Must I pay a bank charge?

Q My bank has charged me £25 for a direct debit of £13.77 which was not paid due to insufficient funds.

Why do I have to pay this? The bank has done nothing - I did not even receive a letter advising me of the problem.

SD

A Are you sure the direct debit was left unpaid? Or is it that the bank met the cost because you didn't have sufficient funds in your account? This sounds more likely, and would explain the £25 bank charge.

Assuming your bank subscribes to the Banking Code, it should have sent you a letter providing 14 days' notice of the charge being made. Not to do so means it is in breach of the code, for which it can be reported to the Banking Code Standards Board.

The charge itself, though, is most likely legitimate - it is your responsibility to keep sufficient funds in your account to meet any payments that regularly go out of it. Because your direct debit mandate authorises your bank to make the payment on your behalf whenever it is requested, the bank was simply following your instructions when it paid the £13.77.

I agree £25 is an excessive charge for the sum involved, but it's likely to be your bank's standard charge for such items as insufficient funds, unauthorised overdrawing, bounced cheques, and so on.