Cancelling Direct Debits before immigrating – beware!!

[Smirfyduo]

Hi Everyone,

 

When it comes time to wind everything up in the UK, and you close your accounts with utility companies etc – (In my case, phone companies….) confirm when the last payment will be taken from your account by the phone company. After the final payment has been taken from your account, CANCEL your direct debit.

 

If you use online banking, do not simply cancel the DD on there – phone your bank and do it. And make sure that they cancel ALL DDs to that particular company. A particular phone company has a reputation for setting up not one, not two, but THREE direct debits when you sign up with them. When you simply cancel your DD online, they will just take more money against one of the other 2 remaining DDs.:jimlad:

 

We did contact the phone company (on about 4 occasions now) and they could not explain how they were able to take the money, and, as we had cancellation references, they were full of promises to refund us the money. (This started in February, and we’re still waiting!!)

 

I had to contact our bank in the UK to find out what was going on, and how they were able to continue to take money out of our account. The lady at the bank explained the business of the 3 DD’s on our account. She also said that there were other companies who worked the same way – she named some well known gyms and internet providers.

 

The bank was very good and refunded us the money as they could see we had cancelled the DD twice already, however it is a real pain in the backside when you need to resolve issues like this from half way around the world!!

 

Save yourself the headache!!:idea:

Cheers

Jules