Forum Discussion

Maria_P2's avatar
Maria_P2
Joining in
21 days ago

Direct Debit was set up without my awareness

A few days ago, I received a letter from Virgin Media saying that I had authorised payment by direct debit. However, at no point while filling in the new customer form did I give this authorisation. In fact, my first payment was made by bank transfer.

I rang the support line to find out what had happened and was asked if I had given my IBAN at any point. I said yes, because the form requests this obligatory information.

Apparently, from what I was told, this is enough to authorise the direct debit even without my express consent.

Is this really how the process works? It is not a problem having the direct debit set up, but I dislike being forced to do something without being told in a transparent way and I would like to understand the situation.

direct debit
new client
payment
  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    21 days ago

    If you have placed an order then VM will take a payment to check that the DD is valid. But the payment will be returned if the connection is not made for any reason, e.g. if you exert your right to cancel. 

    • Maria_P2's avatar
      Maria_P2
      Joining in
      21 days ago

      I only paid my first bill after setting up the connection. I thought it was strange actually that I got the service first and I only paid after.

      There was never money being taken from my account, I paid it myself with my debit card. It was only after all that that I received a letter saying I had authorised direct debit but I'm guessing they'll only use this payment method on the next bill. 

  • Tom_W1's avatar
    Tom_W1
    Forum Team
    21 days ago

    Hi Maria_P2 thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of your concerns raised.

    Usually you should get a prompt or agree to something before we attempt to take a Direct Debit, so we're sure this would've been communicated to you but we'd like to check things over, just so everything's in place for you as you wish.

    Please allow us to send you a DM so we can investigate further and respond directly when you can!
    Many thanks