Car Insurance Skullduggery ?

Mikal

Hi can anyone shed light on my problem?
At the beginning of august I changed cars and told my insurance company they said there would be no charge if I renewed but They quoted me 280 pounds I told them I had a cheaper quote of 221 my policy did'nt run out till end of august. On the 20th they phoned me and gave me a quote for 207 pounds, so I took it thus renew my policy they took the money from my mastercard great!
On the 1st september they had details from last year of my bank account and promptyly went in and took 280 pounds in cash, I phoned them and they said this was an error but refunded 227 pounds into my credit card keeping 63. They said the policy should be 280 and also I have no cash in my bank account and in order to retrieve this I would incur a 3% charge per month. All this was done without my knowledge apart from accepting the 207 premium.
Taking cash and replacing onto credit card is this illegal ?

dunstonh

Taking cash and replacing onto credit card is this illegal ?

No. Its a clerical error. Clerical errors are not against the law.

Mikal

dunstonh wrote: »

No. Its a clerical error. Clerical errors are not against the law.

This clerical error will cost me a lot of money as I still have to find the cash to repay my credit card for money I did'nt withdraw in the first place, this has left me with no money to pay my mortgage (-280) this month and I will have incur charges and find an extra 280 to clear it. This is surely not a clear banking policy and can I complain to someone ie FSA?

brummiedevil

Mikal wrote: »

This clerical error will cost me a lot of money as I still have to find the cash to repay my credit card for money I did'nt withdraw in the first place, this has left me with no money to pay my mortgage (-280) this month and I will have incur charges and find an extra 280 to clear it. This is surely not a clear banking policy and can I complain to someone ie FSA?

Ring the company again and ask to speak to a supervisor - if you dont get anywhere you will need to write in explaining the above to the complaints department. Include copies of your charges/statements so they can investigate and reimburse your costs etc.

They have 8 weeks in which to reply to your complaint and then you can contact the FSA. Insurance companies dont like complaints to go to the FSA as its costs them around £400 for each complaint. Handy to know if your after compensation.

Hope that helps.

dunstonh

This is surely not a clear banking policy

They are not a bank but an insurance company.

and can I complain to someone ie FSA?

No. The FSA do not handle consumer complaints. It is not their remit.

If you wish to make a complaint, you need to make it to the company itself. If they do not resolve it to your satisfaction you are then given permission to take the complaint to the FOS. You cannot complain to the FOS directly (you can but all they do is forward your letter to the company for them to deal with).

They have 8 weeks in which to reply to your complaint and then you can contact the FSA. Insurance companies dont like complaints to go to the FSA as its costs them around £400 for each complaint. Handy to know if your after compensation.

Its not the FSA. Its the FOS. Its also £450 now. Plus continued abuse by consumers making fraudulent or frivolous complaints is likely to see the ability to complain to the FOS removed in some areas or a fee introduced to complain (refunded on upheld cases). The latter being a proposal under consideration by the Conservatives. That is unlikely to be honest but the FOS is apparantly now filtering more complaints out before passing them on for review to try and stop stupid complaints from incurring costs to the company. Blackmail is not something that ought to be encouraged.

At this stage, all the OP has to do is tell the insurance company that their error has cost them x amount and they need to put it right. If they fail to agree to that then the OP puts in a complaint to the insurer. You need to give them a chance to put it right first. However, you need to be prepaired for them to refuse to honour the lower price. They are allowed to keep the higher price and give you a number of days to seek an alternative before they void the policy.

Mikal

I have contacted them but they are giving me the run around.
They appear to going back on their 207.07 policy and trying to get me to pay 280.07 but it was their staff that gave me the quote which I accepted. they are listening to phone calls to make sure of what was said, and I will pursue the issue of credit card charges when it should have been returned to my bank card. I will post again when I hear something it should be tonight.
Cheers

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

It sounds like your insurers are investigating the issue and I hope they get to the bottom of the problem for you. To put matters in perspective, it may be worth your time to read the latest issue of the FOS newsletter. on Page 14, they talk about the situations where they would expect an insurer to offer compensation for distress and inconvenience. Here's a link to the Adobe PDF:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/71/71.pdf

Brummiedevil mentions the idea of compensation and using the threat of the FOS fee, but this publication will give you some idea as to the way that the FOS would view your complaint. If you think your suffering is comparable to Mrs G who had lost her husband, or Mr & Mrs N who had to spend an additional 3 weeks away from their home then go ahead and suggest to your insurers that they offer you compensation.

As someone who has been responsible for cases going to the FOS for an insurer, I can guarantee you that the last consideration is the amount of the FOS fee; the lowest value claim I have ever let go to the FOS was £80 and I would make the same decision today as I did then - if I were to agree every claim under £450 just because I was scared the customer would take me to the FOS, my employers would have gone out of business.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the last time someone used the "you will have to pay the FOS £450 so you may as well just agree my claim" arguement, I sent a copy of the recorded telephone call to the FOS. They waived their fee for the case and their decision letter hinted to the customer that they would have supported me issuing the customer with a 7 day notice of cancellation of their policy.

brummiedevil

Sorry if my comments were misunderstood - it helps to know that it costs the insurance companies money if the complaint is taken to FOS. The reason I know this is because I work for an insurance comany and our complaints department will write off small amounts if we are deemed to be in error rather than the complaint go futher and cost more money.

dunstonh

I agree with brummiedevel. I know that some will write off small amounts unless they are particulary taking a stand. One assumes that different companies take different view on it.

rudekid48

Interesting topic this (using the threat of FOS charges to get a resolution) - let me add another little twist onto this scenario that may help people to think twice about frivolous complaints....

A number of companies have discovered that they are within their rights to 'recover' any costs that they may incur due to bogus complaints. I know of a couple of cases where what can only be described as 'vindictive' complaints have been registered with the FOS resulting in the (completely innocent) company incurring costs. These costs have then been vigorously (and succesfully) pursued against the person that made the complaint!

I wouldn't be surprised if more and more companies adopt a "go ahead then make a complaint - but be aware that we will come after you for any costs that we incur" attitude when people are genuinely 'trying it on'.

It's food for thought isn't it?

Don't get me wrong - this would be scandalous if it happened when people had a genuine grievance, but it would stop the timewasters that cause problems for everyone else!

p.s. I'm not accusing the OP of being a timewaster! I just thought that the thread was interesting......