Bust up coming

[Ironballs]

We had a load of trouble with Virgin, poor service and drop outs. Cut a long story short I reached end of tether, told them to sod off on the phone, cancelled the DD with our bank and then waited. And heard nothing. They were so poor they never even chased up the lack of payments and why they'd had no cancellation. Idiots!

 

[devonwoody]

OK, I am going to stop the DD but send them the cheque for the correct amount in the post Monday and stand by for the fireworks together with paperwork.

Ironballs, we are getting dropout (since December) they dont seem to be able to correct it, the engineer is blaming digital changeover nationally.

 

[TrimTheKing]

...the engineer is blaming digital changeover nationally.

Boll0x! It's a cable service, WTF has that got to do with digital changeover? Fobbing you off there DW, if it's dropping out then you either have a dodgy cable somewhere along your path or they have an issue centrally.

I f@cking hate engineers when they fob people off like this. Less embarrassing than saying 'sorry I don't know what the problem is and I'm too effing lazy to bother going outside my script to fix i even though that's the job I get paid for!'.

Grrrrr

 

[Ironballs]

We couldn't get them to deviate from the script and you ended up going through it each time you rang as it was someone new - and the previous person never called back. Our problem was related to the exchange so we were falling between Virgin and BT. Did get it fixed for a couple of months when they switched us over at the exchange, brilliant speed and no drop outs, then Yorkshire Water dug up the road, everyone lost phone connection and we ended up back where we started

 

[ike]

It is absolutely the case you can stop a direct debit by cancelling the instruction, and the other party will not be able to take money. However, even if you do it online (which is the easiest and simplest way) it must be at least 4 days before the DD is due to be taken.

But beware, if in the small print of your contract with the other party, it refers to 'continuous payment authority', they can continue to take payment until otherwise by mutual agreement. Your bank will not be able to block payment regardless if you cancel any instruction with them.

Always check the small print and NEVER, NEVER agree to a contract that mentions 'continuous payment authority' unless you are happy to let vampire leeches suck money out of your account at their wish.

Continuous Payment Authority is not exclusive to credit card payment, it can also apply with Debit cards.

 

[studders]

I'm frankly amazed to discover some of the practices mentioned here, continuous payment thingies etc hidden away in small print.
I have to say any Bank or Building Society that ignores an instruction from me NOT to make any further payments to Mssrs Tom Dick or Harry would pretty damn fast find an emptied then closed account.
It's my Bloody Money and if I say don't pay then don't bloody pay.

 

[devonwoody]

I recall previous DD postings and one member said he had a separate bank account which was dedicated to DD only, so that account could be closed, so I assume any moneys could not therefore be transferred out if there was an understanding with a bank that no overdraft or payment if credit was not available might be the way to go in future because utilities are getting some very bullying and with strong arm tactics these days.
After all a computer can send out a £10000 demand and your account might be feeling the pinch after that attack.

 

[ike]

Relying on an empty account to prevent DD payment won't help you unfortunately, as you will then incur bank charges! And you won't be able to close your account unless the balance is settled first! DD is a very good system, but always check the small print with a service provider and avoid CPA agreements like the plague.

 

[Mike.C]

Relying on an empty account to prevent DD payment won't help you unfortunately, as you will then incur bank charges! And you won't be able to close your account unless the balance is settled first! DD is a very good system, but always check the small print with a service provider and avoid CPA agreements like the plague.

Ike is right, but if you close the account before the direct debit's are due, and ask at the same time for any DD's to be cancelled then their is nothing the companies can do, and you will not suffer any bank charges.

Talking about bank charges, last year one of our banks the Halifax very kindly sent us a letter stating that they were going to stop charging interest on unauthorized overdrafts, and that they were going to do the same with authorized overdrafts :shock: :shock: What I said before finishing the letter? A bank lending you money for free, even if the loan is unauthorized? I must be dreaming :roll:
After pinching myself to make sure I was in fact awake, I read on. Instead to make things easier, and so that all of their customers will know exactly how much they will be paying at the end of each month, from now on for authorized overdrafts of between £1 and £2,500 they would be charging £1 a day for everyday you are making use of it, and £2 a day for £2,501 and upwards. And for unauthorized overdrafts of just 1p the charge was now going to be £5 a day :shock:

So just so I would know how much they would be charging me at the end of each month (which I knew anyway because they use to tell me on the previous months statement) my charges would be shooting up 300% from roughly £11 per month to between £30 and £31, and if I did not check my account daily to make sure I had not gone over the agreed amount I could end up paying £155 per month instead of the £30 interest charge per month.

I believe far from wanting to let us know what we would be paying them each month, they were covering their ar$e$ just incase they lost the court test case re charges that was going on at the time, which we now know they didn't. And to think we as Joe Public, or the goverment on our behalf bailed them out of trouble last year. :twisted: