Is there anyone else who hates direct debit

bostonerimus

I don't like the idea of having standing orders/direct debit with companies. I think it's a cheek to have to prepay for a service or product or to have someone reach inside my bank account and take the money. I'd far rather get a bill and pay the company myself. Is anyone else with me?

powerful_Rogue

Nope.       

Thrugelmir

Never had an issue. 

McKneff

No issues for me. 
So much easier, even more so if they all go out at the same time 

nyermen

From a consumer perspective, no complaints - DD guarantee provides some cover.  I have them except for electricity company (prior experience of massive over estimation by multiple companies).  Council tax just gets sorted etc each month even with new years etc etc.

(I do note that Scottish Power make me grumpy because they've started issuing me bizarre billing periods such as 2 months, 1 month, 3 months, 4 months, etc, when its supposed to be quarterly.  Feels like an attempt to get me to go with DD, that or they don't like that I locked into their "until end of 2023 rate" september last year at a really nice rate compared to the cap now.)

From a "technical" perspective (I work in financial software), I loath them with a vengeance due to complexities behind the scenes of some schemes, sepa direct debits are particularly fun, for those who know the backbone etc, with the "R messages", Sepa rule book compliance, and so on.

soolin

I quite like direct debits , I have a memory like a sieve and having regular instalments for things taken automatically means I am less likely to overlook something. 

IvanOpinion

Direct Debits are god's little gift to bill payment

theonlywayisup

bostonerimus said:

I don't like the idea of having standing orders/direct debit with companies. I think it's a cheek to have to prepay for a service or product or to have someone reach inside my bank account and take the money. I'd far rather get a bill and pay the company myself. Is anyone else with me?

As you mentioned Standing Order, it's best to outline that the company doesn't reach in and take the money in this instance, the SO is you directing your bank to pay the company on the date that you decide. 

jon81uk

No trouble at all with them. Far easier to have a regular payment on a setdate than having to try and remember to pay things.

MalMonroe

No. I love them. Besides, it's not 'pre-payment' at all. For example my rent, paid each week by standing order. Not pre-paid at all, just paid on (usually after) the date due. Same with council tax DD, paid on due date each month since I can't afford to pay the full annual amount.

Receiving bills would mean companies having to use the post, hiking up costs for consumers - and then me having to remember to pay which bill when in a timely manner so that late or missed payments don't appear on my credit reports.

Much easier to have either SOs or DDs in place. And if anything goes wrong, you have the DD guarantee (and hopefully some kind of SO guarantee - although as theonlywayisup says above, the SOs come from my bank and if they did it wrong I'd expect them to put it right).

jon81uk

MalMonroe said:

No. I love them. Besides, it's not 'pre-payment' at all. For example my rent, paid each week by standing order. Not pre-paid at all, just paid on (usually after) the date due. Same with council tax DD, paid on due date each month since I can't afford to pay the full annual amount.

Receiving bills would mean companies having to use the post, hiking up costs for consumers - and then me having to remember to pay which bill when in a timely manner so that late or missed payments don't appear on my credit reports.

Much easier to have either SOs or DDs in place. And if anything goes wrong, you have the DD guarantee (and hopefully some kind of SO guarantee - although as theonlywayisup says above, the SOs come from my bank and if they did it wrong I'd expect them to put it right).

A standing order is just a regularly timed bank transfer so don’t think the bank would always put it right, if you set it up wrong. If it is their admin error that makes it get paid twice it’s the banks fault, but if you entered wrong details then same as bank transfer it is generally your issue.