Can they keep my money?

vouchersrme

I hope someone can help. I took out a thomas cook credit card because it had cashback that could count towards holidays bought through them. They then stopped the cashback, I stopped using the card but kept it to save the money to pay towards my holiday, only £10 but not to be wasted. My car insurance company took their premium, without sending me the paperwork. I have dealt with this and a refund is being paid back into my credit card account. I have asked for this refund to be paid back into my bank account, this cannot be done I have been told. I have been given a name of a supervisor but before i speak to her I would like to know what my rights are. Any help would be welcomed.

[Deleted User]

They should be able to at least send you a cheque.

the_insider

Did the insurance premium being paid take the account into a debit balance? If it did then the refund has just corrected that and they don't actually have any of your money, you just don't have any of their money any more!

vouchersrme

No I paid up the card the refund will be a credit of nearly £500.

lisyloo

It's not clear exatly what questions were asked.
Call center operatives sometimes only answer the exact questions asked so it might be that they can refund your money but not via a BACS transfer.
Some companies only send cheques.

So did they refuse to give you a refund at all?
or did they refuse just to do a bank transfer?

It's your money so you could sue them, but I'd suggest it might be easier to buy your food and petrol on the card.

But first establish that there has been no mis-understanding about particular payment methods.
I don't believe you have the right to insist on a particualar payment method. As long as it's legal tender.

vouchersrme

I haven't spoken to the supervisor yet, I wanted to know what my rights are. I have destroyed the card .

lisyloo

No they cannot just keep your money.

How to get it back is the question to find out.
I think you have possibly come across a call center operator who has answered the exact question about paying to your bank account without offering any additional information about how you could get the money.
Most companies have procedures for doing things e.g. raising a cheque, and it isn't possible for them to deviate from that procedure as they have specific people with access to specific tasks.

Call centers are not a satisfactory experience but basically low paid people (in general) are trained to answer very specific questions.

I'm sure there is a mechanism to get your money back even if it's not ideal.
One way is to spend it but you don't have that option if you have cut up the card.

vouchersrme

I think all will be well as I spoke to Supervisor, when money arrives to them I have to phone and give my bank details and they will send it. It has taken 4 calls of about 10 minutes at 5p a minute but better than nothing. The Insurance company were the culprits never sent renewal documents just took money!!! many thanks to all

pqrdef

Refunds of credit card payments can only be made back to the card. That's the deal between the merchant and the banks. Otherwise, you could make purchases and get refunds as a way to get cash advances without paying the charges.

lisyloo

The Insurance company were the culprits never sent renewal documents just took money!!!

You agreed to an auto renewing policy.
Unfortunately occasionally documents do get lost in the post sometimes (I also think some companies cynically don't send them so that you don't get a reminder to shop around).

To avoid this in future you should be proactive.
Put all renewing contract in a diary or spreadsheet.
Presumably you already have a method to remeber your MOT, family birthdays and dental apointments, so this should simply be a case of adding insurance policys (home as well), breakdown recover and magazine subscriptions.
You should shop around about 1 month before and lapse the policy if you no longer want to renew.
The safest way to do this is to send a letter by recorded delivery (75p) and then keep the tracking number. This is because we know that sometime calls or paperwork are sometimes lost (I cynically suspect this is not entirely accidental as it happens a lot more with cancellation than with payments).

Refunds of credit card payments can only be made back to the card. That's the deal between the merchant and the banks. Otherwise, you could make purchases and get refunds as a way to get cash advances without paying the charges.

It's also to do with credit card charges.
I believe the retailer gets the charges refunded so they are always very keen (in fact insist) on doing it this way.
Across their organisation this will be a big sum.