Cancelling Direct Debit on Joint Account

pjh

A friend has been presented with a situation and needs some guidance.

She has a joint account with her partner into which both their salaries were paid. Her partner set up a direct debit to a saving account on a single signatory basis (he did not tell her, she did not sign anything). I understand she does not have access to the target savings account.

Her partner is now in prison and not bringing in an income. She needs to stop the direct debit to the saving account as this is effectively siphoning off her salary. Can she do so without his agreement?

Thanks

Flobberchops

Firstly, it's likely it's a standing order rather than a direct debit.

But to answer your question, joint accounts usually grant full access and control to either party aside from some very specific scenarios (adding or removing parties, and overdrafts, usually). So yes, she should have the ability to cancel any standing orders or direct debits without his permission.

jonesMUFCforever

Whether it is a standing order or direct debit - if the account operates on one signature then yes you can cancel it.

Dobbibill

If they do online banking they should be able to see/cancel the DD or SO whichever type of payment even though it was set up by their OH.

eskbanker

pjh wrote: »

A friend has been presented with a situation and needs some guidance.

She has a joint account with her partner into which both their salaries were paid. Her partner set up a direct debit to a saving account on a single signatory basis (he did not tell her, she did not sign anything). I understand she does not have access to the target savings account.

Her partner is now in prison and not bringing in an income. She needs to stop the direct debit to the saving account as this is effectively siphoning off her salary. Can she do so without his agreement?

Over and above the advice given in previous posts, I'd humbly suggest to your friend that she gets her own separate bank account and has her salary paid into that instead, even if she chooses to contributes to the joint account from there by standing order.

While not making any moral judgement about her partner being imprisoned, the fact that he surreptitiously set up a debit to a sole account that she has no access to rings some pretty loud alarm bells, so a bit of protection of her own interests would probably be in order, although obviously only she knows how provocative that would be seen as....

pjh

Thanks all. Apologies for the rookie DD/SO confusion. We’ll pass all the messages and are hoping that she’ll see the sense of things like setting up her own account. She’s trying to navigate a whole world on confusion at the moment.

[Deleted User]

Login to the online banking portal and just cancel it.