Went on my online banking this morning and saw that an unexpected transaction had shown up on my current account. It was only for around €70 but it had overdrawn my account, which was extra annoying because I don't have an authorised overdraft. The narrative was OP/[name of my bank] CARD PAYMNT so I figured it was a mistake by my bank.
Rang up my branch who said they'd look into it, then got back to me to tell me that it was a direct debit payment to my credit card.
(a) I don't have a direct debit set up for my credit card - I pay lumps off it every month using online banking and I ALWAYS pay more than the minimum amount
(b) The amount of the direct debit was around €40 less than the minimum payment of 5% of the balance anyway
The upshot was that the bank person agreed to reverse the transaction and to cancel the direct debit order on the account. I've written a letter to them confirming the instruction and informing them that as far as I was concerned I gave no authorisation for this direct debit payment and I did not expect to be hit with an extra charge for being overdrawn.
So everything should come out alright in the end. But I'm wondering if this was just a slip-up on someone's part or if they could really have set up a direct debit on my account without my permission. I know that I can do it through internet banking but I have to go through additional pass-code protection stuff to do it. And I definitely never signed the mandate.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Rang up my branch who said they'd look into it, then got back to me to tell me that it was a direct debit payment to my credit card.
(a) I don't have a direct debit set up for my credit card - I pay lumps off it every month using online banking and I ALWAYS pay more than the minimum amount
(b) The amount of the direct debit was around €40 less than the minimum payment of 5% of the balance anyway
The upshot was that the bank person agreed to reverse the transaction and to cancel the direct debit order on the account. I've written a letter to them confirming the instruction and informing them that as far as I was concerned I gave no authorisation for this direct debit payment and I did not expect to be hit with an extra charge for being overdrawn.
So everything should come out alright in the end. But I'm wondering if this was just a slip-up on someone's part or if they could really have set up a direct debit on my account without my permission. I know that I can do it through internet banking but I have to go through additional pass-code protection stuff to do it. And I definitely never signed the mandate.
Has this happened to anyone else?
And it may count as a missed payment so I guess I'll have to ring the credit card centre and talk to them about it.