Paid Council Tax twice in error

[WheresLarry]

I hold my hands up, I messed up. I paid council tax through online banking on 1st May, completely forgetting that last month when I made the first payment I had set up a standing order. I am now double the money down and really can't afford to be.

Has anyone else done this? I am going to phone the council as soon as they open and see if they can refund me but I am worried they will say I have to suck it up and just reduce my remaining payment. Problem is I can't afford to lose that much from the household budget and really need them to refund me.

I know I'm an idiot but does anyone else have experience of this and was successful with a refund? I'm in Scotland if that makes a difference.

I work in revenues and benefits for my council and I know that our council tax department would refund you

If it was a Direct Debit you could ask your bank to return that payment, I'm not sure if that works with standing orders though.

Thanks for the replies.

I am hoping that the fact in have two children and the effect this will have on the household budget will mean that they do refund me, but who knows. I imagine every council is different in that regard.

I made payment 1 yesterday, completely forgetting that the standing order was set up and would have been delayed due to bank holiday.

You could try ringing the bank first thing to see if the can stop the payment or reverse it as you did it on a bank holiday Explain your error they might be understanding

A direct debit can be reversed by the banks (you would just need to tell them that the amount "was not due" and specify that you don't want to cancel continuing payments but that the most recent payment should be returned.

HOWEVER - doing it that way can be a massive pain at the other end, for the council to deal with the paperwork required as the direct debit scheme is designed for everything to be very easy for you with all the bureaucracy managed by the receiving organisation. It may be that it is easier for them to give you a refund directly, so if you contact them and let them know a deadline by which time they must give you the refund or otherwise you will ask the bank to reverse the DD.

Thanks for the advice folks. Looks like I panicked over nothing. I have called council and they have said that they can issue a refund to me and I should get this back by next Monday.

I blame the bank holiday for throwing me off my groove.

As always the great people of mumsnet come through for a person in need of advice.

Couldn't they just knock it off the bill and not pay next month (if you could afford that)