Price comparison site for Spain

No cute meerkats or annoying opera singers, and despite the name, only in Spanish, but fairly self-explanatory -

www.mybestoption.es

Compares telephone, adsl, electricity, mobiles, insurance etc.

Hi Roberto hope you can help, I have decided to end my telephone and adsl contract with Telefonica, because I think they are a total rip off, however I have heard that it is difficult to stop them taking payment from  bank account do you know the correct way to do this so I wont be out of pocket. Thankyou, Kathy

I honestly don't know, but maybe the company you are changing to can help? If you aren't changing to another (just cancelling) your best bet is probably to instruct your bank to refuse any payment requests from Telefónica.

Yeah, just get your bank to block any requests from Telefonica.  They will do it for you.

Justin

Hi - just a word of caution about cancelling Direct Debits.  Many companies will continue to take the money on a cancelled Direct Debit and I am told you only have 15 days to spot this on your bank account and demand they put the money back.  I don't know why the banks allow this but they do.

When I cancelled my Securitas contract I made sure I had the cancellation of the direct debit in writing from the bank and sure enough Securitas took the next month's money from my account regardless!  I got the money returned to my account as soon as I asked the bank to do this.   The moral is to keep checking your bank statements!

Happy New Year to everyone!

The problem seems to be, you can cancel a direct debit and even get the bank to confirm it in writing - but incredibly, insurance companies and the like can apparently just start a new one by sending a payment request to your bank - no need for you to authorise it! I still can't believe this, but it happens. So, you need to make sure your bank understands that ALL future requests for payment by the company are refused. They have the technology (yes, they have a natty little invention called a computer which can do amazing things, if asked to) they just seem unable or unwilling to use it unless pushed. I have a permanent block on my account against Telefónica - I know, I've seen it on the computer thingy with my own eyes!

But take Claire's advice and keep checking your statements anyway! Belts & braces.

Thank you Roberto and everyone for your informative answers I am going armed with this info to my bank so hopefully may have success. Happy New Year to all. Kathy