Halifax Credit Card Payment Protection - question

JonesRIC

Hi everyone,

first post here so please go easy on me :-)

I've had my Halifax credit card for years and back in the day I took out the payment protection for unemployment cover, etc just in case as I was terrible at saving money and if the worst happened, I knew I'd have very little saved up.

Unfortunately, about 4 months ago, I was made redundant and so started to look at the cover and how I went about claiming on it. In the "events covered" details, there was something about being covered for a "Life Event" (their term) which included things like getting married or having a baby, etc. Luckily, I found a new job and didn't need to claim for unemployment but my girlfriend was 8 months pregnant at the time and so I enquired about claiming for this life event.

The person on the end of the phone said that despite me having the top level of cover, I was not covered for Life Events as I'd not activated the option. However, Halifax just introduced this option and never informed me that it was available or asked if I wanted it. Therefore, I'm just wondering whether, rather than just write a sharply worded letter to Halifax, if there's any grounds for a refund claim over the payment protection I've been paying for??

If anyone has any thoughts (either yes or no) that would be great.

Thanks,

Ric.

melorablack

You cant get a refund for something you never had.

marshallka

Were you told you had cover for life events at any time? As melorablack says "you cannot claim for something you never had" but if you were led to believe that you actually had this cover then perhaps you could make a complaint to them but not about misselling as you never had any so they cannot have "missold" it to you.

Also would you have been covered anyway for your girlfriend being pregnant? Was she actually on the policy too? I would think that this type of life event would be only claimable if you had a joint policy although not 100% sure.

JonesRIC

Thanks for the replies.

According to Halifax, the "Life Event" cover was introduced about 6 months ago and is included for all new customers but existing ones aren't informed about it or offered it for some reason - I guess they think we'll be checking for new cover regularly and then apply for it ourselves (although think of the money it saves them if they don't automatically add people and keep it a secret!?)

Therefore, I think you're probably right about it not being missold as it never existed when I took the payment protection out.

Like I said, I'm not even sure myself if there's grounds for a claim or whether I should just make them aware I'm not happy about things. If I had a reasonable chance then that would be great of course but otherwise I'll just cancel the cover possibly.

Thanks again,

Ric.

melorablack

As it was introduced 6 months ago and your girlfriend is 8 months pregnant you would not have been able to claim for that anyway because I am sure the qualifying period is 9 months since cover started before you can claim.

JonesRIC

Well if that's the case then that's fair enough. I was just a bit peeved that I thought (assumed?? never assume anything Ric!!) I was covered for all the things listed by Halifax as I was paying for the fully comprehensive cover and didn't realise all the things listed hadn't been there from day 1 (in which case the 9 months qualifying period would have definitely been met).

I guess it's my fault for not checking this sort of thing more often but I just thought it was sneaky, that's all.