Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme Question (Halifax)

mrjam

Ive been going through my halifax statements, and have noticed 3 direct debit payments to a company named "PlusNet" which i discovered is a broadband company, totalling some £70 in October/November. Considering ive been with virgin all year its worrying, i contacted plusnet who said they have no record of my details on file.

I then contacted my bank and quoted the direct debit guarantee that if any funds are taken without authorisation or in error, then you are entitled to a full IMMEDIATE refund. They kept telling me on the phone its not true, and that i must go to a branch, fill in an indemnity claim form, and wait upto 3 days for the funds returning.

I quoted the immediate part again, to which i was told it doesnt work like that, we need to reclaim the funds.

Am i entitled to an immediate refund into my account there and then whilst on the telephone? And if i argue enough will they do it?

Thanks :rolleyes:

BargainAholic_2

You will have to go to a branch & fill in a form, the bank will then refund you within the 3 days & they will then write to the company that took the money & claim it back from them.

If you'd noticed it straight away then you'd be entitled to return the DD's giving the reason disputed amount to which you would be entitled to a full refund immediatley.

YorkshireBoy

If you don't have a DDI set up with PlusNet, how can the DD guarantee apply? The bank will have it's own procedures set up to deal with 'rogue' transactions such as these, and this is probably why they are quoting you 3 days to resolution.

Since these transactions go back 3 months, may I respectfully suggest you need to keep a closer eye on your finances.

mrjam

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Since these transactions go back 3 months, may I respectfully suggest you need to keep a closer eye on your finances.

YorkshireBoy, i do infact keep a very close eye on my transactions hence spotting these ones, i lead a hectic career and lifestyle and do not have time to check my statement every day. Therefore i spend a full day every 3 months checking through and making sure nothing untoward has happened.

As regards not having a DDI setup, there was a DDI on my account and i asked them firstly, to cancel it immediately, and secondly, whos name it was in, the lady told me as the DDI was electronic there was no name and it was simply an instruction to pay this company at specific intervals. I then asked her so that means, anyone can setup an instruction to take my money at any time without authorisation, and to which she replied, well if they have your account details or it is keyed incorrectly, yes!

I will infact go and fill in an indemnity claim form with the bank, and after reading other posts on here i fully expect to be fobbed off but i shall be standing my ground with these.

BargainAholic_2

I work in the finance department of a massive Brewery & we give our bank details out all the time for people to pay us. On checking our bank statement you'd be surprised how many DD's we have to claim back from Sky etc as people then hand our bank details out to set up payments. Its really easy to ring a company & say that you've changed your bank details & then hand someone elses over.

Anyway if someone has your bank details then you need to do something about this & make sure that there aren't any other transactions on your statement.


BA

exel1966

Yes you are entitled to an immediate refund once the matter has been investigated and the error found. To expect them to reverse this instantaneously is asking too much I think. You believe the error is not yours, but it may not be theirs either.

Checking your accounts only once every 3 months leaves you more open to having difficulty resolving problems like these when they occur.

dunstonh

immediate doesnt necessarily mean there and then. A lot of branches now are just a service front end whilst the processing of admin is done centrally. So, a branch may take your instructions and send them to their admin centre and it may take upto 3 days for it to be dealt with. That would be considered acceptable.

simongregson

exel1966 wrote: »

Yes you are entitled to an immediate refund once the matter has been investigated and the error found. To expect them to reverse this instantaneously is asking too much I think. You believe the error is not yours, but it may not be theirs either.

You are entitled to be credited with the amount while the investigation is taking place. If the payment is found to be valid, the bank could apply the amount again. The onus will be on the company who took the details to prove that it was you who instructed payments, this will be difficult for them to do without a paper form. This is the risk that the company take when they accept electronic applications for direct debits and essentially not your problem. If they were willing to pay more staff they could use paper instructions with signatures!

However, I don't think 3 days is an unreasonable amount of time to wait to be credited. I would not accept having to wait until an investigation is complete, this could take weeks if the company has to look at call recordings etc.

exel1966

Down to interpretation I think as the DD scheme only states :-

"If any payment is made in error, you should contact your bank or building society who are responsible for giving you a full and immediate refund - even if the original error was made by the organisation collecting the payment"

Obviously the bank first needs to confirm the error, hence the delay which I think is reasonable. No mention of a credit being applied whilst under investigation is mentioned within the guarantee.

simongregson

Indeed, but I think it would depend on the reasonableness of the delay. To expect a customer to wait for longer than 2-3 days would, in my opinion, be unreasonable and grounds for complaint. The reason the direct debit guarantee exists is to reassure customers about making payments by direct debit, this being the quid pro quo for the enormous savings that companies and banks make on administering payments. I'm sure that if banks were to say 'Companies can take money out of your account whenever they like and you'll have to wait months to get it back while they trawl through their call records' people would soon return to posting cheques :-)

exel1966

I'd agree, 2-3 working days would seem reasonable, anything longer probably unacceptable unless there were extenuating circumstances, but of course any bank could quite easily use that an excuse.