Direct Debits taken out randomly

Spanishsunawaits

A relative told me what I think is a bizarre story. She had several direct debits taken out of her account with Barclays yesterday. She said these direct debits did not have specific payment dates (??).

She said she spoke to the bank and told me that they said “Because big companies know that people don’t have a lot of money in January, they take out direct debits at the beginning of the month on Jan to get their money. So regardless that in Dec, Nov, Oct previously the DDs went out around 15-20th of the month, in Jan they take it out early. Happened to a friend also apparently.

To me, she is feeding me a load of BS in order to borrow some money and I said I have never heard of anything like this. Surely this isn’t true??

JosephK

Does indeed sound odd. Regular direct debits will be set up for a specific date or first working day afterwards if it is a non-working day in the month. Companies aren't going to be altering dates wholescale on their computer systems nor will they know how well or otherwise customers manage their finances (unless that customer has history).

Spanishsunawaits

My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine a company thinking “let’s take out all the direct debits due on 25 January today instead”. Can you imagine.

Zanderman

Sounds a very dodgy story to me.
Not remotely credible.

SlovakianGuy

Spanishsunawaits wrote: »

To me, she is feeding me a load of BS in order to borrow some money

Sorry for the offtopic, but do you charge any interest on the money people borrow from you? If not, then you should start. Otherwise people will use you as their cashmachine.

I used to lend money for free, but like I said, people kept coming back and borrowing more and more, so once day I said OK, but I'm starting to charge interest from now on. They all accepted it and now think twice before they ask me.

Spanishsunawaits

Hi - it’s my sister. She tends to borrow about £20 every two weeks, just before her benefits are paid. She pays it back straight away. If she didn’t I wouldn’t lend it to her. But the excuses as to why she needs it are getting more fantastic. Hence this one. £129 taken out of her account yesterday. Come on!!!

I am going to have a conversation with her regarding budgeting properly. Don’t hold out much hope though.

boo_star

Absolute hogwash.

At the very least all those companies would have to inform their customers 10 working days before the change and if that was the case it'd be widely known that "that's what they do in January."

colsten

Spanishsunawaits wrote: »

I am going to have a conversation with her regarding budgeting properly. Don’t hold out much hope though.

May be the Debt Free Wannabe board could be of use to your sister? You should try and get her to address the root cause of her money problems. Otherwise she will always borrow cash, from you or from someone else, and her problems could become unmanageable. Best of luck

EarthBoy

Your sister is lying to you, pure and simple. Can you imagine the uproar if there was even a grain of truth in her story? It would have happened to everybody else too, not just your sister, and you'd have noticed it with your own direct debits.

Dobbibill

Tell her to claim them back under the DD guarantee. Failing to give advance notice falls into the criteria for an indemnity.
As above - the DFW is the place she should visit to break the cycle.