Stopping a direct debit

mikemac

Hypothectical question here.
Suppose you were a club member (gym, sports, supporters club, etc) and you paid monthly as you signed a direct debit. (not a standing order)
You are under contract to 12 months before you can leave.

Lets say you wanted to leave and break the contract and you were willing to deal with debt collectors letters or any legal action that might follow.
Can you as the bank customer instruct your bank to stop the direct debit and not pay under any circumstances? After all, you are the banks customer so they should follow your instructions.

Or would the bank keep paying the direct debit?

AckwelFoley

Hypothectical question here

Sure it is.

Or would the bank keep paying the direct debit?

Im not certain, but i think the duration of the direct debit and the sum of it is on the contract you sighned the direct debit so i dont think they can stop it.

Doctor DooM

People used to do it to the company I used to work for all the time.

However, I am unsure if this was because they allowed it, or because it was the customers right.

unclebill98

Unless you write to the gym who are applying to the bank for dd they will continue to try and get it out of your account. As long as they have a valid DD originators number(Which they will) the bank will pay the DD. If you cancel the DD at the banking end it should stop. But i've seen DD getting paid, simply because a DD is an agreement between the you and them and the bank just facilatates the payment.

brian_ire

when you sign a direct debit mandate you make an agreement between yourself and the company which you signed it with, the bank simply facilitates this agreement. that being said your bank can still cancel the DD for you but they will inform you that you must also notify the company, in this case your gym that the DD has been cancelled. the reason for this is that according to the gym you still have an agreement for this DD to go through, therefore if it gets denied by the bank the can simply attempt, as a previous poster said, to establish it again.

hope this helps

Sangre

Also if its an originator plus DD (an electronic or verbal one) the bank won't be able to cancel it.

In a nutshell don't rely on the bank help you get out a contract (and especially don't give out to them because they can't help you).

DannyBuoy

I had a pretty similiar situation recently, rung the cc provider and they said write to the company involved telling them to stop taking payments then write to the cc provider with instructions not to pay, and enclose copy of letter to company. This letter goes on file with cc provider.

Sangre

Cancelling a DD on a CC (or visa at least) is much more arduous than on a normal account. Even your version of the events are quite simplified. In fact this won't even cancel the DD as the bank doesn't have authority to do so, it only allows the bank to do charge backs on DD that present 15 days after they receive the above information from the company. A bank may also require a reply from the 3rd party company stating they won't cancel the DD.

MIN2511

DannyBuoy wrote: »

I had a pretty similiar situation recently, rung the cc provider and they said write to the company involved telling them to stop taking payments then write to the cc provider with instructions not to pay, and enclose copy of letter to company. This letter goes on file with cc provider.

+1
On monday, cancelled my dd with phone company and ntl... Sent letter to the companies and bank-happy days!!!