It’s important to keep a check on your Direct Debits for several reasons, but the dormancy rule is arguably one of the most significant of these. This is the rule that stipulates that a Direct Debit instruction will be removed from a banker’s system after 13 months (typically) of inactivity.

What is the dormancy rule?

The dormancy rule was put in place by Bacs, the body responsible for regulating Direct Debit.  It acts as a safeguard in the instance that Direct Debits should be left on a customer’s account indefinitely. This way, companies can’t reach their hand back into a consumer’s account at a later point without the permission of the account holder.

What to do in the event of an inactive Direct Debit

The first step in this process is ensuring you stay conscious of your Direct Debit activity so you can mitigate any issues that should arise. In order to continue further Direct Debit payments to a service provider, a new Direct Debit instruction must be issued.

This will require re-joining, or re-subscribing to the service you were previously using. Failure to do so will result in the Direct Debit payment being returned to the bank account.

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