Aviva claim I'm in arrears

facthunt

After 20 years of using a standing order to pay my endowment, Aviva wrote to me saying I had 'missed a payment'. I questioned this, and they've told me that they have a new computer system and it shows I have always been a month behind.

Its not a lot of money, but I am very suspicious that their 'new computer system' is being used as an excuse to generate a huge amount of cash, so I have asked for a full record of all my payments for the past 20 years to prove their claim.

In the meantime, I wondered if others have experienced this, plus would welcome any ideas on how to proceed. Thanks

dunstonh

Aviva have had a massive problem over the years where they had a number of legacy computer systems, most of which were pretty dire on the record keeping front as they still needed a lot of manual input (I seem to recall they had around 9 systems). They have recently spent a fortune on cutting the number of systems down (its down to around 5 now I believe) and the new system is for superior. When records are updated it does allow for the potential of errors which can work for you or against you.

You have done the right thing asking for a payment schedule. Also, if you are paying direct debit then you have to question how you can be a payment short when direct debits are controlled by Aviva. Not by you. It was not uncommon 20 years ago to pay the first premium by cheque with payments then made in advance. Maybe if you paid by cheque they havent taken that into account? To be honest, it could be many scenarios.

Your best bet is that if they cant prove you owe the money then you dont owe it. The FOS will almost certainly support you on that if required. It wont get that far though because if you complain and they reject your complaint and then go to the FOS it costs them £500. No point paying £500 over a one months premium that is likely to be lower than that.