Dear LPG,
 
I retired recently and used my lump sum to pay off my mortgage.  I am sure that I am not the only retiree to feel liberated because I will never have to make another payment for that.
 
I paid by direct debit because that is the only way that the Halifax would allow me to.  This is the method of payment that is so good because you don’t have to worry about anything; the people you are paying do everything once you give them permission.  So, having made my last payment I did not worry about the fact that the account that I pay them from had very little money left in it.
 
At the end of the month I received a letter from my bank informing me that I was overdrawn because the Halifax made an attempt to take the money from my account in spite of the fact that I had paid them in full.
 
Earlier, when I telephoned them, to tell them of my intention to pay the balance of my mortgage, they read me a very long-winded and official statement informing me of all aspects of paying off my mortgage, but there was no mention that I would need to cancel the direct debit that they were so eager to put in place when the process started.
 
I thought that direct debits were the payments that you did not have to worry about?  I phoned, they apologised and paid the fine but I ended up doing a lot of worrying, wasting a lot of time and making unnecessary phone calls.
 
Perhaps you do need to worry about your direct debits after all.

JB, Lewisham