Standing order to closed account

[Athena222]

I recently had a run in with Amex and as a consequence paid my account in full and closed it, sending them a letter confirming I wanted to close the account and sending them my cut up card. They confirmed in writing that the account had been closed and I can no longer access my online account.
Today I have received a bill from Amex with a standing order that I had forgotten to cancel. Surely they should have rejected this payment? How can they apply a payment to an account that no longer exists?

[bednobs]

just ask them to send you a cheque for the money as your account is closed.

You could just have easily said surely you should have cancelld the s/o

[whyme]

hi,think you have to cancel order with bank not crdt crd.

[Athena222]

The direct debit is paid to the credit card (amex) there is no bank involved at all.

[bednobs]

is it a direct debit or standing order? you mention both but they work in different ways. With dd, amex would have requested the money With s/o your bank would have automatically given them the money with nothing to do with them. I dont understand how a bank is NOT invlved with those transaction? You set up a standing order directly from your wallett??

[Athena222]

It's an annual payment automatically charged to the credit card (which is now closed)

[whyme]

if you have authorised for a standing order to be taken from account then you have to cancel that order with whoever you set it with, usually in writing as they need a signature in regards to data protection act, before it will be cancelled

[bednobs]

aha it makes more sense now. What you mean is they are still "charging" things to your account? Your question made it seem like they had taken the minimum payment from your bank or something. Was the annual charge for the credit card? if so, you might still be obliged to pay it if you used ot for a part year or whatever. they are then entitled to send you a bill IN RESPECT of the closed account, as there s an additional charge you havent yet settled. in fact i would imagine they keep your account open till you've paid all monies owing to it

[Grunty]

I have found that it is not a good idea to authorise any regular payment from a credit card. If it was a current account at a bank, it would have worked in the way you suggest. In the case of a credit card, the recurring payment can only be cancelled by the person to whom it was payable. I had a similar problem when a closed credit card account was resurrected about a year after I had closed it.

[dzug]

It's neither a direct debit nor a standing order - it's a continuing payment authority that you have given to the payee. Unless you cancel it with them, the payee, Amex have no option but to pay it and bill you for the amount, regardless of whether your account still exists or not.