Advice please on First Direct chasing a payment they made from my closed account.

MJlowry

I had a subscription for a piece of software in which my First Direct bank account details have been entered onto their web site.  I closed the bank account and switched to an alternative gaining an incentive as a result (thank you TSB).  I have a closing letter from First Direct dated 25/09/2023.  My subscription of my software expired, and I assumed that as a result no payment could be taken, this was not the case, and as a result the software subscription is still active.

Today I received a voice mail and letter from First Direct asking me to contact them, which I did today.

They are stating that they made a payment for the software amounting to £109.99 and would like me to pay that to settle the debt.  My argument with them is that the account is closed, and that the payment should not have been paid as the account is closed.  First Direct insisted that I need to settle the debt and have provided me with an account, sort code and ref number to pay the outstanding debt to.  I have asked for a receipt to state that the matter is settled, they inform me that they do not issue receipts and that if I do not hear from them, then the matter is settled.

Questions

1. If I closed the account, surely, they can not make a payment and then hound me for the repayment
2. Are they breaching Data Protection Act rule number 5 “Storage limitation: Keep data only for as long as necessary” by retaining my information longer than necessary
3. As they still hold my details, phone number, email address, home address etc they should be able to issue a receipt 
4. If I do not pay I assume that this will be pursued by a debt collection agency and impact my credit score.

So I look to the forum to assist me in this situation, as I feel that my concerns are justified.  Is there any redress from the Financial Ombudsman in this type of situation?

TIA

Martin

Brie

Have you at any point previously contacted them to state you don't want  a renewal?  This might be the crucial issue as even when you close/switch accounts subscriptions can continue.

DullGreyGuy

MJlowry said:
Questions

1. If I closed the account, surely, they can not make a payment and then hound me for the repayment
2. Are they breaching Data Protection Act rule number 5 “Storage limitation: Keep data only for as long as necessary” by retaining my information longer than necessary
3. As they still hold my details, phone number, email address, home address etc they should be able to issue a receipt 
4. If I do not pay I assume that this will be pursued by a debt collection agency and impact my credit score.

1) It depends... was it a CPA or DD? The account switching service only deals with the later not the former. Closing an account doesn't cancel a CPA automatically

2) Who is "they"? Given the Law of Limitation on simple contracts is 6 years (5 in Scotland) its easy to argue there is a necessity to store personal data for 6-7 years post a customer ceasing to be a customer

3) Again, who is "they"? There is no legal requirement for a receipt to be issued unless both buyer and seller is VAT registered and the buyer requests a VAT invoice/reciept

4) Potentially, different companies have different approaches and it somewhat depends if the company reports to CRAs as standard. Most dont and so it only gets recorded at CRA if they obtain a county court judgement and you dont settle it within a month. Others decide that principles are more important than economics so will go for a CCJ even if the likely recover is less than the cost of the CCJ. If it's an official lender etc who report to the CRAs as a matter of course then non-payment before a CCJ will also be recorded against you; this is highly unlikely for software unless it involved a finance house.