Last July, I decided to close one of my bank accounts. However, I forgot to update my direct debit details for things like gas and electricity bills. Recently, I got a notification that a direct debit for around £900 was deducted from that old account. This seemed odd since I had already shut the account down.
My question is, could there be any consequences for not updating my direct debit details? And how did this payment even go through on a closed account? Does anyone know what might have caused this?
You need to let your utility company know when you close an account and want to stop the direct debit. It’s not the bank’s fault if you didn’t update your details. Reach out to your bank to confirm the account closure and speak to the utility company to set up a new payment option.
@Tenzin
But this wasn’t the only direct debit linked to that account. Payments for other utilities didn’t go through. What’s odd is that this issue only started happening two months ago, but the account was closed seven months ago.
@Dru
If you’ve already switched direct debits to another account and only this one reverted to the closed account, it sounds like an error on the utility company’s side.
Tenzin said: @Dru
If you’ve already switched direct debits to another account and only this one reverted to the closed account, it sounds like an error on the utility company’s side.
I didn’t update the details for my direct debit. I’ve been making payments directly to the utility company using my card.
@Dru
Was the card you used tied to the closed account or another one? A direct debit, by definition, pulls money directly from your UK bank account with your approval. No card details are involved.
Zinn said:
Who notified you about this—was it the bank or the utility company?
It was the utility company. I assumed it was an error on the bank’s part, but I tried logging into the old account, and it doesn’t exist anymore. So the account is definitely closed.
@Dru
When a utility company sets up a direct debit in the UK, they send their requests to BACS for processing. They receive reports back on failed payments a few days later. It’s possible the notification you received was sent before the payment failure was processed. Alternatively, they may have made a mistake and failed to properly process the failure.
They’ll likely contact you soon to resolve the issue. You could call them now and provide your updated payment details.