Money Taken By Admiral Car Insurance

lippy1923

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rs65

lippy1923 wrote: »

Unfortunate timing

Do you realise the OP was 18 months ago?

malinkipoo

Hi

I went onto my online banking today to find admiral insurance has taken £815.12 out of my account yesterday. Firstly I am not a policy holder with admiral insurance, but can confimr that last year my partner asked if i could give them my bank details to pay his years premium. I agreed and gave the details over the phone.

Therefore i rang them to ask them to reimburse my monies as this was a transaction i had not authorised. I was told that it is an automatical renewal and we would have had a letter of the renewal quote where it would advise if they dont hear from us they will assume we want to renew and monies will be taken. i confirmed immediately that we have had no notification through as i am the one who receives the post in the household, as my partner works so is never in. They then changed their tune and advised that it would have been sent via email. i advised his email account was no longer in use. they then changed the story again to say they had posted it out, and that even if we had not received the renewal notification the original documentation for the policy term last year would have stated automatica renewal.

I told them regardless of any paperwork they reckon they sent to my partner, they have not given me any personal consent to take any monies out of my account, nor had they advised me my details will be held for automatic renewal puporses.

I also said we would not renew with them anyway as every year we have to renew with another company in order to get the best quote - the operator then questionned why would have done this if we did not get the renewal and know a competitor would be able to beat their quote (the truth is my partner is constantly on comparison websites, and also he has no claims and they have put the renewal up by £300 which makes no sense whatsoever) i pointed out we always use comparison websites. the operator put me on hold and then said she has checked and we do not hold any other policies with anyone else, therefore no refund could be issued.

i became rather agitated and wish i didnt tryt and call thier bluff by saying we had better offers when we had not looked as yet, but i know for a fact from experience you need to change providers every year in order to get the best quote. She tried to use this againt me to insinuate i had recived some notification.

At this point through shear frustration i told them i do not care about any of their notifcations or terms and conditions, the fact of the matter is I do not hold the policy, they had never got my consent about auto renewal, and despite anything they claim to have sent to my partner, they have not sent anything in writing to me, and i want my money back now. i was told that i clould get my money back but would be charged £22.50 to cancel the policy within 14 days of renewal. WHAT? this is not my policy and they say they are going to charge me???????? in the end just to save further upset and anguish to myself i agreed to pay the £22.50. HOWEVER once i agreed they said i could not cancel it and only the policyholder could.

so lets get this right. they are telling me that i cannot cancel the policy which is not mine, and if the policyholder does then they are going to charge ME £22.50???? but yet they can go into my bank account with no consent from myself and take my money and then charge me £22.50 for the privilage??? DOUBLE STANDARDS spring to mind!!!!!

Obviously at this point I lost my temper with the operator, and at this point she told me in order to get the full monies back i could contact my bank and tell them that Admiral have taken money without the account holders permission.

SO is this not admission that they know they have done wrong??

I then contacted my bank who advised my i cannot do anything until 2 weeks after i have requested to be refunded by admiral as they have ti be given a fair chance to refund. BUT HOLD ON!!! that is 14 days after the policy started, which coincides with the 14 day cooling off period of a policy!!! I SMELL A RAT.

i contacted the policyholder and told him the above, he then even pointed out we never even received any policy documents etc through the post for the initial year of insurance last year, and they will have records to show he has further contacted them to say he never recived any docuemtnation from them and asked them to re-issue it, which they agreed to, but again nothing ever came through.

SO here are the facts:-
1) took money for renewal without permission off the account holder who IS NOT the policy holder.
2) refused any refund without charging me £22.50 to cancel
3) then advised could not cancel with the £22.50 charge as i was not the policy holder
4) told me i would have to go through my bank and advise Admiral took money without my permission in order to get my refund in full
5) advised all this info would have been posted to the policy holder at the beginning of the first term, then a subsequent renewal posted, then changed their mind to say it had been emailed, and then changed their mind again to say it had been posted.
6) no documentation or even any cover note etc ever been sent by them from the intial term nor the renewal.

:mad::(

so as well as going to lose £22.50 for something i have never been advised or told about even though i am NOT the policyholder, the phonecalls to premium number to both admiral and my bank, will be costing a good £20 more.

even if in the future admiral give us the best quote, my partner vows never to use them again, and would rather pay a bit more to a company who deal with their customers (and in my case non-customer, just the bank account holder) properly. i am sure them taking moneyb without my consent is theft!!!!!!

dunstonh

but can confimr that last year my partner asked if i could give them my bank details to pay his years premium. I agreed

Common scenario and a risk when you allow someone else to set up a continuous payment agreement on your card.

SO here are the facts:-
1) took money for renewal without permission off the account holder who IS NOT the policy holder.
2) refused any refund without charging me £22.50 to cancel
3) then advised could not cancel with the £22.50 charge as i was not the policy holder
4) told me i would have to go through my bank and advise Admiral took money without my permission in order to get my refund in full
5) advised all this info would have been posted to the policy holder at the beginning of the first term, then a subsequent renewal posted, then changed their mind to say it had been emailed, and then changed their mind again to say it had been posted.
6) no documentation or even any cover note etc ever been sent by them from the intial term nor the renewal.

6 - You need to have a word with the Royal Mail. There would have been multiple letters going out. One going missing is plausible but all of them is unlikely. This includes the certificate of insurance for last year and this year. How did your partner tax the car without the certificate of insurance?

Also, what has your partner got to say about this? You are about to make their car uninsured.

even if in the future admiral give us the best quote, my partner vows never to use them again, and would rather pay a bit more to a company who deal with their customers (and in my case non-customer, just the bank account holder) properly. i am sure them taking moneyb without my consent is theft!!!!!!

its a grey area and a common problem with third party payments. You gave your consent last year. However, its unlikely Admiral would want to test that. So, their complaints team is likely to rollover if you refer the case to them. However, if your partner has no insurance, that could cause greater problems.