Not upheld: direct debit indemnity claim handling and information requests complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H complained that Santander unfairly requested additional information before processing her direct debit indemnity claim for payments to company T that debited her account from January 2019 to March 2022. She asserted the Direct Debit Guarantee did not require her to provide such evidence. The ombudsman found that the Guarantee's refund entitlement is conditional on an error being established first, and that Santander's requests for information were reasonable and necessary to investigate whether an error had been made by T. Since Miss H did not provide the requested evidence, Santander could not determine whether an error occurred and therefore could not progress the claim. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that the Direct Debit Guarantee's entitlement to refund is conditional on an error being established first. Since a direct debit is a 'pull' payment where Miss H gave authority, Santander made no error prior to being notified of the dispute. When notified, Santander's requests for additional information were reasonable and necessary to investigate whether an error had been made by T. Without this information, particularly given the historic nature of the disputed payments, Santander could not assess whether an error occurred and therefore could not progress the claim. Santander acted fairly in requesting the information and in not progressing the claim when it was not provided.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website