Direct debit - is notice required?

Eventually, however, the redirection will cease. It is possible that the phone company will continue to send the bills to my old address and I will not therefore receive them. Since I'm not prepared to permit a direct debit on my account without first receiving notice of the sum to be debited (ie a bill), can I legally cancel the direct debit without being liable for any penalties the phone company might wish to charge for non payment of a bill (that they have not sent me)?

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In think that you will have to try a bit harder to get the address change before this one will fly

Writing to them once, noticing that they haven't done it and then saying "not my problem" is not the action of reasonable person in legal terms.

You have noticed that they have somehow not actioned your address change, you should make some attempts to find out why

tim

For sure I'll write to them again - I was just wondering.

But I have looked at the Direct Debit rules and it says that "If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed".

"Will", not "must". Which seems to imply that if they don't, that's my problem not theirs.

For sure I'll write to them again - I was just wondering.

But I have looked at the Direct Debit rules and it says that "If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed".

"Will", not "must". Which seems to imply that if they don't, that's my problem not theirs.

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Why not just ring them up? They are a phone company, after all, and it's prob cheaper than a stamp.

ROFL!

You've clearly never tried to call Orange. "Hello, we're currently experiencing a very high volume of calls. Please call back later. Click".

Either that or you're on hold for 20 minutes and a stamp is cheaper than 20 minutes of my time.

ROFL!

You've clearly never tried to call Orange. "Hello, we're currently experiencing a very high volume of calls. Please call back later. Click".

Either that or you're on hold for 20 minutes and a stamp is cheaper than 20 minutes of my time.

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Sorry - thought you said it was a mobile phone company :-)

Yeh, I thought I did, too... LOL.

Vote with your feet.

Eventually, however, the redirection will cease. It is possible that the phone company will continue to send the bills to my old address and I will not therefore receive them. Since I'm not prepared to permit a direct debit on my account without first receiving notice of the sum to be debited (ie a bill), can I legally cancel the direct debit without being liable for any penalties the phone company might wish to charge for non payment of a bill (that they have not sent me)?

It's unlikely, but suppose there was an error and they tried to debit (say) 10,000 from my account and the money wasn't there? I'd be liable for all sorts of of fees, etc.

I'm not trying to avoid paying. I just want to know how much I'm supposed to pay before I pay...