Any idea why the direct debits are taken on different days each month?

[Onetidy]

Hi any idea why one month direct debit is on a different day and date from every other month. I understand if its a weekend but its not. 27th Wednesday 31 Thursday etc etc. I thought whole point of dd is its a confirmed contract charging the account on a set date

[JonathanB]

Hi @Onetidy,

We did have some recent issues where a small number of customers had Direct Debits collected later than expected but generally this is quite stable and consistent, so I'm sorry if this affected you.

I'll explain the usual schedules though and that way you can double check if there's an issue we need to take a closer look into.

We collect Direct Debits 19 days after your bill date, so it's technically your bill date that is fixed not the actual payment date. Also Direct Debits are also only collected on week days, with the exception of bank and public holidays.

So if your bill are produced on the 1st then the payment date should always be the 20th, or first working day afterwards.

It can be a bit more complicated if the bill is produced on the 12th or later. E.g The bill produced on 12th March is due on the 31st March, but the bill produced on the 12th April is due on the 1st of May. Hope that makes sense?

As @Avondale pointed out, your bank's system may also cause a variation in when they reserve the funds. Some banks, in my personal experience, will lower your available balance right around midnight, and for others it can be some point between 0900-1700. In the event of an error, it's far more likely that we'd collect the Direct Debit a couple of days late than ever early.

Hope this all makes sense.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[sc1999]

Your direct debit gives 3 permission to instruct your bank to pay them but it requires 3 to request the payment. It is not unusual for a company to be late in asking the bank or for the bank to be late in meeting the company's request. Despite my bill date being the same day each month the date varies by up to 6 days month-to-month when the money leaves my bank account.

Vodafone takes my money same day every month but most of my dd's vary by a few days.

[Avondale]

@Onetidy 

A delay on one or two days might be down to the banking system.

What is important is that the money is not applied for early. What exactly does your DD contract with Three say ?

For example, I have had one e-mail today (not Three) that says my payment is due today and will leave my bank account within the next ten days. That's clear enough for me !  

I would re-iterate that what is important to me is that the money is not applied for early and also that it is not taken more than once.