How often can a debit card be debited

Tell Lloyds TSB that under the direct debit guarantee it IS their problem.

This was not a direct debit. They appear to have taken a "customer not present" debit card payment using the original card details.

Unless the customer signed a "continuing authority" then the club could be in serious breach of their merchant agreement by taking a further payment.

In message , Blackthorn writes

It isnt. The OP says the payments are now being taken by continuous debit card authority, NOT Direct Debit.

With respect, that is not what the OP said at all. The OP specified that authorisation for initial payments was given on a one-off basis and that subsequent payments were by DD (not CCA). Of course the OP (or his wife) may be confused on this point and *thought* she had signed a DD when in fact she signed a CCA, but the OP's wording does suggest that having taken some payments by DD, they then reverted to the original card details once attempts to extract dosh using DD failed.

This sounds like the subsequent payments are being taken fraudulently by the club representing to the card company that they have a CCA when in fact they have none. It would be odd to ask for initial payment by card as a normal transaction while actually getting the customer to sign a CCA unwittingly, and then go on to make them think they're safe by asking for a DD mandate which is independent of the card, but then subsequently, one the DD requests start to bounce, to re-activate the CCA the customer never even knew she had given. Of course if there was a CCA, there would have been no need for a DD.

Hmm, Ive re-read it. I agree with you. Sorry.

There's no need to apologise for agreeing with me. Or did you mean you regret having to?

:-)

Thanks for the thoughts about this issue, you have understood the issue precisely and confirm what I was thinking. The only unfortunate thing is that my wife does not seem to have the original joining agreement, I am going to get another one and see if there is some sort of "hidden" CCA.

On the wider issue, how, if at all, could a bank or any other institution determine whether the debit is a one off, or part of a CCA. This put the problem squarely with the cardholders to spot the transactions and to resolve the issues themselves with no support from the financial institutions until you can prove that the transaction was fraudulent.

AIUI, you dispute the transaction with the bank. The bank then asks the retailer for proof that you authorised the transaction. If they can't provide that proof (ie no CCA, or one-off authorisation for the transaction in question), then the bank refunds you and recovers the funds from the retailer.

You should tell your bank to cancel the direct debit, and cc this to the health club. The bank is required to accept your instructions. (Not the case with credit card continuous authority transactions though.)

Brian