direct debit

[vix2000]

does anyone know if it is legal for financial institutions to demand payment by direct debit only? Surely it doesn't matter how you pay as long as they get paid on time? Many now charge extra for payments by other methods but it doesnt cost them any more to process the transaction. It makes my blood boil being dictated to as to how I must pay, I think it should be my choice. The reason for this post is that my daughter is on benefits and gets paid weekly so I suggested she set up a standing order to pay a quarter of her mortgage every week in advance of her payment date, but her mortgagee has refused saying direct debit payment is part of the contract and no other payment is accepted. As you can imagine, with a new baby money is tight and it would be much easier for her to buget weekly when she gets paid than a whopping amount at the end of the month. She is trying her best to manage and they are actively blocking her efforts. Can they legally enforce this contractual agreement?

[BankFodder]

Unless ther is specific regulation, I don't see how they can insist on a change for existing contracts. For new contracts if they include DDs as a T&C then I owuld have thought that they can do what they want.

The problem is with their modification of an existing contract, ther is very little one can do.

A principle of English litigation is generally that you need to have suffered a loss before you can bring an action. In Contract this generally means a pecuniary loss. If you could demonstrate this then I would say sue them for breach of contract - after having double checked all of the small print, of course.

[gomadnomad]

Leagally a vendor can always stipulate the terms of payment and sale. I guess that if you look at it in the way that if you want to sell something to someone then you would be quite within your rights to ask for immediate payment or payment in a month by cheque or cash or whatever. I think that many financial institutions find it easier to track DD's than to have people say 'the cheque was sent three days ago havn't you got it yet?' or 'you should have got it by now i paid it in on xxxday'. It just cuts out any flexibility with regard to payment. As a business owner, I myself really could not afford to have customers dictating to me the terms of repayment....I would be bust in a week! Don't get me wrong i'm not an advocate for the banks but we do have to respect the fact that they are providing a service and expect to be paid for that service in order to make a profit. Terms of business are set by them. The point of this forum is not to challenge the right to make profit or dictate conditions of sale but to questions violations of law with regard to unfair charges. Don't mean to sound harsh it's just a point of view

[vix2000]

This topic was closed on 03/06/19.

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