To pay nothing by DD (that's direct debit - I adore my DD!)

[winkywinkola]

ever since T-Mobile withdrew £300 from my account in 2000 for a £30 bill for which I had authorised a monthly DD.

They refused to refund it too, saying they would simply deduct future bills from that amount.

I was a student at the time and despite my protestations, I was left without a lot of cash with no earnings. It was very hard and I felt terribly upset about it as I'd not planned for a sudden £300 to leave my account.

Dh scoffs at me writing cheques each month and points out the 'benefits' of DD but I am never convinced.

Am I neurotic?

I love DD's. I am so disorgansied dd's means my council tax, rent, talktalk, ect ect gets paid on time with no late fees.

you can cancel a direct debit unilaterally and that is that
however it is unwise to set up a direct debit on a credit card

standing order = set up by the customer for regular, same amount payments.
direct debit = the other way round

yanbu, the energy company always hassles me about setting up a direct debit, it nearly borders on harrassment. I like to see a bill before I make a payment, thank you very much.
if I need to pay something it will be either by card (credit card for payments 100£ or more for the extra insurance) or transfer (you can do it quick and easy by phone these days).

cheques are from the dark ages though

A very long time ago, I had £1300 instead of something like £75 taken by electricity company, due to them misreading my meter. (One of the dials was misaligned, they subsequently fixed it.)

I can confirm the bank will do bugger all, simply tell you to contact the company. Those where the days when you spent an hour on hold just to speak to someone at the company. It took me about six weeks to get the money back.

I still use direct debits now though. It has crossed my mind, after reading peoples experiences of living on benefits on here, that I would never dare use direct debit if strapped for cash.

In those days they were supposed to send a paper bill about a week before the money went out, strangely that was the one quarter when the paper bill was to late to query it in advance...

But the Direct Debit Guarantee means that the bank would have refunded the money and sorted it out with the phone company if you'd gone in / phoned and told them.

They say it means that, but it doesn't. When you sign a direct debit you authorise someone to help themselves to whatever they like, and the bank will do bugger-all to help you get it back.

no they can't. The Direct Debit guarantee means you get refunded.

Yes they can. No it doesn't.

I use direct debits for everything, maybe I'm lucky but I've never had an issue with the wrong amount being taken and I find it so much simpler, I couldn't be bothered (or have the time) to go to the bank every time a bill needed paying, I'd much rather know it was paid automatically

If you don't pay gas and electric by dd do you have to pay quarterly or can you still split it monthly? I used to hate getting quarterly bills, so much easier to budget monthly

you can cancel a direct debit unilaterally and that is that

That only stops future withdrawals, it doesn't help with the wrong one that's already happened.

The direct debit guarantee says that if there is an error you will get a full and immediate refund. Not in my experience. How would the bank know if there was an error anyway? Either they have to give you a refund on demand (i.e. take your word for it) or they have to tell you to sort it out with the company. The latter is my experience.

I've never had an issue with cancelling a dd. I just phone my bank and ask for it to be recalled. It is back in my bank by the following morning. I don't even have to give a reason

I'd be interested to know which bank and how long after the money went out you got it back.

Exactly, FraidyCat. I had zero bank support for the raid that was made on my bank account.

I think DDs need to be monitored far more. I bet there are plenty of abusive experiences out there.

I'm still not going to do DDs.

under the dd indemnity if the wrong amount is claimed your bank can claw the money back from the company and repay you immediately - this is to protect the customer. They also have to give notice of any change, can't unilaterally take the wrong amount and keep it. Any bank who tells you otherwise is wrong. The amount of dds which are marked as paid then a few days later are shown as stopped is quite high. It happens all the time. This is how dds have worked for years.

What Sandy said.
Also, it's not new - it was ever thus (well, back in the 1980s when I first set up such arrangements.

Why did I not get the support then?

Too much consumer complacency I think

I dont blame you tbh.

I have found recently that my ISP has decided to move taking their Direct Debit from the 5th or 6th of the month (purposely set up for that date after payday including leeway for any weekend delays of money going in). They now take the money on the 29th of the month literally just before pay day. Really pisses me off.

So far we have been OK but its always a worry that if they balls it up and take more than the 25/30 quid they should and take 250 instead then it will be an almighty mess with me going over drawn.

I am nervous about DDM and I agree the the bank guarantee does not work brilliantly in practice.

I also adore my cheque book. Not so much for shopping purchases but for school stuff, clubs, family etc. It will be a very sad day when they are gone for good. I still think despite hardly any shops accepting them they are very useful.

I have everything on standing order, I've been caught out by DD before now.

Dd is often cheaper as companies offer discount - it's cheaper for them!
So from that point of IWW yes you are being unreasonable as it's YOU that misses out financially!

But that said I sympathise with your experience. I'd have reported the company to OFCOM and used www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html to help.

Usually threatening this is enough to get decent results, but you usually need to be threatening someone on a managerial level - someone who doesn't want their head to be on the chopping block.

A phone company gave me a new landline number when I moved house. I used it for about 3 weeks and then suddenly when people called me they had a stranger answer the phone! It turned out they'd given my number to another new customer!

I asked for it back but they refused and so I called OFCOM. One call led to another and someone took up my case - I think it was the ombudsman services - which resulted in a huge apology and excellent compensation from the offending company!

Oh and this phone call was on the same day. No waiting period there!

There is such a lot of wrong information on here.

The DD guarantee is just that - a guarantee scheme.

DD is the safest way to pay anything. It is the only method by which you can cover yourself in event of am error.

You can contact your bank and recall any DD payment from the last couple of years into your account. You need to give the bank a valid reason (amount not due...no advance notice...mandate cancelled with the company being the most popular) but the bank are required by law to give you that money back almost immediately (I think the maximum is 48 hours). They then claim if back from the company.

They cannot refuse, they cannot make you contact the company. If you speak to someone at a bank that does this then ask for a manager as that is not correct.

www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Businesses/DirectDebit/Collecting/Pages/CustomersRights.aspx

This company states:

"Direct Debit is the only payment method with a money back guarantee.

The Direct Debit Guarantee
This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits.
If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit (insert your organisation name)will notify you (insert number of) working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request (insert your organisation name) to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request.
If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by (insert your organisation name) or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society.
If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when (insert your organisation name) asks you to
You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify us."