Cancelling the Direct Debit is not necessarily a good idea if there might be a sum outstanding.

I'd leave the Direct Debit in place for a month or so. PlusNet are obliged by the Direct Debit Guarantee to give you notice of the sum they intend to debit. If they do not do so, you can contact your bank and have the sum reversed under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Agreed, but:

In reply to a post by David_W:

If they do not do so, you can contact your bank and have the sum reversed under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

But only if you disagree with the amount.

Otherwise, you are only moving the debt to a more complicated level like debt collectors.

Not sure about the exact choice of actions at their end... If you decide to leave, but don't ask them to downgrade your account (assuming it is still possible) to a "dial-up" account, then there's probably no obligation on them to retain the account mailbox.

It might be a bit too early in some circumstances, but I would hope by now that few people depend only on the ISP-provided mail account, and may have already submitted a mobile number and alternative e-mail address for communication.

If they have no easy means of getting in touch, they may resort to the slowest and costliest, in the form of a letter (perhaps with the suggestion, as someone else has mentioned, of debt collectors). It's probably a lot less hassle in the long run to get in touch than perhaps have a "bad credit" rating if they submit a "payment not made" report and have that on file for a while.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Agreed, but:

In reply to a post by David_W:

If they do not do so, you can contact your bank and have the sum reversed under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

But only if you disagree with the amount.

Incorrect - a change in frequency of debits or expected date of debit also triggers a prior notification requirement under the Direct Debit Guarantee. If prior notification is not given, there is a right to immediate refund via your bank or building society.

It would be unusual for a final payment to be for the full monthly amount, and it may not be collected according to the previously established billing cycle (depending on the organisation - I don't know PlusNet's policies).

I think the OP is referring to the Member Centre account access.

I think you misunderstand me. I know you have a right to a refund if there is an unnotified change but I am recommending not to exercise that right if only anything bar the amount is wrong. Otherwise you will still be in debt to the company.

Or are you saying a refund from the bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee does not in turn result in a chargeback from the company?

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I think you misunderstand me. I know you have a right to a refund if there is an unnotified change but I am recommending not to exercise that right if only anything bar the amount is wrong. Otherwise you will still be in debt to the company.

That wasn't what you said. Your words implied that the Direct Debit Guarantee only covers changes in amount, which is incorrect.

Even for a change of amount, I'd ring the company for an explanation first unless they've done something crazy like debiting far more than the sum you believe you owe, leaving you overdrawn.

There are two completely separate sets of legal rights and responsibilities here. One set relates to the contract between the individual and their bank, which incorporates the Direct Debit Guarantee. The second set relates to the contract between the individual and the supplier of goods and services. It is your right to activate the Direct Debit Guarantee as an account holder, but doing so does not affect the right of the supplier to the money you owe them. It's better to sort out any dispute with the supplier over the sum owed at the earliest opportunity than to use a right to snatch back your payment and wait for the supplier to pursue you.

The Direct Debit Guarantee is a safeguard but not, I'd argue, the first port of call for most problems.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Or are you saying a refund from the bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee does not in turn result in a chargeback from the company?

I have no idea where chargeback comes into this, unless you're using the term by analogy to credit and debit cards. If you activate the Direct Debit Guarantee, you are refunded and the supplier is ultimately debited the same amount.


I'm not familiar with exactly how the mechanism works, other than I believe successfully activating the Guarantee obliges your bank or building society to refund you, and this refund is final. The bank or building society then has to pursue the debiting party to get their money back - I believe organisations authorised to operate Direct Debits have to deposit some sort of security with their bank to cover Direct Debit Guarantee claims.

If I'm right about the way the Direct Debit Guarantee operates, it's more like section 75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 (groan) than chargeback. With s. 75, the debtor has the option of making the creditor severally (i.e. solely) responsible for sums due in breach of contract or as a result of misrepresentation, in which case any dispute raised by the supplier only affects the bank's right to recover their losses from the supplier. With chargeback, the cardholder only gets and keeps their money if the claim made on their behalf against the supplier succeeds. A chargeback initially credited under the card scheme's rules can be challenged by the supplier - if such a challenge is successful, the sum is redebited from the cardholder's account.

Very irritating and contrary!

In reply to a post by David_W:

Your words implied that the Direct Debit Guarantee only covers changes in amount, which is incorrect.

Nothing of the sort! I was just recommending a specific exception to your general instruction:

In reply to a post by David_W:

PlusNet are obliged by the Direct Debit Guarantee to give you notice of the sum they intend to debit. If they do not do so, you can contact your bank and have the sum reversed under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

The rest of your reply was so completely unnecessary to answering my point to you. Ever heard of 'Yes' and 'No'? Really, you do not have to give us chapter and verse of every legal aspect under the sun every time you answer a simple Q. A simple summary will do. If we need to know deeper I'm sure that most of us are capable of looking it up. We are not enrolled at your lecture theatre.

In reply to a post by David_W:

It's better to sort out any dispute with the supplier over the sum owed at the earliest opportunity than to use a right to snatch back your payment and wait for the supplier to pursue you.

The opposite of what you said in the 1st place:

In reply to a post by David_W:

If they do not do so, you can contact your bank and have the sum reversed under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Make up your mind!

In reply to a post by David_W:

I have no idea where chargeback comes into this, unless you're using the term by analogy to credit and debit cards.

C'mon, loosen up! Stop being so literal minded. Try some lateral thinking!

Your reply is basically a pointless word game in an attempt to show contradiction on my part. I'm not going to enter into that discussion, as it's just a waste of everyone's time. If that leaves your ego with the warm glow of feeling you've won an important victory at my cost, I gladly concede.

Earlier in the thread, the way you used chargeback was backwards: "does not in turn result in a chargeback from the company". If a chargeback came from the company, that would be them recovering money from the customer. I said nothing because your intended meaning was clear: if a consumer successfully invokes the Direct Debit Guarantee, the bank recovers the money from the company.

So long as the meaning is sufficiently clear to those that are reading and there is no ambiguity resulting, minor errors are not usually worth commenting on (I did so here only to exemplify my point).


The comments on chargeback were because you introduced a term with a specific meaning that has an important conceptual difference. A card chargeback can be reversed and the money returned to the supplier if the supplier successfully challenges the chargeback. A Direct Debit Guarantee refund is irreversible unless the customer misled their bank about there being bank or supplier error in connection with the supplier notification or the payment itself (the only grounds on which the Guarantee applies).

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by David_W:

Your words implied that the Direct Debit Guarantee only covers changes in amount, which is incorrect.

Nothing of the sort! I was just recommending a specific exception to your general instruction:

That point is interesting. Sky debit my bank account a different amount each month via Direct Debit, since the call charges vary each month. Under the Direct Debit guarantee I was under the impression that they should email me a few days before each amount is debited to tell me the amount and when it is going out of my account.

Would my understanding be correct?