It is less and less frequent to pay the bills for basic household supply services, such as electricity or water, physically in the offices of our entity. The direct debit is the most frequent payment service, which is based on the charge in the payer's domiciled bank account, that is, the person who pays the receipt. But, what happens when we are charged for a receipt and we want to return it due to an error? What is the deadline we have to do it?

As the Bank of Spain recalls in a statement, the payment services regulations “contemplate the customer's right to order the return of receipts or direct debits that the entity has to attend to”. A return that can be carried out within a certain period, which will vary depending on the authorization.

These are the deadlines and the reasons

In this sense, the term will be eight weeks if it is a charge that was previously authorized by the account holder.. If it was not authorized, the term increases to 13 months, remember the banking institution. When returning a receipt, the bank may ask for the reason to avoid potential problems.

In this way, if the return is due to the charge of a receipt by mistake or because we need economic liquidity, “if we do not specify the cause, we run the risk that the supply company believes that we are canceling the service”, details the Bank of Spain.

On the other hand, in the case of receipts issued by public bodies such as the Tax Agency, “the return may generate surcharges and loss of subsidies or bonuses not only for the returned receipt, but for the following ones that were no longer issued.”