No Direct Debit means bigger bills!

I walk in reciting my pin number too - but silently in my head. I am always scared I will embarrass myself by forgetting it at the last moment

responding to post previous , the company must give you 30 days notice to change a direct debit , and you are also covered by the direct debit guarantee which gives you rights to recall your money if an incorrect payment is takne

Also monthly direct debits mean that the utility companies can make money from your money as you are paying in advance of the bill.

goose1964
I beg to differ
It's 10 days notice.
See my earlier post/screenshot to janeainsworth.

It is relatively easy to understand why so many elderly people cannot adjust to changes happening around them. It is all too fast. When they were growing up nothing much changed (including most prices) and life really was simpler.

Changes have come about thick and fast and continue to do so. Elderly people cannot have time to get used to any one change before a host of others confront them. The world is not simply different but unrecognisable.

That is why they cling on to what they know and understand. The cost is almost irrelevant. It is too much for us to expect them to understand and accept changes to their settled and safe existence when they themselves cannot understand why. The fact that many of us also challenge many of those 'whys' which are never made for our benefit despite what we are told.

Banking is never going to be what we knew or expect. All we may expect is that it continues to serve as a means of money transfer plus all the insecurity inherent in electronic systems. The latter are the responsibility of the banks as long as we maintain our own vigilance. A cheque properly executed and delivered avoids electronic dangers. But cheques will not be with us for much longer.

Thankfully my DM (she's 89) is very good at paying by DD except her oil for heating, that has to be billed when the Company fill up her tank, oil prices are not static but vary like petrol prices do.

I have also set up on-line banking for a couple of her Utilities, she is quite savvy where money can be saved. I do her on-line accounts as she doesn't have a computer or smart phone.

CardiffJaguar cheques will stay even though the banks would like to get rid of them, there are many people who still use them, not all businesses would survive without cheque payments.

Some of the elderly find technology quite confusing, change has been enormous in the number of years these older people have been around. Business can make allowances they just choose not to because they make more money by doing it the way they do. It's called laziness, they programmed it in that way and they can also programme in an allowance for the elderly to do it the way they are used to. It won't be many years and there won't be any of these people around who can't understand the new ways.

They also take the amount they want and make you wait ages for a refund or only give it to you if you ask!
Welshwife on the other hand, we owe them for gas and they haven't asked for it so presumably are happy for us to make up the amount in the summer months through our d/d.

Legs55: perhaps you will find the information at this site useful - paymentsystemsconsultancy.com/payments/payment-statistics-highlight-the-rapid-decline-of-cheques/

The decline in use will be the deciding factor (not the banks) as the costs will not be acceptable.

I think the capacity of elderly people to adapt to change is under estimated. In the early years of this century I had uncles heading for their 90s and more, who were quite happy using the computer and, at present, both my 90+ aunts are using computers to send email, order food and manage their affairs. As our many other friends in their 80s.

There will always be some who struggle, I heard someone in their 50s on the radio yesterday proudly boasting that he didn't use computers, ever, for anything, but the computer industry started in the late 1950s so there are more and more people in their 80s now who have worked with computers all their working lives.

In the days before DDs I remember my grandma really worrying about her fuel bills once she moved away from coal (paid for when it was delivered) and electricity ( slot meter so PAYG). She would have loved DD so she could spread out the cost over the year evenly and the only caveat to this is sending in regular meter readings.