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.