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by lozenge 1171 days ago
As a person you can only send them money. As a business you can initiate a direct debit which withdraws money. However you are attesting that they signed a direct debit agreement with you and provided their account number and agreed on the amount to pay.

This is the same as a credit card - you can charge any card with just the number and a couple of basic details, however if there's a complaint "I found these CC details on a random website" isn't accepted, you need to show the card holder agreed to the charge. If you don't provide the evidence the transaction is reversed.
2 comments
jeltz 1171 days ago
That is usually not how credit cards work anymore. Sure, you can try to charge any card but if it is issued by a European bank it will very likely be denied and you will be asked to do a Strong Customer Authentication.

Same applies to SEPA direct debit. Here in Sweden most (all?) banks requires the customer to sign digitally before any direct debit mandate is created.

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oblio 1171 days ago
That's a distinction without a difference.

I obviously don't care about people sending me money, I care about people requesting money from me.

Individuals can't do it and business can only <<ask>> for money, that's different.

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