direct debit mortgage insurance problem

gazpacho_uk

Problaby not going win this one and might be subject to a lot of flack, but here goes:
Mortgage and insurance policy with santander should have stopped when we changed mortgage provider in Aug 2008. the mortgage payments did stop, but we have only just discovered that the insurance policy direct debits have still been coming out of the account. I know we should have picked up on this earlier, but we didnt and it looks like we are going to pay for that mistake. Written confirmation of the cancellations was taken to the santander branch at the time of cancellation, but we did not instruct our bank to stop payments as trhe santander policy said we had to notify them in writing of cancellation.
Santander have aknowledged the matter by refunding three months payments but refuse to refund any further monies. I have now escelated this to a complaint with the letter below. If anyone has any advice we will appreciated your comments, thank you

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I would like to make a complaint about the insurance policy I held with Abbey National/Santander – reference number above - which began when we took out a mortgage with the organisation. I recently contacted Santander by telephone to raise this matter and was informed that I would have to escalate the matter to the complaints team.

I would like to thank you at this time for refunding three months payments of £97.26.

The Mortgage with Abbey/Santander ended on 19th August 2008 when we moved address and re-mortgaged with another financial company. At the time I attended the local branch of Abbey/Santander to notify the organisation of the changes and the requirement to stop the direct debits that were set up in respect of the mortgage and the insurance policy, in line with the policy requirements. Written confirmation of this was given to the employee at the time which included the account numbers for the mortgage and insurance policy.

It was not until a recent inspection of our outgoing's that we realised the direct debit for the insurance policy was still being withdrawn from our account, but the mortgage had stopped.

Please acknowledge receipt of this complaint within 28 days and I look forward to your co-operation regarding this matter and a prompt resolution.

If the issue cannot be resolved within 8 weeks I will pursue the matter further and ask the Financial Ombudsman to investigate my complaint.

Yours faithfully,

dunstonh

Santander have aknowledged the matter by refunding three months payments but refuse to refund any further monies. I have now escelated this to a complaint with the letter below. If anyone has any advice we will appreciated your comments, thank you

Sounds like Santander are being very fair. They have done nothing wrong. It was your error. Yet they are refunding 3 months premiums.

There are two possible things here which may get a full refund.

1) if the MPPI only covered their mortgages, then the policy was no good to you and you should have been notified to cancel your MPPI when the mortgage ended (there is form on this front with the FOS). If it covers all lenders then that doesnt apply as you have the choice to keep it or stop it.

2) if you bought MPPI with another lender or provider then you are dual insured. They would probably come to an agreement for them to share a refund that equates to just one policy being paid.

jamesd

So you originally gave Santander a written cancellation and they didn't cancel? Do they have any record of receiving your instruction to cancel or a copy of the document containing the instruction? Failure to act on your instructions seems like something that will get you a 100% refund.

Dunstonh's reply covers the case where no instruction to cancel was given and someone just noticed the direct debit some time later.

gazpacho_uk

Jamesd, yes written confirmation was given to a Santander employee (they had a "greeter" just as you walk into the building to avoid standing in line for a clerk). thanks

Dunstonh - The MPPI was set up with Abbey/Santander at the time we took out the mortgagage with them ...... was even considering being miss selling of the MPPI LOL, but that would be pushing my luck. I will check out the FOS site to search for that form, thanks

roonaldo

gazpacho_uk wrote: »

Dunstonh - The MPPI was set up with Abbey/Santander at the time we took out the mortgagage with them

It may have been taken out with the mortgage, but it was seperate and paid for by a seperate direct debit.

The policy you were sold I assume was Abbey's Paymentcare MPPI, which is a stand alone product and not tied to the mortgage. It would not be cancelled as it could still provide you cover in your subsequant remortgage.

gazpacho_uk

roonaldo - It was the Abbey "piece of mind" policy. Taken out at the same time as the mortgage and cancelled at the same time too (with Abbey as per their policy smallprint) My mistake is that I failed to cancel it with my bank, which is where they will probably fight the issue

dunstonh

"piece of mind"

Sorry, had to laugh at that spelling... even though it's bad form to mention spelling.

gazpacho_uk

whoops ...... can I blame it on the stress of losing 2 years of unnecessary payments ???
Peace of Mind