Understanding Indemnity Claim Challenges

What is an Indemnity Claim?

A Direct Debit indemnity claim (DDIC) is a way to get a refund for an unauthorised or erroneous direct debit payment. It’s part of the Direct Debit Guarantee, which protects customers from fraudulent or incorrect payments.

A customer can make a claim if they believe:

They didn’t receive the required notice of a change in amount or date
They were debited the wrong amount
They were debited before the agreed date
The payment was taken without their authority The bank must refund the payment immediately, and the customer can request a full refund at any time.

Can a claim be challenged?

Yes, in nearly all cases Indemnity Claims can be challenged if the correct evidence/proof is supplied to the bank. The only exception is if a “Reason Code 4” is stated as the reason for the claim being made.

Direct debit reason code 4 is for when an advance notice has been disputed. This could mean that the payer has disputed the time, amount, or frequency of the advance notice.

What has changed and why?

The process by which Service Users raise a Direct Debit Indemnity Claim Challenge has been altered.

Previously: If the Service User wanted to raise a challenge, they would follow the process as dictated by the Paying bank. This meant that claims raised by 2 different banks on the same day could need to be dealt with differently – depending on the processes each bank had in place. Many people found this confusing.

Now: Service users log into Payment Services Website (PSW) to raise the challenge. We do this by clicking on the new ‘challenge’ button. This ensures one process for all challenges. It will also keep an electronic audit trai

How long do I have to raise a challenge?

The day that an Indemnity Claim is raised (and a report made available for Service Users) is counted as working day one. If the Service User wishes to raise a Direct Debit Indemnity Claim Challenge, they must do so before the end of working day nine.

How do Service Users raise a challenge?

Once logged in to PSW, Service Users will navigate to the “DDIC Challenge” page via the left-hand menu.

They can search for DDIC Information and select a DDIC to review.

If they wish to challenge the Indemnity Claim they can choose the basis upon which they want to challenge it from possible challenge reasons in a drop-down list.

Service Users can attach up to 5 pieces of ‘evidence’ to support the challenge (e.g. a copy of the Direct Debit Instruction or an Advance Notice). Contacts can then submit the challenge using their given authentication approach – i.e. via username and password or via smartcard. Contacts can be given permission to raise the challenge themselves or alternatively, the challenge could require a second approval.

What happens once a challenge has been raised?

Once a challenge has been raised the paying bank will review the challenge and either accept or reject it. The status of the challenge will be updated on the DDIC Challenge tab and can also be emailed to contacts if this option is enabled.

If the challenge is accepted, the DDIC will be cancelled.

If the challenge is rejected, the reason for the rejection will be entered and Service Users can either relodge the challenge (until day 9) or accept the DDIC.

Any DDIC that is neither accepted nor challenged at the end of working day nine (the challenge cut-off) is auto accepted. Any challenged DDIC that is not accepted or rejected by the bank at the end of working day eleven (the response cut-off) will be automatically cancelled.

Want to know more about Direct Debit Management?

paygate v3 features & benefits

Security

✓

	paygate on prem	paygate v2	paygate v3
Security policy manager * Includes: password complexity manager, inactive timeout, time restrictions, IP address restrictions	✓	✓	✓
AWS ISO27001 hosted * Primary fail over and back up UK data centres		✓	✓
SFTP file uploads/downloads *Secure way to move files across the internet, customers can use their own certificates	✓	✓	✓
Gemalto security tokens MFA	✓	✓	✓
Email MFA			✓
SMS MFA	✓	✓	✓
APP MFA * Works with common auth apps such as Google Authenticator, Authy. Works on Android or iOS.			✓
PG Platform ISO27001			✓
Fraud tool *Currently support Blacklists and Whitelists. In a blacklist you add various sortcodes / account numbers and the system will prevent any payment to those accounts. In a whitelist you add sortcodes and account numbers and the system will ONLY allow payments to accounts on the whitelist. We include various tools to help build and maintain the lists.			✓
GDPR subject access request * Search tools to help perform a GDRP lookup. Then can optionally ‘sanitise’ personal data from the system.	✓	✓	✓
GDPR Data cleansing *Remove historical data by bulk or individual.			✓
Browser compatbility * We maintain support for Chrome, Edge and Firefox.			✓
Built for performance * Version 3 runs on super modern, high-end infrastructure			✓
Single Platform * Customers have a single user account that they can use across all services (Enterprise, Online, Validate, etc).			✓
Agent rebuilt key management system * Very secure way to get files to and from the Paygate cloud. Supports ways to automate files being sent into the paygate cloud and retrieving reports from the cloud. Key management was rebuilt for V3 to further increase security.			✓
HTTPS uploads/downloads * paygate v3 supports both SFTP and HTTPS.			✓
In browser File and Folder handling * Allows customers to securely organise their files and folders that are stored on paygate			✓

Service

	PG on prem	PG Ev2	PGv3
Logging tickets by email	✓	✓	✓
Logging tickets by portal			✓
Logging tickets by phone	✓	✓	✓
Dedicated account management	✓	✓	✓
Uptime improvements			✓
Ongoing development			✓
Bug fixing			✓
Auto File Import *Automatically imports a payment file and validates it. Users no longer need to manually browse for and import a file, paygate will do this in the background and present the validation results to the user.			✓

Workflow Automation

	PG on prem	PG Ev2	PGv3
Designer in browser * In V2 Workflows use an older style desktop app. In V3 workflows are built and managed in the Paygate Browser app. It’s much easier to deploy and manage.			✓
Designer 3rd party app	✓	✓
Improved logging * A feature mainly for PS/CS to help them diagnose problems with workflows. Problems can be diagnosed and fixed faster.			✓
New scheduler triggers * A new trigger type that allows the user to set up a workflow like you set up a meeting in Outlook. For some, this is more flexible and easier to understand than using CRON.			✓
Triggers for multiple workflows * You can use a single trigger to start multiple workflows. It’s a simple feature that will make things easier to manage if you have a lot of workflows.			✓
Workflow validation * Troubleshoots new workflows, validation			✓
Workflow chaining * Allows a workflow to call another workflow. Using this you can simplify large complicated workflows in smaller separate ones. Easier to manage and diagnose issues.			✓
New nodes * Various new nodes that help to build new types of workflows or help manage existing workflows.			✓
Full documentation V3 will be fully documented with help guides and tutorials. and tutorials *			✓
Multiple filename variables * Supporting multiple filename variables should make designing complex workflows a bit easier.			✓
Future developments * Pure Excel Importer – XLSX; BACS Calendar Widget; Workflow Timeline; Workflow / Mobile App notification / management; S3 Connector			✓
Download and distribute A Reports * When you have workflow and HSM you can automate the entire BACS report download process. They can automatically be converted to other formats for integration into finance apps. They can be emailed to customers as html, pdf or zips. They can be made available for collection via SFTP. Or, if you use Agent, they can be security delivered to the customer’s private network.	✓	✓	✓
Partial submission	✓	✓	✓
Lightsout submission * No signing	✓	✓	✓
Standard nodes for initiation	✓	✓	✓

Bureau

	PG on prem	PG Ev2	PGv3
Batched bureau submissions	✓	✓	✓
Manual & Automated submission builder	✓	✓	✓
Customer import	✓	✓	✓
Bacs reporting tools	✓	✓	✓
Recall Bureau Customers by ID			✓
Submission Re-entry * Complete your submissions over any amount of time			✓
Familiar workflow throughout *It will be familiar to V2 customer but they will notice improvements.			✓
Revamped manual submission mode *This is completely new in V3 Bureau. Those customers wanting a more manual way of building their submission (Rather than using Jobs) will find a new, efficient way of working.			✓
Drag and drop files from anywhere *Like in other areas of V3. User can just drag and drop file in Bureau for processing. They can also use the Restricted File Browser and Server file browser – that add more security – if they wish.			✓
Support for multiple file formats per submission * No longer limited to single Standard 18 submission for example			✓
Better default filename support *Makes working with files easier.			✓
Usage Reporting over data range *Small but useful improvement to reporting. User can set a date range on the usage report.			✓

Payments

	PG on prem	PG Ev2	PGv3
Validate *Validate is integrated in V3 and so customers that have both products can access them from the same client with the same account.			✓
API Access *Validate API and the Payment API.			✓
4x Faster			✓
Save Submissions *Save an ‘in-progress’ submission and return to it later. Build up a submission during the day			✓
Improved payment and submission searching			✓
Customisable dashboard *Many useful, module specific, dashboard widgets, e.g. Payments, collections, workflow, etc.			✓

Reporting

	PG on prem	PG Ev2	PGv3
Enhanced reporting including real-time usage			✓