The AA debited my account without aksing me....

[girlsmum]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice really. I'm about to send a letter of complaint to the AA and was wondering if anyone has any professional knowledge to help me out.....

I have been a member of the AA for two years and I hadn't realised that my membership was up for renewal. On Friday morning I received my bank statement showing that I was over my overdraft limit because the AA had debited ?114.

I rang the AA, to ask why had they not notified me by letter to ask if they could do this, when the 'helpful' chap on the phone said they'd had a problem with their printers and had not been able to send any letters out!

I am so cross, how can a big company help themselves to my money in my account without asking? Is this legal?

Thanks in advance

If you're pissed off enough to cancel your membership, just phone your bank: they'll reverse the payment and (usually) refund any fee you've been charged as a result - that's what the direct debit guarantee is for.

If not there's nothing you can do legally i don't think, but you can get very irate!

I do sympathise - in Spain this is what all companies do all the time so i have to guess the amounts for everything every month including the elctirc, telephone etc. it's very annoying.

Hi Girlsmum

I used to be a member of AA - when I joined up they asked me if I wanted to renew automatically every year. They do this as a matter of course (unless you say no) - can you remember if they asked you when you originally joined?

No I wasn't asked that as I know I would have said NO!

If you signed a revolving mandate when you first joined the AA then the Direct Debit Guarantee might not cover this.

Basically it means they can debit your membership fee on the anniversary date or shortly thereafter.

They should notify you of a change of amount so you could claim the difference between last years fees and this, but otherwise I'm afraid you are a bit stuck.

You might be able to appeal to the AA to cover your bank charges since they have admitted that the reminder letters didn't get sent out.

How did you pay your original membership and last year's renewal?

Well, I'm just looking through my old paperwork because, I am sure last year's premimum was about £82 and now this year its £114. I can't find how I paid last years fee but the year before when I joined I am sure it would have been with my Debit Card.

The other thing that is bothering me, is the payment on my bank statement has come up as a debit card payment. However, the debit card number they have went out of date in September - so why did my bank allow this to go through?

You can have revolving debits from a debit card too.

Re the out of date card, you would have to check that out with your bank. What date is the debit showing as?

The debit went on 11/10/06.

My card ran out 09/06.

Hmmmm, pretty sure that should have been refused then. IIRC the bank in that case should have informed the AA who in turn should have got in touch with you to ask for new card details.

First port of call is definately your bank to query this.

Thanks for all your replies.

I'll be straight down to my bank first thing tomorrow.