DVLA and Direct Debits

[Jerzy Woking]

Decided to take 3 of my bikes off road for winter. All 3 I pay for monthly by DD. So this month's money came out on my bank account on 3rd, so cancelled the DD's and will SORN them at the end of the month.

 

I saw today that I had received 3 e-mails from DVLA saying that as I cancelled the DD's I have to re tax them or Sorn them now. I thought the DD's were taken in advance, so they were taxed until the end of October. Or have I got that wrong?

[Tamworthbay]

Mine were taken in the month the car was taxed, so October's payment was for October's tax.

[panhard65]

You were lucky I sold 2 cars in August and had the slips back to tell me I had sold them. Didn't stop the buggers from taking payments for both of them for the last 2 months. I even notified the sales on line and they managed to mess one of them up and didn't have the details. They are now refunding me but it will take a couple of weeks. Good old DVLA !!

[Cavcraft]

Always, but ALWAYS cancel DVLA direct debits yourself with your bank.

[Jerzy Woking]

So I have paid for October then-I will be SORN'ing them come 30th October. They are insured so that's not an issue. I cancelled the DD's after the 5th.

 

Shall I inform DVLA or (as I am won't to do) just fuck their email as I've paI'd for October.

[PiperCub]

Always, but ALWAYS cancel DVLA direct debits yourself with your bank.

 

Yes, but extend that to any DD you want to cancel - tell the company involved you are cancelling then go to the bank and cancel it so there's none of this 'Oh sorry, we didn't mean to take more money from you (hoping you wouldn't notice) must be a computer error' business. 

[tabact]

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-direct-debit/change-accounts

 

Example You pay by Direct Debit every month, but want to pay from a different account.

You cancel the Direct Debit with your bank on 5 June. You can continue driving your vehicle until 30 June.

[Jerzy Woking]

Cancelled my DD's AFTER they were taken from my account, so as I see it then the DVLA can fuck right off with their quite threatening e-mails telling me I have to either tax or sorn the bike.

If they've had my money then my bikes are fine.

 

But then this is the DVLA

[Captain Furious]

I have just SORN'd two cars so I may be eating these words quite soon, but the DVLA have always been quite good with DD's/SORNing

 

Normally the next months payment gets taken and then automatically refunded, because I tend to SORN them on the last day of the month which doesn't leave enough time for their 'system' to cancel it before taking the next months payment, but I'm ok with that.

 

I know, I know, taking my monies so it can earn interest in their account etc...

[Jerzy Woking]

I decided to let the DD go from my account before cancelling the DD, so I have paid for October.

 

The e-mail from DVLA says

 

"What next?

 

The registered keeper must now take one of the following actions. Failure to do this may result in a penalty.

 

To continue using the vehicle

The vehicle must be taxed immediately. To do this the keeper must buy 6 or 12 months vehicle tax. This can be done online at www.gov.uk/vehicletax, over the phone on 0300 123 4321 or at a Post Office that offers vehicle tax. You will need your V5C registration certificate"

 

No other option there then

[Junkman]

You were lucky I sold 2 cars in August and had the slips back to tell me I had sold them. Didn't stop the buggers from taking payments for both of them for the last 2 months. I even notified the sales on line and they managed to mess one of them up and didn't have the details. They are now refunding me but it will take a couple of weeks. Good old DVLA !!

The very same thing happened to me twice. In typical fashion when dealing with the DVLA, I did nothing, to not confuse things.

Low and behold, in the third Month, no payment was taken out and I received a letter containing a cheque for the excess tax.

 

My next experiment will be to not tax my vehicle anymore and see how long I get away with it.

Then plead dumb foreigner and pay the fine, which could be actually cheaper than the tax, depending on how long I get away with it.

[Des]

Dealing with DVLA = bad Juju.

Dealing with Bank = bad Juju.

Dealing with both at the same time = recipe for calamity and summoning sinister dark forces, you better be making the signs of the cross and have a sanctified artefact in your pocket.

[dollywobbler]

I've not once cancelled a DVLA direct debit, and it's not gone wrong yet. Sure, I quite often have the payment go out for a car I've just sold/scrapped, but the refund is always forthcoming. Would be annoying if I really needed that money though. This year, I'm fortunate that this is not the case.

 

What happens if you do a vehicle check on your bikes now? Are they showing as taxed or not?

[bub2006]

Dvla are issuing me with debt collector letters for failure to tax the volvo foad had in april. I sent logbook and a letter i recieved back to them

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

The very same thing happened to me twice. In typical fashion when dealing with the DVLA, I did nothing, to not confuse things.

Low and behold, in the third Month, no payment was taken out and I received a letter containing a cheque for the excess tax.

 

You can't possibly think this is reasonable, though? They take two months money they're not entitled to (more than £40 in the high band), and then send you a refund via an archaic method so it's more difficult to reclaim.

 

Forget that. Cancel the DD as soon as the keys are handed over. 

[derskine]

Dvla are issuing me with debt collector letters for failure to tax the volvo foad had in april. I sent logbook and a letter i recieved back to them

 

Did the same for a 309 I sold to JohnK, I just told them I no longer owned it and haven't heard anything since.

[bub2006]

I told them that at dvla. They said i have to write in. I also told debt collector matter was due to dvla faults not my own