My bank has advised that it is more cost effective to change from monthy direct debit to quarterly payment by cheque when in financial difficulties. The rationale is to avoid excessive bank charges for not being sufficiently in funds to meet the Direct Debit. The bank charged me for making the payments when I had passed my overdraft limit but the charges are even higher if they refuse to. Apparently this decision is a computerised one based on history etc. My question is twofold:- 1) has anyone ever been given this advice? and 2) has anyone encountered trouble in requesting to change their payment schedule in this way? I am on the Fixed Price until 2011 Option..

angry of farlington:

Regarding point (2) that depends on the terms and conditions for the particular tariff and the attitide of the supplier to the request. Have you asked?

Regarding point (1), possibly less occasions to incur charges but at the expense of the payment being much larger and particularly so in winter. Only you can decide whether you can manage that better than fixed monthly direct debits.

Is it possible to make a small adjustment to the Direct Debit collection date to lessen the problem?

Possibly the bank, I assume bank adviser, was trying to soothe your anger, but perhaps the advice is a bit simplistic.