Cambridge Water (S.Staffs) taking full bill amount by direct debit despite me already paying by CC

camking

I have several questions about whether or not some recent behaviour of Cambridge Water was reasonable, and either way, a reminder to others to be extra vigilant when you switch over any supplier to pay via Direct Debit so that the same thing doesn't happen to you.

I receive bills every 6 months from Cambridge Water (now owned by South Staffordshire Water) and I have a water meter. I am happy with this arrangement. In November 2025, I received my bill as expected and paid it by credit card, in full, as usual.

I also decided that it would be easier to pay by direct debit in future, so I also changed my payment method to Direct Debit, using the option to pay the bill in full on receipt of bill (NOT monthly) and I was happy with that change at that point.

However, in December, Cambridge Water helped themselves to the full November bill amount by Direct Debit - despite the fact that my account balance was £0.00 at the time, because I'd already paid it 4 weeks previously by credit card.

I didn't cotton on that they'd done this at the time, because I'd have seen the two normally expected payments separately several weeks apart on the credit card statement and the bank statement. In fact, I didn't notice until my May 2026 bill arrived, asking for a grand total of £4.81, because they have used the additional money that they've been sitting on for the past 6 months towards the May bill amount.

I realise that this is water bills not credit card bills, but whenever Barclaycard take my DD monthly payment IN FULL, they take the balance as it was at the bill date minus any additional payments or refunds. Cambridge Water don't work that way - they will take by DD whatever the bill said, come hell or high water.

Is my expectation that Cambridge Water would work the same way reasonable?

Are Cambridge Water's actions reasonable? I don't think so, but would like other opinions.

There's no point in me asking for the over-payment back now the next bill has arrived, but I'll be watching very closely in mid-June to make sure only £4.81 goes out this time.

My conversation with "CW-Chat" (an alias to protect the identity of the agent, in case it is actually a real person) via the website chat was a highly frustrating waste of 40 minutes. I suspect it's just an AI bot, because of the way it just parroted the same text back at me all the time and went around in circles, although "CW-Chat" denied this.

Here's how the chat went. Is my initial question below unreasonable or hard to understand?

CHAT STARTED AT 6:58:30 PM
[redacted initial account verification stuff]
Stewart | 7:09:58 PM
I cannot remember precisely when I set up the Direct Debit, but I think
I paid my November 2025 bill by credit card and then set up the Direct
Debit for future payments. However, I've just had my May 2026 bill for
£4.81 which I thought was strange, and it turns out that you took the
November bill's amount by Direct Debit in the middle of December,
despite the fact that I'd already paid the bill in November. Why did
you do this? Why doesn't paying via Credit Card then reduce the amount
of the Direct Debit (to zero in this case) rather than double-dipping?

CW-Chat | 7:10:47 PM
I can see that the last direct debit we have received from your side on
15/12/2025 for the amount of £119.26

Stewart | 7:11:19 PM
Yes, that's right. And before that, you had my credit card payment for
£119.26 as well. Because I paid the bill by CC. And then you took it a
second time by DD

CW-Chat | 7:12:00 PM
Your account is now set up with a Direct Debit for the remaining balance
of £4.81, which will be deducted on 15/06/2026.

CW-Chat | 7:13:38 PM
Yes, we have received the payment from credit card for the month of
November not in December.

Stewart | 7:15:31 PM
That's correct ... so what?

CW-Chat | 7:17:13 PM
Yes, we just confirm that we have received your payment. Your account
was in credit, and this has been applied to your new bill generated for
the period from 13 November 2025 to 12 May 2026. Your account now has an
outstanding balance of £4.81.

Stewart | 7:17:26 PM
Can I chat with a human?

CW-Chat | 7:18:13 PM
Apologies for the inconvenience caused. You are chatting with a human
agent, Stewart.

Stewart | 7:18:55 PM
Look, you send me bill, I pay it by CC, you take the amount AGAIN by
Direct Debit. That is the issue here. That is what I want an
explanation of.

Stewart | 7:20:42 PM
In other words, My account balance was £0.00 and you took £119.26 by
direct debit.

CW-Chat | 7:21:43 PM
I would like to inform you that we have received two payments one via
credit card and the second via Direct Debit. As a result, your account
was in credit by £119.26.
A new bill has now been generated for the amount of £124.07. The credit
on your account has been applied to this bill, leaving a remaining
outstanding balance of £4.81 (£124.07 - £119.26 = £4.81).
Stewart | 7:23:29 PM
You can repeat that all you like - but you haven't answered the
question: WHY did you take £119.26 by Direct Debit on 15 Dec 2025 when
at that time, my account balace was £0.00 ?

CW-Chat | 7:23:39 PM
Yes , we have received the direct debit which has been applied to your
new bill.
CW-Chat | 7:26:13 PM
A direct debit was set up on your account for 15 December, and the
amount of £119.26 has been successfully collected.

CW-Chat | 7:27:05 PM
The direct debit collection is not dependent on whether the account
balance is £0.00 or in credit.

CW-Chat | 7:30:05 PM
We would like to inform you that the payment we received has
already been applied to your new bill.

CW-Chat | 7:31:24 PM
As you have not responded in some time I will have to close the chat, if
you still require assistance please reopen.
Stewart | 7:31:28 PM
No
Stewart | 7:31:41 PM
This is most unsatisfactory.
Stewart | 7:33:04 PM
So you're saying that intermediate payments that reduce the balance have
no effect on Direct Debits that YOU set up based solely on the balance
as stated on the bill? So how much are you going to take on 15 Jun 2026?
CW-Chat | 7:33:27 PM
We sincerely apologize, but we would like to inform you that the payment
we received in December placed your account in credit for the amount of
£119.26. A new bill has since been generated, and the credited amount
has been applied to your bill.

CW-Chat | 7:34:41 PM
We apologize for any confusion. Your account was set up for the direct
debit payment plan of £119.26, scheduled for 15 December 2026.
Accordingly, we have collected this amount.

Stewart | 7:34:58 PM
This is utterly pointless - you clearly can't understand the question
and my complaint.

CW-Chat | 7:37:03 PM
We apologize for any confusion. The two payments we received from you in
November and December placed your account in credit. Your account was
set up with a ‘pay‑in‑full’ direct debit payment plan, which is why the
payments were collected. As a result, your account was in credit, and we
have now applied this credited amount to your new bill.

[Stewart's dinner is now ready and he's had enough of the argument, so just closes the chat]

QrizB

Did Cambridge Water send you a notification to say they would take your November bill by DD in December?

camking

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82006499#Comment_82006499

No - I've received 5 emails from CW in total since the start of November. Two of them were just usual general "beware of frozen pipes" and "beware of leaky toilets" messages, leaving the relevant ones as:

• notification of new bill being available in my account, asking me to pay it (13 Nov);
• acknowledgement of the credit card payment (17 Nov);
• notification of new bill being available in my account, asking me to review the DD that they will take (15 May)

QrizB

If they didn't notify you, they were in breach of the Direct Debit Guarantee. They're meant to give ten working days (two weeks) notice.

https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-guarantee/

If that *had* notified you, that might've gone some way to explaining it. DDs are notified and then generally aren't changed after notification even if you make a manual payment (since to change the DD they'd have to notify you of the changen10 working days before taking payment, which would mean missing your payment date).

Eg. a 2-3 months ago I made a manual payment to my HSBC credit card a couple of days before the DD was due. HSBC still took the full DD they'd previously advised.

camking

Yes, I see. It's possible that they showed something on screen when I switched the payment. The main account page has a panel showing the most recent payment and next payment, as shown below (with the partial account number redacted by me)

I have no way of remembering or knowing what it displayed when I set up the DD in the first place or indeed any on-screen messaging. There's no history of communication on the website and no emails, as I indicated previously.