Highcreditscore.co.uk & rewardsnow.co.uk [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

flowersun

I suggest the lady telephones her bank, which I did. I found them helpful and they are seeking to resolve it for me. Read my experience below.

I too have had the same experience.
When logging in to my banking on-line account, a pop-up box for HSBC, advertising a free credit score, appears and states
"Absoluely Free with no additional cost. No trial periods or hidden fees. Try it free. See your score now".
Which I did. Gave no details but when checking my statements recently £14.95 x 2 was taken in November 2010 and December 2010. A fortune to me. I contacted my bank and they have temporarily put that money bank until an investigation is completed. I have sent a message to You and Yours on Radio 4 too. The programme on 26th Jan 2011 deals with this very thing. A man had the same problem but via Santandair [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] The man's pop-up said EXACTLY the same as mine did but with the different bank name. Subsequently, we both had the same pop-up asking for us to claim our free credit score. I did telephone the companies and cancel what they say Ijoined up to [I did not]. Imagine all the monies they are accumulating:T, if only once, from hunreds of bank accounts. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

magie4rita

I have this morning received an email reply from Highcreditscore .co.uk ,. They have cancelled my so called membership and are so sorry i didnt want to use their services (as if). No mention of a refund tho .now have to wait till i get a new bank statement to see if rewardsnow have taken any money out .
I have phoned my local trading standards office but they dont seem wiling to give any advice [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM].

pbasonuk

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

They claim they made it perfectly clear when I took the free trial for the credit report that I was signing up to Rewards Now too. I asked how they do this and he said it was made clear when I pressed the button and before I did that I should have checked the terms first.

They did get my cancelation request for the free credit check, but I cant think for the life of me where it states that I also need to cancel my rewards now membership, I didnt even realise it was a payment membership.

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] I went mental on the phone to them, because of this, my phone bill wasnt paid and I have incurred a fee from my bank for going over my overdraft.

The bloke on the phone was a proper cocky [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM].

I have emailed to cancel the rewards now account and got an automated resonse confirming it is now closed, I just want my money back and I wont give up till i get it.

I have emailed 4 times in the last 2 hours threatening to report OFT, the Police and I have already lodged a Fraud investigation with the bank.

pbasonuk

Can those who keep pointing out that this is all our own fault, please point out from any of their FAQ's or Terms of Business where it says you will be automatically signed up to "Rewards Now" Membership programme?

This is what it says when you enter your card details -

Offer Details:
Simply click "View Callcredit Report Now" to claim your FREE Credit Report and Score and activate your trial of the Credit Score Matters membership programme. After your 10-day FREE trial, the membership fee of £19.95 per month will be charged by Credit Score Matters to the payment card you use today. You will be notified in advance of any membership fee changes. Of course, you can call us at 0845 872 5624 to cancel anytime, and if you do so within the first 10 days you will have paid nothing and owe nothing. Remember, the Credit Score Matters membership programme comes with our guarantee - you can call to cancel at any time and you will no longer be charged. This offer is not available to anyone residing or located in the United States".

daztheduke

Me too.
Enough said.
I will be bombarding them with emails etc until I get my money back.

daztheduke

If we all contact Watchdog, they may do a story on it.

pbasonuk

Done it !! got my money back.

I asked for screenshots of the process and the last page, after you sign up and the sign up is complete, it takes you to a screen offering you £10 worth of Asda vouchers, it states on there clearly that you have to give them £19.95 if you dont cancel after 10 days BUT this is only if you click yes to the offer.

I told them that I checked my servers at work which records EVERYTHING I did online that day and there is no evidence of me clicking yes at all and I want my money back. They put me on hold for about 10 seconds and then came back and agreed to give me a refund.

Here is the email from them

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your telephone call received on 01 February 2011.

I can now confirm that your membership to Rewards Now has been cancelled with immediate effect. A full refund of £19.95 has been processed on your behalf. Please allow 7-10 working days for this be credited to your account.

If you have any queries now or in the future, please feel free to contact Rewards Now by telephone or email during normal office hours (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) using the contact information provided below.

We are always happy to help and welcome the possibility of you subscribing to Rewards Now Score in the future.


Yours Sincerely



Kofi Lamptey
Customer Services Representative
On behalf of Rewards Now
0845 026 1098

Fyffes

The above poster has done exactly the right thing.

These [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] seem to think that providing a screenshot of a bog standard Asda voucher and a "welcome email" is proof that you somehow enrolled with them.

WHAT ABOUT THE BIT IN BETWEEN?

What we actually want is their evidence that we actually clicked "accept" on their Asda voucher. Clearly these two documents do not allow a company to legally enforce any alleged agreement. They obviously obtain your email address from the "bait" company then simply automatically fire off their "welcome email" safe in the knowledge it'll arrive undetected in most people's spam folder.

But you try telling them that they're in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and they'll say "no we're not and we now refuse to reply to any more emails....so there".

Sadly they will continue to get away with this [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] because most people who kick up a fuss will walk away and leave them to it once they have a refund. Trading standards and the OFT can't/won't do anything unless they get a serious amount of complaints.

Fyffes

The main question here is as follows:

Does a screenshot of an Asda voucher (not bearing your name) followed by a copy of a welcome email (with no proof of sending or receipt) constitute a legally enforcable account?

Other companies will provide a link within their original email in order to ensure that the recipient wishes to proceed with the enrolment. Rewards Now prefer not to offer this option which leaves a grey area regarding the existance of any welcome email prior to the actvation of any account. There are also other methods used by other companies which ensure that grey areas do not exist.

Rewards Now will tell you themselves that the "welcome email" may have arrived in your spam folder. If they are aware of this then why have they not put measures into place which ensure that their "customer" is fully aware of their enrolment with their company BEFORE taking money from their bank accounts? Perhaps because they are aware that 100% of their "customers" would decline the enrolment if they were given the option of not subscribing?

It appears from my correspondence with Rewards Now that they are of the opinion that issuing a refund somehow strips you of your right to complain or request an explanation regarding the actions of their company.

Anybody who feels that they have been treated unfairly is entitled to issue a formal complaint (sent via recorded delivery) to any company. If a satisfactory outcome is not forthcoming, they are then within their rights to raise a complaint with the likes of Trading Standards and the OFT who would be able to take action in the event of any unfair practices being proven.

Fyffes

Having done a bit more investigation into this I thought I'd post a slightly revised version of my earlier letter to include a request for electronic proof of enrollment (as mentioned by another poster earlier). Hopefully this will be of use to somebody. Be sure to pull them up if their response only answers part of the letter. In my experience they seem to think that responding to one or maybe two requests excuses them from dealing with the more "awkward" ones that they don't know the answers to (even though they should).

---

Dear Sir/Madam.

I am contacting you today in order to ascertain the reasons behind money being taken from my bank account by Rewardsnow.co.uk without my permission.

I am not aware of Rewardsnow.co.uk and have at no point enrolled with your company. Therefore, I wish to request your evidence of any enrollment which you consider to be legally valid and enforcable at the point of law.

Please be aware that legally valid evidence does not consist of vague template emails or any copies of non specific documentation devoid of the name of the recipient or reference numbers. Your evidence should include electronic proof of my alleged acceptance of the terms and conditions set out by your company and that I received and opened your alleged "welcome email".

I have thoroughly studied my internet browsing history and I can find no record of any visit to your website or evidence of accepting your terms and conditions. Furthermore, I have not at any time received a ''welcome email'' from Rewards Now. I wish to see all documentation referring to this "membership" and reserve the right to issue your company with a Subject Access Request if you fail to do so which will be both time consuming and costly to you.

It is essential that you are aware that I may begin legal proceedings against your company unless you provide legally binding evidence of any alleged enrollment which you believe has given you the right to withdraw money from my bank account without my express permission. I am of the opinion that you are in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and I am therefore requeusting the provision of "evidence" which you believe indicates that this is not the case.

I also request an immediate full refund of £xx.xx to my bank account as well as confirmation of the cancellation and deletion from your records of any "account" held in my name. Furthermore, I request a full written apology and your assurances that there will be no further withdrawals at any point in the future.

I also wish to request details of your official complaints procedure.

Failure to respond to ALL of the above requests will be recorded and provided to the relevant authorities in due course along with copies of all correspondence between myself and your company.

I believe it is reasonable to expect your response within 48 hours as stated on your website. In the event that this time limit expires without a response from your company, I intend to report you to Consumer Direct who collate complaints against companies such as Rewards Now before forwarding them to the Office of Fair Trading.

I note that your parent company (Adaptive Affinity) was contacted by the OFT in 2009. I believe that the outcome of their intervention was that your company agreed to make changes, including making it clearer that the consumer is entering into an agreement with YOUR COMPANY, rather than the website from whom a purchase has just been made.

It is my opinion that you have not adhered to this promise and I will make my feelings known to Consumer Direct unless I receive an acceptable response within the above mentioned 48 hours.

Yours sincerely

XXXXXXXX