Unauthorized Direct Debit

[AliDesign]

I have had a mortgage with Start Mortgages since Sept 06 which was originally set up to be paid by direct debit from my partner's Bank of Ireland current account. In Nov 06 he switched his account to permanent TSB and we cancelled our direct debit and started paying by bank transfer. Everything was fine until March 07 when we got a letter from Start saying that our direct debit was rejected due to insufficent funds. I rang them and told them we had paid them by bank transfer and they found the payment 2 days later.

Long story short, I got my 12 month statement from Start which has a "Late Direct Debit Return". Due to this we have been refused a remortgage as we are trying to switch mortgages at the moment (paying 8.050% interest with Start). The unusual thing about this is that they tried to take the DD from my partner's new account which we did not authorize with a DD mandate form, so Start somehow got my partner's new PTSB account details. Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this legal!

It is a bit coincidental that in Feb/March we were trying to switch our mortgage when all this happened!!

 

[xb_deai]

I would contact the financial ombudsman. Had a similar problem and once the wheels were set in motion with the ombudsman documents were found that they claimed they had never recieved and they cleared my problems with the credit history. The ombudsman is there to keep control on these companies and complaining is the only way to get change.


www.financialombudsman.ie/

 

[Auntie]

The unusual thing about this is that they tried to take the DD from my partner's new account which we did not authorize with a DD mandate form, so Start somehow got my partner's new PTSB account details. Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this legal!

AliDesign; If u switched using one of these 'switcher packs' (not just closed one account and opened another yourself) then all the details of the standing orders and dds are automatically transferred to the new bank and do not have to be authorised again. Maybe you cancelled the DD after the information had been passed from BOI to Start (as to why it took them til March to use it I cannot imagine!)
I switched from BOI to UB a couple of years ago and it was a disaster which meant my missing a mortgage payment as the BOI decided to close the account on the day that the payment (to themselves!) was due to go out. Thankfully it came back as 'Account Transferred' so there was no problem with credit rating etc
Incidentally, I subsequently switched back cos I wasn't happy with UB (and BOI introduced the 'no fees' in the meantime) and this time did it myself, contacting any companies myself and filling out new DD mandates with PLENTY of time before next payment, and it worked out much better.
As xb deai says, contact the financial ombudsman and get this sorted. There is no way you should have a black mark through no fault of your own.

 

[AliDesign]

To be honest, I think Start knew we were looking into switching our Mortgage in Feb/March (they could see that other banks were checking our credit history on the ICB and I was requseting our mortgage statement). If the DD was cancelled with them they had no reason try and get the money form PTSB. I would not be supprised if they were trying to sabotage our chances of remortgaging.

Our ICB hasn't got any black marks because of this, but Start have refused to take the "Late" reference off our statement which is the reason why we were refused a remortgage (apparently just by having any reference to late payments is enough to refuse). Start have sent us a letter, after hours of discussion on the phone, saying "due to a technical error in March 2007 we applied for payment with the wrong Direct Debit details". Hopefully this will be enough to successfully switch our mortgage!!

 

[OneLife]

Couple of things-

If you are looking to switch your mortgage - you should not have to supply your mortgage statement to any new lender as your current mortgage with Start will be on the ICB.

As the ICB shows no late payment - the mortgage statement will have no relevance.

Start also don't have open access to the ICB to see if other lenders are running checks on you - however their retention policy probably kicked in when you requested a mortgage statement.

Also all Starts mortgage servicing and collection activities are outsourced to HML (a 3rd party company in Derry).

I really would seriously doubt that there has been any collusion between Start and HML to sabotage your chances of getting a remortgage.

What is more likely is that Start have no control over the annual statement that HML produces on their behalf and can't create a bespoke statement on your behalf.