I was looking at my direct debits (arrangements with one’s bank for a vendor of some sort (utilities, newspapers, and the like) to deduct funds from your account for remittances) and I saw this one:
Name Date Amount
CHURCH TIMES 00-00-0000
I was looking at my direct debits (arrangements with one’s bank for a vendor of some sort (utilities, newspapers, and the like) to deduct funds from your account for remittances) and I saw this one:
Name Date Amount
CHURCH TIMES 00-00-0000
::putting on the bank customer service hat::
I’m not sure if banks in the UK use the same method of payments, but in the US they use the ACH (Automated Clearing House). If a merchant or company sends one of these ACH transactions through to either debit or credit your account, from what I understand, the bank doesn’t have much control over how the transaction is labelled. Usually the name that’s displayed is what is transmitted through the electronic system from the debiting party.
::taking off the bank customer service hat::
The banking system is weird.
so weird …
[Rui?]
There is a totally different system here. But the important fact is that this is a “new” direct debit (companies that are too small to have their own systems contract with another specialist company to collect their direct debits and remit the money to them minus a fee) and no money has ever been collected from it. So the numbers shown are totally from my bank’s imagination.
I blame the software designer, the developer, and especially the software tester, who should have known the effect this would have on customers.
I know that the Church Times can be a valuable source of information, but not that valuable.
You’d think that if they need a fake amount as a placeholder, zero ought to work just fine (it’s not — or shouldn’t be — a valid amount to transfer).