

Our Payments Were Automatic. Stopping Them Wasn’t. - zck
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/business/26digi.html?_r=1

======
yardie
I've had nothing but bad experiences with these automatic payment schemes and
they ended up costing me more money than if I had mailed the check myself.
What makes it even worse is there is no system in place to resolve disputes.
No help from the banks, no help from the payee, and no help from any
government agency. You're pretty much at the mercy of them sending you your
money back whenever they feel like it.

When I moved across the Atlantic, my wife was much more comfortable with the
system here. Every company sent you a form to do deductions and the bills
arrived a few days, or weeks, before the deductions were processed. And they
are easily reversible if something isn't settled. You've got to love a system
that is fraught with abuse and little power for the consumer.

~~~
thirdusername
Could you specify where "here" is, please. :)

------
viraptor
I think the people in that article failed to pay in time and the company
requested the outstanding payment correctly. However, in UK there is a
standard form for direct debits which says "If an error is made by <the
company> or your Bank or Building Society, you are guaranteed a full and
immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid." which puts the
responsibility on the local branch directly and doesn't allow a refund to wait
till some random day in the future (so closing the direct debit should work
the way people from the article wanted). Does anyone know if there is a
similar rule on automatic payments in US? - I'm just curious.

~~~
pmorici
It's dependent on your bank and it's policies as well as how you setup the
automatic payment to begin with in the US. To avoid what happened in the
article you can use your banks automated bill pay instead of signing up for
the vendors auto mated payment program. That way you have full control over
when to start and stop payments. Of course that only works for fix monthly
payments for things that fluctuate like water and electric you really have
little choice.

~~~
viraptor
Actually direct debit works on any amount - it's ok to pay fixed or variable
amounts. Some companies do it differently (like my electricity supplier) and
charge me a fixed amount monthly and then send in the balance every year and
adjust the payments.

~~~
pmorici
Direct debit is when the vendor pulls the money from your account
automatically. Paperless checking is when you setup with your bank to send /
push the payment to the vendor. You have much less control over the former
than the latter in my experience.

------
jseifer
I'm not going on a rant about this but I would like to chime in to say that a
lot of people I've known who have done automatic debit have regretted it for
the reasons stated in the article. It doesn't stop after the specified time
and it's an adventure to get your money back. YMMV of course.

------
pmichaud
This type of shit is endemic because there is no incentive for banking
companies to play fair. They move money around with impunity. I hope they are
all dismantled or at least muzzled.

