Hmm. My mother was surprised to see a DD on her statement. She rang the bank and was told it was for car insurance. She doesn't have a car!
The bank wanted her to ring the insurance company to sort it out with them. I took over and told the bank to refund the money or I'd call the police to investigate as a crime of theft had obviously been committed. They tossed themselves off for a while and then capitulated.
Why is it that, unfortunately, your story doesn't surprise me???
Regards, John
I have no problem receiving online payments directly into my bank account as I have an account that does not do direct debits :)
Banks are wonderful, aren't they?
I was signed up with an ISP called 0800go or something along those lines, and they basically went bankrupt and instead of just cancelling it they passed my account over to another ISP, the name of which escapes me. The latter then started debiting my account. I tried to communicate with both to cancel my first subscription and disown the second, but failed.
Barclaycard, whose services I used for the monthly payments, insisted for several months at several levels of management that they could do nothing to secure my refund, or to cancel my contracts. I insisted at virtual shouting point on email and by letter that I DIDN'T EXPECT THEM TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNTS. I expected them to stop debiting my account. My argument was that I must surely have the final say over which contracts I wish to honour and which not. It is none of their business.
Their hands were tied, of course, as my contract was with the ISPs. (Are you crawling up the wall yet?). I had this on solemn oath from senior managers.
After I contacted the Office for Fair Trading and sent them the portfolio I waited for a month and then received a cheque for £100 from Barclaycard with an apology.
Worth knowing.
Brian
you are making me curious... which account please ?
It's a Lloyds Instant Savings account that I opened about 10 years ago, when I was a student.
My old Nationwide account doesn't do direct debits either.
And the chances are I won't open a broadband account with them either even though they were once on the shortlist of candidates, they have effectively removed themselves from the list. They may have saved themselves a pound or two on their phone bill but lost perhaps 10 or more years worth of broadband business. I also ensured they lost money by calling some of their freephone sales numbers and making the call last as long as I could, evey ten minutes of their time must have cost them a pound or so. Also it's gonna cost them dealing with my long complicated letter which will porbably have to up through a few levels of management and to some of thier legal people.
"you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund" is the wording, so basically you will get your money back, no mention of lost interest or bank charges.
10 years ago? It must be paying a good rate of interest now - lol.
It's a bank. Nobody keeps much money in a bank account unless they're utterly insane.
Banks pay rubbishy interest rates. You're really throwing it away if it's in a bank. Might just as well give it to some tramp.
Banks are for keeping spending money in. Never have more than 500 in a bank - certainly not at 0.5% interest (which is what most pay). Better to invest in something like bonds.
We use Nationwide, instant electronic transfer to and from current account to a savings account which pays (currently) I believe about
4%.
Treasury Bonds mature at 15% :)
Horses for courses, the Nationwide 'E-Mail' account (I think that's its name) gives you instant access to the 4% rate with no penalties for moving money in and out. There are obviously better places to put long[er] term money.
Well, if you're going to divide money into three categories: Ready-access mid-term investment
Then you're probably right. A good example would be the monthly salary goes into the mid-term account. What you reckon you'll need over the month goes into the ready-access account anything leftover at the end of the month that's still in the mid-term account goes into investment - at the end of the month or when the quantity merits it.
That should not be enough. Mechanisms exist for electronic signatures, and many of these are stronger and more secure than pen and ink ones. So, if electronic signatures are to be accepted for DDs (or other financial instruments) then they should be made using a public key system for which your bank (or whoever the instructions are addressed) has the corresponding public key. This could either be PGP or similar, or the financial institution could issue an X.509 type certificate to its customers.
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