ALLIANZ payments - likely mobile phone related

IceCream

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. Looking for some advice before I call insurance company in the morning.

Long story short. Epically dumb I know, but have just noticed a repeat unknown direct debit transaction in my bank statements. Payment is listed as ALLIANZ and they now take 2 x £5.99 on d/d per month. At first I thought it was my dental insurance but it isn't. I paid my car insurance up fron with admiral so baffled I continued investigating.

After googling my best guess its possible something mobile phone insurance realted but i HAVE NEVER HAD OR REQUESTED MOBILE PHONE INSURANCE.

Searched bank records as far back as Jul 2007 and they have taken 63 payments total. It started off as 1 payment a month and now its 2. Don't ask me how I've missed it this long.

After speaking with my bank they told me company is called ALLIANZ INSURANCE and they gave me 2 payment references. The lines are now closed till 9am. This isn't a bank error.


So when I call them in the morning... what are the right questions to be asking to get my money back? Are they legally allowd to be taking these payments w/o me ever requesting insurance from them? Shall I say something like show me the piece of paper I signed with you?

And finally what are my chances or getting a refund in these situations?

dogbot

you may well have bought a product from somewhere else (e.g. GAME) but Allianz underwrite it - could be mobile phone, could be extended warranty.... They will be able to tell you what it is for hopefully.

IceCream

confirmed mobile phone related. Payments taken since 2006. Allianz said insurance was sold to me by Dial-a-phone. Policy was 3 months free insurance then i was obligated to cancel the policy if I no longer wanted it. Is that legal? Second D/D payment taken when and since I got a phone upgrade, neither phones do I still own or use for years.

was told to chase it down with DAP but has this situation been seen before? Are the allowed to charge me for insurance I never requested on the basis that I never declined it?

IceCream

I'm sure this is going to come down to legal rights so I'm hoping someone has some insight or guidance.

update. Allianz have all my details on record as both payment refs are from their system. However they have no evidence of my request/consent to take out insurance. They only have my bank details, name and address which they say dialaphone provided them with.

After speaking with Dialaphone, was informed they were bought by phones4u in 2008 and have no record of my contract with them or that I requested/agreed to insruance. They currently use different insurers which have no records of me in the system.

I have sent complaints to both parties. As neither party has any proof that i requested/agreed to the insurance plan is the onus on Allianz to provide evidence or offer a refund ??

sshepherdo

Hi, I was in a similar situation to you...

Good news - I have received a cheque from Allianz for £340 yesterday!

Heres the story.
I went to the financial ombudsman website to check how to proceed:
It wont let me post the correct link as im too new but remove the spaces from this:
www .financial - ombudsman .org.uk/ faq/ answers/ complaints_a1. html#1
Pay close attention to the bullet points under "what's the best way of making sure my complaint is taken seriously?"
I wrote a letter on 5th Jan this year.
I followed the instructions given in the link above.
I provided proof of as many mobile phone purchases as I could going back to 2004.
I rang 02 and orange who were very helpful and forwarded me proof of purchase letters.
I also provided a printout of my bank statement showing the last payment taken out in August 2010 (obviously blanked all other items).
I stressed the point about at no time have I had a renewal letter saying to I wish to carry on with the insurance (even though I know I cancelled it) and also that I had made contact with the financial ombudsman who said I had a good case.
I gave them 8 weeks to reply with a satisfactory solution.
Also in the letter I requested the full amount owed to me from oct 2001 to Aug 2010 - 106 x payments of £4.49 = £475.

2 x days later I received a reply via letter. The letter stated that they were obliged by the FSA to uphold my claim but unless I could find proof of phone purchases going back further to 2002 they would only reimburse me £341. I tried once more but unfortunatley the mobile phone companies couldnt find me going back any further so I rang Allianz and accepted the £341 the next day and said a cheque would be fine. 2 x days later the cheque came.... ...unfortunatley the amount was totally wrong and less than they said, also my surname was mis-spelled. Initially I thought it was an admin error so I rang them. They apologised and said they would contact the finance dept and a new cheque would be on its way the next day. To cut an already long story short I had to ring a further 8 x times over the course of almots 3 x weeks to get the new cheque issued. They could put me in touch with the finance dept directly either. It was farcicial and soo frustrating, the customer services team are based in India and are very very unhelpful. But I stuck to my guns and kept ringing and ringing and eventually after being lied to several times a cheque arrived yesterday for the correct amount with my correct surname! i was told by a friend that in insurance its common practive for around 30% of cases to be intentionally refunded the incorrect amount and then to wait as much as 4 x weeks to resolve it - in the hope that the average person would simply accept the lower valued cheque and cancel it. Think of how much money they save!

Be determined, try not to get mad but do persivere, its worth it in the end!
Just hope the cheque cashes now and isnt bouncy!

All the best in your claims, you will need it!


Simon

sshepherdo

Hi, just to add, send all your written correspondence via recorded delivery to be signed for that way you can prove it got there.