tariff, this was when I knew this was going to catch up with me, again no issue with this catching up on me.

2 or 3 days ago the older power company set up a DD payment with my bank, showed up on my active DD payments. absolutely no communication from the power company to say that they have done this.

My question is when I signed the DD Guarantee, how long does this give them permission to set up a DD payment and take money out of my account? is there a set time limit when they need to set up and take the first payment out or can they do this when they fell like it and have no time limit? like, set up a DD payment after you have left the company.

Willing2Learn

You withdrew your consent for the DD to take place when you cancelled your DD with the bank (you have an emailed confirmation from the bank). It also seems as though you cancelled the DD with the power company but they never replied. Because you cancelled the DD with both the bank and power company you are due a refund. Just phone your bank and it'll be refunded.

soulsaver

If they haven't taken the money just cancel the dd with your bank.
Good you agree you owe them the money.
Phone the energy co; tell them you've cancelled the DD and why.
And agree with them how you're going to pay the debt.

ivan_dunne

soulsaver wrote: »

If they haven't taken the money just cancel the dd with your bank.
Good you agree you owe them the money.
Phone the energy co; tell them you've cancelled the DD and why.
And agree with them how you're going to pay the debt.

Yeah, the other day I was checking my active DD payment, and this one just showed up out the blue, cancelled it right away. No money has come out for it, they could have tried to take a years payment in one, that would have caused me no end of issues.

Obviously, don't have an issue paying and it catching up on me, the issue that I've got is the way they have gone about trying to take payment.

jonesMUFCforever

ivan_dunne wrote: »

Yeah, the other day I was checking my active DD payment, and this one just showed up out the blue, cancelled it right away. No money has come out for it, they could have tried to take a years payment in one, that would have caused me no end of issues.

Obviously, don't have an issue paying and it catching up on me, the issue that I've got is the way they have gone about trying to take payment.

Let's be honest here - did you think you had got a freebie?
I don't blame you for not contacting the power company - I would be tempted as well to have a go but it is also good that you have the funds to pay the bill.
Might have been easier all round if you had contacted them though as I'm sure if they had owed you money you would have done.

ivan_dunne

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Let's be honest here - did you think you had got a freebie?

Let be honest here, can you please start to tell everyone that you don't know how to read.

And plus, it's not my job to chase up companies when they have billing issues with customers accounts.

Terry_Towelling

If I've understood correctly, the original DDR was set up by the power co with your bank. The power co failed to take any payments and you cancelled the DDR after a few months. You then switched power companies 8 or 9 months later and the original power company re-instigated the DDR (without your consent) but still never took a payment because you also cancelled that one.

So, the old power co cannot just take cash from your account but they will bill you for what you owe as of the switch date/meter reading. I'm amazed they allowed the switch to happen - but, then, if they failed to take any payments for a year perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised. Maybe their incompetent admin will mean they don't actually chase you for the arrears.

Personally, I'd put the effort into doing the right thing and cough up rather than expecting other customers to subsidise my spending through their payments.