>> In the UK, it is always better to opt for standing orders as opposed to direct debits.
Having worked in the Banking and financial sector for way too many years I'd disagree with that.
Once a standing order has gone into an account, its a nightmare to get refunds if anything goes wrong and you really are reliant on the payee returning the funds back in the event of error or overpayment. Many cases drag on for months.
At least Direct Debits are covered by the indemnity scheme whereby the bank can request the payment back if theres a dispute. 99.9% are refunded within a week.. and it was rare that that was anything outstanding for more than this.
(The banks have a suspense account which is balanced weekly and allows them to recredit the customer immediately).
Also a company which wishes to claim via direct debit has to be vetted by their own bankers and has to place security in order to cover the banks.
Thats why the likes of you and me couldnt claim payments via direct debit.. but anyone can give out a standing order mandate. I dont know what its like these days.. but Ive seen several cases were standing order mandates have been forged... which is something Ive never ever heard of with a dd.
>> it was the case that if the Company receiving the DD monies didn't cancel the authority, the customer couldn't actually stop the payment
Nope the problem comes if the customer forgets to stop the direct debit at the bank.
When the customer cancells a DD a 'stop' is placed on that direct debit via something called the originator number... which is unique to the direct debit originator (the company).
Everyday there'd be several DD stops that needed manually checking. For eg if you had a DD with an insurance company for house insurance and car insurance.. and you'd stopped say only stopped the car insurance.. it would pull up both on the stop report.
Someone physically checked the policy no which would be on the DD stop just to make sure.
In fact we often used to write manual notes on the stop card to make it easier for if the stop reports did pull it up.
EG car pol ABC1234 cancelled.. OK to continue with house XYZ7654 to save someone physically checking the dd mandates.
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oops some of this already covered.
* kitz also goes back to my erm glass of wine
