A direct debit or direct withdrawal is an instruction that a bank account

Bank account

A Bank account is a financial account recording the financial transactions between the customer and the bank and the resulting financial position of the customer with the bank .-Account types:...

 holder gives to his or her bank to collect an amount directly from another account. It is similar to a direct deposit

Direct deposit

Direct deposit also known as Direct credit is a banking term used to refer to certain payment systems used to transfer money where a payment is initiated by the payer not the payee, namely:* In Europe, the giro system...

 but initiated by the beneficiary. It is also called pre-authorized debit (PAD) or pre-authorized payment (PAP).

It is typical to use these pulled collections to make recurring payments for credit card or utility bills.