Ed asked his bank to cancel a direct debit for a gym membership. But the monthly payments continued to leave his account.
What happened
Ed was trying to sort out his finances to reduce the amount of money he spent each month. He printed off a list of his regular payments, looking for things he didn’t need or could live without. He decided to cancel his gym membership, and he asked his bank to end the direct debit.
However, the bank didn’t do this. And Ed’s payments continued for a few months before he noticed they were still leaving his account. When he complained, the bank apologised for the mistake and offered him £50 for the inconvenience it had caused.
Ed didn’t think this was enough. He asked the bank to refund the money it had sent to his gym by mistake.
The bank told Ed he should have noticed the payments were still being made, and refused to offer him a full refund. It also claimed he could still have benefitted from his gym membership during those months.
Unhappy, Ed brought the matter to us.
What we said
We thought it was unreasonable for the bank to say Ed had benefited from his continued gym membership. He had no reason to use the gym as he’d cancelled his membership. And we didn’t agree with the bank that Ed should have noticed the payments were still being made from his account.
We also reminded the bank of its responsibilities under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme which covers exactly this sort of situation.
We upheld Ed’s complaint. We told the bank to refund Ed for the payments it had made since he’d cancelled the direct debit. We also told it to pay him £150 for the inconvenience it had caused.