Card Protection on Egg Card

dezzah

Hi,
I recently checked my current account to find a paymnet of £90 to my egg card, now normally I never use that CC and have it set to pay off in full so was pretty surprised! After checking my Egg statement I found this:
20 Feb 2011 CARD PROTECTION 08448 482908 £89.99 DR

I contacted Egg they told me that it was from another company (Card Protection Plan), they also gave me this number to call - 08448484266. I called and was advised that CPP had my old address (I moved mid 2006) and the reason I knew nothing of the transaction is that they've been sending reminder letters to the wrong address. I asked for a refund and to cancel the policy but was told that could only be done in writing.
So instead of sending a letter I googled CPP and sent them the following note using their websites contact us form:

Hi,
I checked my Egg card statement and was surprised to find a payment of £89.99 to CPP. Having no idea what this payment was I contacted Egg and was given a number to call. Upon calling that number and it transpires that I had unknowingly paid for an unneeded 3 year card protection service.
You still have my old address on file (I moved in 2006) and the agent thus explained that was why I had no idea this money would be taken from my account (as I had not received any post advising me). I would like to cancel immediately and receive a refund for this service. It is unneeded and if I had received any of the letters I would have cancelled it before payment was taken.
Kind regards

To which I received this reply:

Thank you for your email.

You may be aware that Egg offers our optional Egg Emergency Cover service to their account holders when they telephone to discuss their account, upon card activation, or the initial application. As your policy was set up directly with Egg following a telephone conversation, unfortunately, I cannot determine why the policy was opened if cover was not requested. May I suggest that you contact them directly if you wish to investigate the initial sale further?

This policy was set up on 07/08/2001 and a welcome pack was issued to you on the 07/08/2001 to confirm the contents of your insurance and allow you 14 days to change your mind. Enclosed in the pack were full terms and conditions explaining how the renewal process would work, to ensure no breaks in cover.

A renewal letter was also issued to the address we have on file (and quoted on the header of your letter) on 26/12/2004, 23/12/2007 and on the 24/12/2010 to provide you with a minimum of six weeks' notice that the insurance was due to renew.

I regret to inform you your wish to cancel your policy with us fell outside of the notified refund period (as detailed in both your welcome pack and renewal letters). We are therefore unable to issue a refund to you.

I can confirm your policy has now been set to cancel on the expiry date of 28/02/2014, leaving you with full cover until this date, and no more premiums will be debited.

We trust we have been able to clarify our position in regards to this matter. If you are dissatisfied with our response you are entitled to make a formal complaint. A copy of our complaints procedure is provided below for your information.

Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,
Customer Support

Our Promise
We hope that your policy will meet all your needs and more. Our aim is to give excellent service to all our customers but we recognise that things can go wrong occasionally. If they do, we will attempt to resolve any such problems immediately.

This information tells you how we will deal with any complaint you make and what you can do if you are still not happy. We aim to get back to you with our response as quickly as possible upon receipt.

What happens if we cannot get back to you quickly?
Sometimes, we will not be able to get back to you as quickly as we would like. If we are unable to do so immediately, this is what we will do:

§ Within 5 working days
We will try to sort your complaint out. If we are unable to do so within this period we will send you an acknowledgement letter. This will then provide us with the opportunity of carrying out a full investigation and assessment of your concerns. If we resolve your complaint within this period we will send you a combined acknowledgement and final response letter.

§ Within 40 working days
We are committed to resolving complaints whenever possible through our complaints procedures. If the matter cannot be concluded satisfactorily, the complaint will be referred to the Complaints Manager in order that a final response may be provided. In the unlikely event that your complaint remains unresolved, we will send you a further letter to let you know what progress has been made.

If you are still unhappy
If you are still dissatisfied you can contact the Insurance Division of the Financial Ombudsman Service. You must do this within six months of our final response. Please note that the Ombudsman will not consider your appeal unless you have brought your complaint to us first.

The Financial Ombudsman is an impartial referee who will consider your complaint and our response to it and decide whether we have handled your complaint fairly.

You can contact the Ombudsman at the following address:

The Financial Ombudsman Service, Insurance Division
South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR
Telephone 0845 080 1800


If you have any questions about our complaints process, please contact us:

Card Protection Plan Limited
Holgate Park
Holgate Road
York
YO26 4GA
Telephone: 0844 848 5281

So from that it appears I must have signed up for it back in 2001! I must have paid for it back in 2007 as well even though I wouldn't have received any letters as I had already moved house (unfortunately I wasn't so financially conscious back then though).

Do you think I have grounds for a refund for the most recent payment since I didn't receive any reminder letters or should I just write off the £90 (and try to remember next time I move to change addresses with companies I hadn't heard from since 2 years prior!)

NeverEnough

Partner had a similar situation with CPP - never knowingly signed up to their worthless policy at the time - also about 2001 - I think you had to specifically "opt out" at the time, they were all very shrewd with their money-grabbing tactics - and ended up with a store card being debited with the £90, which we knew nothing about and did not receive a bill as it was lost in the mail that month, so ended up with a charge slapped onto the card for "non-payment" of something we knew nothing about and didn't want, and had also moved in the three years since the policy had started. Never had any original paperwork from them either, but as we hadn't knowingly signed up to it, we wouldn't have been looking for policy documents and clearly we missed the original debit in 2001 and ended up paying dearly for that error....we never got the refund and ended up with the same drivel as the letter they sent you...over time, we paid all the store cards up and closed them subsequently, but be warned.....this is a tactic of CPP - its passive marketing, requiring you to specifically opt-out of purchasing this policy rather than a normal purchase of opting-in, ie selecting what you want to buy and going about ordering it etc. There was talk of making the practice illegal, but it still seems to carry on regardless!!