Fattybatty

I started using Banco de Credito Balears until they charged me over £600 for a Banker's Draft when I bought an apartment. The estate agent said it was by far the most expensive charge she'd ever seen.

I went to Banca March because it was so much easier to transfer money to Spain. You just send them a cheque in Pounds Sterling from your UK bank (made out to the name of your Banca March Euro account) and when they receive it, they give you a reasonable exchange rate, no handling charges and the cash is there within a matter of a few days (postal time).

However, Banca March is not ALL good. I took out some insurance with them and after a year, decided on another insurance company. WHAM! They continued taking the premiums for their insurance. So I visited my local Banca March and he said that if you don't CANCEL the insurance in writing within two months of its expiry, they will take another year's premium. So I got the bank clerk to cancel the Direct Debit right there and then in the bank.

Amazing! A year later, when the insurance was up for renewal again, I checked my statement to find that not only had Banca March taken the premium, but they had reinstated the Direct Debit without my knowledge or approval!

I again cancelled the Direct debit - this time on-line - and guess what, a year later they reinstated it and took yet another year's premium.

There can be no law that allows anybody except the account holder (or the tax man) to fiddle around with your bank account like this.

Has anyone else had similar problems with Banca March reinstating cancelled Direct Debits?

Mitzyboy

For sure, I had private health care on a monthly d/d, and the only time I could cancel it was at the renewal.

I have car insurance with Mapfre on the same basis, but I cant cancel that until the annual renewal date.

I think you'll find a lot of people have problems with banks. You should have used a company like HIFX or MoneyCorp for a large amount. Then if you choose the right bank in Spain you dont pay anything in charges. We started of with Banco De Valencia and they charged us €200 on the first payment we made. I changed the bank to SOL Bank, and they dont charge anything.

Chiclanagir

Wouldn´t touch Banca March with a long pole. Were with them for six years and the charges were horrendous, the last straw being 15 euros charge for a Currencies Direct payment of 300 euros although there should have been no charge. Just shrugged their shoulders when we complained. So we moved to La Caixa completely different service and no charges.

snikpoh

Their comments about having to give two months notice to cancel is quite correct. If you give any less notice then it will be automatically renewed.

However the rest of what you say would seem to be completely out-of-order.

mikelincs

I used BBVA and Bancaja when in Spain, had no problems cancelling DDs even on line, and no attempt to take the money after cancellation, did have one firm that threatened discontinuation of service for several months, but no money taken, and we had cancelled by letter as well as via the bank.

missile

Many have similar issues with auto renewal in the UK, e.g. for car insurance. It can be a nightmare to stop a credit card authorisation.

JulianWard

I understand that in Spain a DD can only be cancelled by the person it is made payable to not the account holder, however, one can cancel a payment as long as it is done, I believe, within 3 weeks.


Also, some, maybe all, insurances (maybe other things too) must be cancelled with the company TWO months before they are due for renewal or the premium is still legally liable to be paid.

I had an experience with Knights Insurance Fuengirola. I cancelled the policy but did not discover until a year later, when they confirmed another year's cover, that they had taken the premium. I was unable to get a refund even though I had taken out cover with another company and Knights, finally, agreed they had my email cancelling the cover.

linjon

I recently cancelled DD for our community fees at our bank local branch. had no problems at all. Informed the administrators of the community by email and telephone but they still tried to obtain payment. The bank refused their request and lo and behold, I had a letter saying "there seems to be a problem at your bank..." Wasn't a problem to us!!

BTW we had cancelled it because the administrators took an extra quarterly payment last year as "some owners did not pay". All of us on DD ended up having paid an extra 118 euros even though this had not been even mentioned (let alone agreed) at the annual meeting.

In these difficult financial times beware or you too could find extra payments being taken to cover "bad debtors" even if they only happen to be the Developers that still own parking places and office space in the community. Sure this wasn't legal but doubt we will get any refund??

JulianWard

[QUOTE=linjon;
BTW we had cancelled it because the administrators took
In these difficult financial times beware or you too could find extra payments being taken to cover "bad debtors" even if they only happen to be the Developers that still own parking places and office space in the community. Sure this wasn't legal but doubt we will get any refund??[/QUOTE]

I think the alternative to the good payers paying a bit extra, which should be recoverable as it is simple now to take action against debtors, is that the community goes into debt and maybe looses some/all of it's services.

I know which option I would choose.

linjon

I would probably agree with you if it had been discussed openly at the last meeting where we had agreed to an increase in our fees anyway. The point is that only those on DD actually paid the extra as those who hand over the payments at the bank declined to pay extra UNTIL some actions were put in place to recover monies outstanding.

The developers still work from the office every day, but it seems that the community chairman has still not sanctioned any legal action despite him being a (Spanish) lawyer and our mainly spanish neighbours shrug and say "this is how it is in Spain" and rarely attend any meetings. They also say they do not pay on DD so it can't happen to them...Oh dear! And the administrators say they "do not know what will happen".

We are probably very fortunate that there is only one owner who has paid nothing for the past two years and doesn't live here either. I am sure many more communities have bigger debts, its the principal that is frustrating. END OF RANT.

Rotor

Report your card lost and ask for a new one with a different number ,aways worked for me,

missile

I wish it was that easy. I think you will find credit card company transfers any recurring charge authorisations to your new number. See here >
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6175920_st...d-charges.html

jackytoo

Happened to us. When cancelling the DD ask them for a print out confirming the instruction.

Rotor

I ve only done it with debit cards.

avocados

To the OP.......

I think you might find that you just don't understand the process!!

When you cancel a payment there is the option to cancel any future payments from whichever company.

Otherwise, only the existing payment will get cancelled.

I never give notice to any company........just cancel the payments.
Some make threats of legal action and all that.....I just tell them to F O.

Treat contempt with contempt.