Why is Defence Bank changing the way they manage direct debits?

Why is Defence Bank changing the way they manage direct debits?

We have made some cost savings in the way we process direct debits so we can reduce our fees. We want to provide a better experience through a text message notification service.

As part of this change, we have:

  • The introduction of a free SMS service which notifies you automatically of when there are insufficient funds in an account to honour a direct debit request. This SMS will give a small grace period-of- time to transfer funds to the nominated account to avoid the payment dishonouring and attracting a dishonour fee.
  • A reduction in the fee charged if a direct debit payment is dishonoured due to insufficient funds from $10.00 to $0.00.