Direct Debit Guarantee, Direct Debit Agreement, Direct Debit Abuse

[danx17]

So I wanted to stop the mess-ups of various DD's on my account, with the effort it takes for me to rectify (there's at least one every month) and so I've drafted these terms that I'm planning to put to avery copmany that wants a DD, or charge them for manual payment. How do they look?

 

Individual Direct Debit Agreement

Agreement Reference:DD/

 

THIS AGREEMENT is made the ***date***

 

BETWEEN:

 

(1) DE whose place of residence is at ***home address*** ('the Individual')

(2) (Company Name) whose registered office is at ***reg address*** (“the Service Provider”)

 

WHEREBY it is agreed as follows:-

 

1) DEFINITIONS & INTERPRETATION:

 

In this Agreement the following words and expressions shall have the meanings set out below:

 

‘Agreement’ to mean this agreement

 

‘DD’ to mean ‘Direct Debit’

 

‘my account’ to mean my (my bank account)

 

‘my bank’ to mean (my bank)

 

‘my’ or ‘myself’ or ‘I’ to mean (me)

 

‘your’ or ‘Service Provider’ to mean (service provider) and associated companies

 

‘bill’ to mean the invoice for the amount owed to Service Provider for the provision of any services

 

‘transaction’ to mean the automatic attempt to collect, whether existent or non-existent the financial contents of my bank account by Direct Debit

 

‘credit reference file’ to mean any financial records held by any agency regarding myself and my financial affairs with more than one company under any credit agreement

 

‘credit reference agency’ to mean any agency that holds records on myself and my financial affairs with more than one company under any credit agreement

Email address for the purpose of any email communication with myself: (email)

 

 

2) ENGAGEMENT:

 

a. If the Service Provider’s usual commitments cover these points then please reply that this is agreed by return email and proceed to arrange a Direct Debit on the 1st of each month for the full bill amount. If the Service Provider is unable to agree to this please note the charge for manual handling.

 

b. Both parties agree that further assurances than the Direct Debit guarantee are necessary in relation to the highly sensitive financial access to my bank account granted under the Direct Debit agreement, and that as part of the service provided by the Service Provider, good stewardship of my bank account, responsibility to take ownership of any disputes and the swift resolution of those disputes are fair and fitting responsibilities for the Service Provider to take.

 

c. Service Provider and Individual understand and agree that the implementation of this Agreement will be enhanced by the timely resolution of any dispute between them. Therefore, each party agrees to cause any dispute between them to be considered, negotiated in good faith and resolved as soon as possible in accordance with this agreement.

 

d. Service Provider agrees that any information or notification that affects any of my financial affairs with them will be communicated via email to (email address). Electronic records of sent emails will be deemed proof of receipt. Due to the nature of my residence I am unable to guarantee receipt of physical mail.

 

e. Service Provider will provide a suitable email address which I am able to raise any issues or initiate any disputes, as covered by this agreement. Electronic records of sent emails will be deemed proof of receipt.

 

3) SERVICE PROVIDER WARRANTIES:

 

a. DD to be set up to run on the 1st of every month, and must be collected no more than 1 (one) day after this date. Should the 1st of any month fall on a weekend or bank holiday, the collection must occur no later than the first working day after this date. Should any transaction be attempted outside these dates then Service Provider acknowledges I have no obligation to provide any funds in relation to the relevant monthly bill until the next due payment date, and will refund any charges applied to my account by my bank in relation to any attempted collection of funds before this date. This does not affect the total bill amount owed to Service Provider by myself.

 

 

b. Errors to be investigated by Service Provider on receipt of notification email from myself; conclusion to be emailed by reply to myself within 2 (two) weeks. Failure to respond within the 2 week term deems full acceptance of responsibility by Service Provider for the disputed issue.

 

c. Service Provider agrees that it is always the first to know that my credit reference file will be affected due to it being the originator of the payment information passed to the credit reference agency, and that therefore it is the most appropriate agency to pro-actively prevent my credit reference file being affected by any adverse and erroneous information regarding my payment history with them. Service Provider commits to ensure no information regarding any disputed transaction affects any payment history records held by any credit reference agency in my name in any way before any dispute is resolved. Service Provider agrees that any incorrect information being passed to any credit reference agency regarding my payment records with them is an instance of financial harm as defined in 5) Schedule of Charges, and should be rectified by Service Provider as soon as reasonably possible, and no later than 1 (one) month of any notification.

 

d. Any charges applied to my account by my bank that are Service Provider’s responsibility and that arise from any issue covered by this arrangement are to be met by Service Provider as soon as reasonably possible, and no later than 1 (one) week of email notification from myself.

 

4) INDIVIDUAL WARRANTIES:

 

a. I will not raise a dispute without reasonable grounds to believe, after investigation of my bank account records that an error has occurred and that error is the responsibility of the Service provider.

 

b. Notification email provided to Service Provider in respect of transactions on my account to include evidence of charges eg. online banking screenshot, ensuring the details and screenshots are clearly identifiable as having been applied to my bank account.

 

c. I will provide any and all information required by the Service Provider to enable the Service Provider to investigate the issues concerned without hindrance.

 

5) SCHEDULE OF CHARGES:

 

a. Both parties agree that the below charges are fair and representative of the financial harm caused to myself, as well as the time and distress involved in rectifying the negative impact of transactions madfe or attempted in breach of this agreement on my bank account, and on any records held by any credit reference agencies in my name arising from the unfettered, automatic and ungoverned access to my bank account granted to the Service Provider by the Direct Debit agreement.

 

Charge for manual payment: £10 monthly

 

Charge for correspondence in relation to Service Provider errors: £15 per email

 

Charge for errors by Service Provider or its agents to cover financial harm and distress: £50 per instance

 

Charge for further administration of affairs in relation to Service Provider errors: £50 per hour, or any part thereof

 

Signed for and on behalf of the Service Provider:

 

Name:______________________ Dated:

Title:

 

Signed for and on behalf of the Individual:

 

Name:______________________ Dated:

Title:

Edited November 4, 2011 by citizenB
formatted for easier reading

[dx100uk]

time to add some blank line if you want anyone to read this !!!

 

dx

[danx17]

time to add some blank line if you want anyone to read this !!!

 

dx

 

i know, but how do i do it!? i have a word doc all nicely formatted... x-o!

[dx100uk]

use the edit button in the msg

 

or paste from notepad

 

you cannot copy and paste from a word doc

it contains control chrs#

 

dx

[dx100uk]

what is all this drivel you've posted

 

have you an issue with a debt?

 

dx

[citizenB]

Have popped some spacing in for you. I have found if you use word , then copy and paste , it throws a wobbly. You need to pop in 3 carriage returns rather than the usual 2.

 

If you have online banking, why not set up standing orders and put in on your own dates for payment.

 

Direct Debits are at the mercy of the company requesting them.

 

Standing orders leaves you able to enter the date the bank should pay it into the company's account

[danx17]

[every month there's one company or another that messes up their DD instruction on my account,

leaving a DD bounce charge and or overdraft charge for me to pay (and sometimes bank charges on these charges).

 

I'm the one having to sort this out over the phone, and recently left Capital One calling me 4 times a day for 1.5 weeks,

at home and at work as basically, they messed a DD up by 5 days and so the cash wasn't there when they went to take it.

 

Having a 'finely balanced' income / expenditure schedule means that people have to take the cash on the dates agreed or it won't be there, and i keep getting charged for it not being there.

 

if i opt to pay by standing order i get harrassment from their CS department as they generally don't like it, and usually charge me for the priviledge.

 

So, why on earth shouldn't there be a responsibility agreement that they have to honour when given unfettered access to someones financial affairs?

[danx17]

Have popped some spacing in for you. I have found if you use word , then copy and paste , it throws a wobbly. You need to pop in 3 carriage returns rather than the usual 2.

 

If you have online banking, why not set up standing orders and put in on your own dates for payment.

 

Direct Debits are at the mercy of the company requesting them.

 

Standing orders leaves you able to enter the date the bank should pay it into the company's account

 

 

 

 

yeah they still don't really like it, there are manual payment charges, and you can't adapt the amount to the monthly bill which means i have to do it manually, for about 20 payments so i want my time compensated and to negate their charge

[dx100uk]

[every month there's one company or another that messes up their DD instruction on my account,

leaving a DD bounce charge and or overdraft charge for me to pay (and sometimes bank charges on these charges).

 

I'm the one having to sort this out over the phone, and recently left Capital One calling me 4 times a day for 1.5 weeks,

at home and at work as basically, they messed a DD up by 5 days and so the cash wasn't there when they went to take it.

 

Having a 'finely balanced' income / expenditure schedule means that people have to take the cash on the dates agreed or it won't be there, and i keep getting charged for it not being there.

 

if i opt to pay by standing order i get harrassment from their CS department as they generally don't like it, and usually charge me for the priviledge.

 

So, why on earth shouldn't there be a responsibility agreement that they have to honour when given unfettered access to someones financial affairs?

 

aside from this

 

it looks like you could well have some good cases for unlawful charges reclaims from your credit card/loan providers?

 

i bet atleast cap1 have stung you for over/late etc

all of those you can get back+int on them.

 

ever looked into PPI too?

 

i pay all mine by internet banking

 

or SO's

 

dx

[citizenB]

[every month there's one company or another that messes up their DD instruction on my account,

leaving a DD bounce charge and or overdraft charge for me to pay (and sometimes bank charges on these charges).

 

I'm the one having to sort this out over the phone, and recently left Capital One calling me 4 times a day for 1.5 weeks,

at home and at work as basically, they messed a DD up by 5 days and so the cash wasn't there when they went to take it.

 

Having a 'finely balanced' income / expenditure schedule means that people have to take the cash on the dates agreed or it won't be there, and i keep getting charged for it not being there.

 

if i opt to pay by standing order i get harrassment from their CS department as they generally don't like it, and usually charge me for the priviledge.

 

So, why on earth shouldn't there be a responsibility agreement that they have to honour when given unfettered access to someones financial affairs?

 

yeah they still don't really like it, there are manual payment charges, and you can't adapt the amount to the monthly bill which means i have to do it manually, for about 20 payments so i want my time compensated and to negate their charge

 

 

Aha righto.. I understand now.

 

I doubt very much you will get any company to sign on the dotted line. I rather suspect you will be better served by writing a stiff letter to each of the companies advising that they are abusing the Direct Debit system.

 

Explain that your finances are finely tuned to the dates originally agreed and when they decide not apply on the given date, you incur charges both from them and from your bank.

 

You are now insisting that they take the payment on the due date (which if falls on a weekend or bankholiday must be the next working day) otherwise ou will be making a complaint to the FOS under the DD guarnatee.

 

Have a read of the Bank Lending Code.. copy below.. Under Treating Customers Fairly and see if there is anything in there that you can also dump in their lap.

 

Then as DX says.. put in a claim for any and all charges that you have incurred from the company as they are being unreasonable.

 

HTH

 

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[danx17]

yeah, this is it right, but my point is that under any agreement, i'm as much of a valid participant in the t&c's as they are, and just as they charge for inconvenience of their time i will too. now if i'm to be inconvenienced by either time spent rectifying their mistakes, getting upset because of a failure of their process or even worse, penalized, then i deserve compensation. i'm not giving them a choice, just as they amend their terms without my say so, i'm issuing them with a fee schedule or charging them for my time.

 

i want to know what rights i have to issue a fee schedule by default, and what rights i have to amend or impose terms.