DD Refunds to Exceed PPI Expectations
Online, April 14, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The UK hugely favours direct debit as a payment method as it makes it simple and often saves you money on paying your bills. However a huge number of companies have been keeping money back, setting up direct debits incorrectly and in many cases fraudulently abusing the direct debit guarantee.
You will of heard recently about the major energy companies having to give back millions of pounds to their direct debit paying customers, well this is not where the story stops.
Thousands of companies have been setting up direct debits incorrectly, therefore even if you have given permission to pay by direct debit you may sill be able to claim your payments back legally,
This has opened the door to DD refunds where by people can claim back their payments and the whole process can take just a matter of days.
It is estimated by Gladstone Brooke Associates the first UK company to offer this as a service that 73% of the population are entitled to claim and they offer their service on a no-win, no-fee basis.
It may just be a simple case that no direct debit mandate was signed. However it could also be the date on the mandate differs from when the money was taken and no advance notice was provided. There are a huge number of reasons and Gladstone Brooke Associates say that the majority of people would never have known they could get this money back and would never have even spotted the mistake.
Sam King from Gladstone Brooke Associates has said that companies have been completely irresponsible in not following the guidelines established within the direct debit guarantee. He stated that refunds can be completed within days and the average refunds are between Ј2,500 and Ј40,000.
Although these type of DD refunds are fairly new it does look promising for the general UK consumer. However how is all of this going to affect the economy when companies are forced to hand back millions by simply not following correct procedure.
Overall it looks good for the consumer but for the companies themselves and for the UK economy it certainly looks like a worrying prospect.