Just cancel your direct debit.

[Suff]

You can always set up the direct debit, pay one month, then cancel the DD and tell the service provider you will pay each bill as it is issued.

You could also go to the lengths of opening a disposable bank account which you close so they have no actual account info for them to try and force.

Extreme lengths but they are being pretty brazen.

Of course they hold the power switch, so you could quite literally be in the dark until you take it to court.

I can't find anything about a legal right to refuse to pay by DD. But a complaint to the ombudsman and your MP might do more.

[Workingman]

Suff, I did number one in order to go monthly by debit card, and considered number two if all else failed.

The very best offers on the comparison sites were around £77 pcm, just for gas; electricity was extra, and as I am on PAYG (landlord's rules) not worth looking at. They all play by the same numbers anyway. Nobody give up front costs for gas unit price or pence per kWh for electricity, which are what people really need to work out their bills. You need an account and then be able to dig deep into their catacombs to discover the truth. That is something Ofgem should be looking at.

I think that the major problems are that people opt for DDs for convenience or that they cannot budget or that they are not good with numbers. What those things say about society and the education system is anybody's guess.

[Suff]

I blame a move from LSD to decimal.... At least people had to Think before spending money.

But, tongue in cheek aside, it is a problem. Too often now I see people hassling me for charity donations. "It's ONLY 70p", or is that ONLY £1 or ONLY £5 then Everyone is hassling you as being unreasonable. So people do a DD for this and a DD for that and DD for god knows what. They're probably doing DD for mobile and Sky and Internet and a whole host of other things. How often do people go back and check their DD's to see if they are really necessary?

It is life today. When I started seeing charities bombarding us with TV advertising costing Millions to "just" DD a fiver a month I could see the long term future.

We are an anachronism. I allow my phone by DD because it is just easier and I do track it. Ditto our internet in France. Beyond that? Zip.

[Workingman]

I have DDs for rent, home and car insurance, TV license, a couple official local charities that I know exist. That's the lot. No apps for this, that or the other, and if I buy online I do it as a guest.

I never, ever, respond to "surveys" not even to text STOP to them- they soon give up.

I was brought up on LSD, the money not the drug, and can still convert them.

[Suff]

I was brought up on LSD, the money not the drug, and can still convert them.

We were in Cyprus and then we returned about 2.5 years before the transition. I was still in school but still handling money. I remember it fairly well but didn't have enough years to not have to look up the conversions.

I do recall using sixpence, shillings and florins along with new pence, but it didn't last for too long.

[Workingman]

When I was in school we did Imperial and... the other. I am still not sure what it is - decimal?

I am comfortable with both - yards / metres, lbs / kgs, £sd and £p and can do them in my head. Gimme an inch and I'll take 1.61km (rounded). It's a mile as per the old saying

Unfortunately, in today's world, people absolutely need an app, or apps, to survive. Take away their phones and they are zombies. It's scary. No wonder some of you want self-driving buggies, not-so smart meters and Velcro 'shoelaces'.

[cruiser2]

I can remember my father getting a large diary each year to keep dates of meetings and work done. On the first few pages
there was a lot of information on distances, weights and measures.
It gave the measurements of old names such as rods poles etc. and a hundredweight-112 pounds.

I am trying to get a grip on metric and decimal but still ask for half a pound when buying loose products.

[Kaz]

Mick will still come out with such gems as "Fifteen bob for a packet of biscuits??!!" or similar as we go round the supermarket

[Workingman]

At school we had lesson books to do our work in. Each one had the first few pages filled with relevant information.

So history had kings and queens from Alfred the Great onwards, and other memorable dates / events. Geography had maps. Physics and chemistry had equations. Maths had metric and imperial.

It is amazing how some things stick.

[Suff]

When I was in school we did Imperial and... the other. I am still not sure what it is - decimal?

Metric. I was taught both too. But in my case we went metric for weights and measures and decimal for money.

Cruiser, I can only work out 1 Ton because I know it's 20 hundredweight and I know that a hundredweight is 112lb. Ask me what a ton is in lb and I'll pull out my phone and use the calculator. I do not have a numeric brain. Algebra, great, formulae? No issues, transposition of formulae? Absolutely. Basic numeracy? No chance that is what spreadsheets are for.... And, yes, I do know that you double each number and stick a zero on the end but I can't think of that when I see the question.

Just as I know a pint is 568ml and I can work it all out from there. When they taught me conversion at school they said 1" = 2.5cm. No it doesn't, it == 2.54. Which means a foot is 30.48cm and not 30 as they wanted me to believe. Also 1 gallon (imperial), = 4.54l. From there I work everything out, with the help of a phone with a calculator on it.

For those who like fractions, Pi is 3.14159 etc. But 22/7 is 3.142 which is close enough for most of us.

Anyway. Getting a long way from cancelling your direct debit.... But closer to why people can't see where their money is going once they moved to the much simpler Decimal money system and metric measurements. The brain ossifies when not used.