Citymain

kelbobs

Hello there! Can anyone give me advice on this? We have been paying a company called Citymain £5.71 per month for 6 years. I know - I know we should have been more savvy - we thought it was some bank payment. But over the past few months have tracked it down to Citymain. I googled them - and wrote asking what we were paying for. They did not reply. i wrote again sending letter by recorded delivery. It appears they are insurance admin people & we insured a mobile phone with them?? We insured the mobile on 17th February 2003. The first 3 months were free. they state they wrote to us then and we must have recieved letter. They said they would send us all details if we require them. But they have not written to us in all those years because the 'period of insurance'; is for each billing month - it is not an annual policy. Doesn't seem very fair to the consumer. Please is there anyhing we can do about this? Can we get some of this money back? Thank you.

Quentin

Getting money back will be down to their goodwill. But as it is a business, and they have covered you it's unlikely!

Make sure you have now cancelled the policy in line with the policy cancellation requirements if you no longer want the policy.

kelbobs

many thanks Quentin. Will cancel and write a complaint too

financial_illiterate

I insured a mobile phone that I had long since scrapped for about three years; it was only when the name on the direct debit changed to 'Allianz' rather than something phone-related I twigged and thought 'what on Earth am I paying them for'. First call to the bank, cancel the direct debit, then call the insurer and cancel it at their end.

An expensive lesson in paying attention to my bank statement.

mattymoo

financial_illiterate wrote: »

I insured a mobile phone that I had long since scrapped for about three years; it was only when the name on the direct debit changed to 'Allianz' rather than something phone-related I twigged and thought 'what on Earth am I paying them for'. First call to the bank, cancel the direct debit, then call the insurer and cancel it at their end.

An expensive lesson in paying attention to my bank statement.

Usually best to do it the other way round - insurer (or any other service provider) then bank. That way you don't appear to have defaulted on a payment and risk having a black mark against your credit history.

kelbobs

financial_illiterate wrote: »

I insured a mobile phone that I had long since scrapped for about three years; it was only when the name on the direct debit changed to 'Allianz' rather than something phone-related I twigged and thought 'what on Earth am I paying them for'. First call to the bank, cancel the direct debit, then call the insurer and cancel it at their end.

An expensive lesson in paying attention to my bank statement.

Yes such a daft thing to do. Am much more on top of things now! Did u try to get money back? Did u remember taking insurance out?

lisyloo

If you really think you didn't take out this insurance (rather than have forgotten) then you could request a SAR (subject access request) under the data protection act. This means they ahve to provide all the information they have on you.
I've done this before and got a huge pack with phone transcripts etc.
The can charge you a fee but max is £10.

With 3 months being free, it sounds to me like it could have been a deal with a phone.
Did you buy a phone around that time?
Is it possible you didn't tick a box to say you DIDN'T want insurance when you took the phone.
It could have been a deal which was free on the premise that people forget because of the 3 months delay.

kelbobs

lisyloo wrote: »

If you really think you didn't take out this insurance (rather than have forgotten) then you could request a SAR (subject access request) under the data protection act. This means they ahve to provide all the information they have on you.
I've done this before and got a huge pack with phone transcripts etc.
The can charge you a fee but max is £10.

With 3 months being free, it sounds to me like it could have been a deal with a phone.
Did you buy a phone around that time?
Is it possible you didn't tick a box to say you DIDN'T want insurance when you took the phone.
It could have been a deal which was free on the premise that people forget because of the 3 months delay.

Last Sentence in quote - This is why I am going to complain as I do not think this is a fair way to deal with people

financial_illiterate

kelbobs wrote: »

Yes such a daft thing to do. Am much more on top of things now! Did u try to get money back? Did u remember taking insurance out?

No recollection of taking it out at all; I didn't complain, if it had been a recent thing I'd have considered it but seeing as it'd been at least three years I decided to put it down to my own stupidity.

Good luck though, someone more tenacious than me might stand a chance of clawing at least some of it back.

kelbobs

kelbobs wrote: »

Hello there! Can anyone give me advice on this? We have been paying a company called Citymain £5.71 per month for 6 years. I know - I know we should have been more savvy - we thought it was some bank payment. But over the past few months have tracked it down to Citymain. I googled them - and wrote asking what we were paying for. They did not reply. i wrote again sending letter by recorded delivery. It appears they are insurance admin people & we insured a mobile phone with them?? We insured the mobile on 17th February 2003. The first 3 months were free. they state they wrote to us then and we must have recieved letter. They said they would send us all details if we require them. But they have not written to us in all those years because the 'period of insurance'; is for each billing month - it is not an annual policy. Doesn't seem very fair to the consumer. Please is there anyhing we can do about this? Can we get some of this money back? Thank you.

Hi there. Update on above. After a few letters - last one going to lloyds of london - Ive been offered half of my premiums. Wot do you think?

dogbot

Excellent result for you. Well done.