What to Do If Your Direct Debit Payment Fails | Missed Direct Debit | Access Paysuite (2026)

FAQs

What happens if my direct debit fails? ›

What happens if my direct debit bounces? Your bank will typically try to process the payment again. If it fails again, they may charge you a fee.

Most returned direct debits are due to insufficient funds in the current account. This means that you do not have enough money in your bank account to cover the payment - so it bounces back.

What if my account does not have sufficient funds to cover the Auto Debit deduction? If your bank account does not have sufficient balance, the Auto Debit will get failed or bounced and you will have to pay your SBI Card outstanding through other available payment option along with charges levied on same (if any).

Bank debit payments can fail for a number of reasons, from invalid bank details and bank accounts being closed, to not enough money in the payer's account. In reality, of all the reasons a bank debit payment can fail, most are rare.

A direct deposit payment may be returned automatically by the payee's receiving depository financial institution (RDFI) if the payment cannot be posted because the account is closed, the payee is deceased, or other reasons.

What happens when you don't have sufficient funds? Not being able to pay your debit order because of low funds will result in a penalty fee, as well as a late-payment fee and added interest to your account. Bounced debit orders can reflect negatively on your credit profile, and affect your credit history in future.

When a Direct Debit collection fails, you can try and collect the payment again. This is known as re-presenting. However, before trying to re-present, it's important to understand why the failure happened in the first place, using the reason code in your ARUDD report as a starting point.

So either the purchase will go through and overdraft the account or it will be declined. If it goes through and your account is overdrawn then you will likely get overdraft fees each time you do a transaction plus there may be a low balance fee accessed as well for each month with a low balance.

Funds will be returned to the ACH, typically within 2 business days of the pay date.

Insufficient Funds: Usually, payments fail simply because the customer does not have the required funds available in their account to cover the transaction – or because they have exceeded their credit limit. In either case, their bank will typically reject the payment.

What happens if automatic payment doesn't go through? ›

If your bank makes an error in dealing with your automatic debit payments, you might face problems such as the following: Your bank pays late. If your bank doesn't make automatic mortgage payments on time, you could suffer the consequences, such as late fees and a blemish on your credit reports.

If your AutoPay set-up fails, it could be due to various reasons. You can try setting up a new one from the relevant app or website after some time. You will need to authorise the request again on PhonePe to successfully complete the AutoPay set-up.

Most direct debits are retried at 14.30. if there isn't enough money then to pay them they will be resubmitted usually about 14 days later.

What do I need to do if my Direct Debit has failed ? If your payment was unsuccessful, contact your bank to see if they can assist with identifying any issues that may have occurred.

If you don't have enough money in your account

Most banks will contact you if a payment has failed, giving you a deadline to put enough money in – often by 2pm that same day. If they still can't make the payment, you might have to pay an unpaid transaction fee or overdraft interest if they make it anyway.

In general, a single missed direct debit is unlikely to cause major, long-term damage to your credit score, especially if you pay the outstanding amount quickly. However, a pattern of missed payments could hurt your ability to get approved for credit in the future.

It's the bank that is responsible for refunding you in the event of a mistake, even if the original error was made by the organisation collecting the payment. Remember, if you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay the money back when the organisation asks you to.

It's important to remember that cancelling the Direct Debit simply stops payments from going to the organisation you are paying. If you still owe money for something you've bought, or are still receiving a service, you'll need to organise another way of paying.