I recently had a customer asking me if she would be in control of her direct debit. She wanted to take out a policy and pay on a monthly direct debit basis and was afraid that she would have no control over it. I had to explain to her that it was her bank details and she could do what she wanted with them!
There seem to be many people who think that they are not in control of their own direct debits and bank details. I’m not really sure why they think this. If you have a bank account then it’s yours to control. It’s your money, not mine, not a company’s.
You can cancel a direct debit at any time. You have the right to do this. It’s also part of the direct debit guarantee. And it’s your bank account. You are in control. You change a direct debit and the dates or the amounts that are paid.
Obviously, if you have bought a product, like a car, then you will have to pay for it somehow or give it back, and you may want to think of a different way of paying your mortgage/rent/gas, etc, if you cancel those direct debits. Otherwise they’ll cut you off or take your house. But paying bills on direct debit is completely under the bank account holders control. Not the control of who you are paying the bill to.
