Mothers bills - Advise please

dirtydogmitchell

hello,

I’m hoping for a little advise., After spending some time today looking over my mother’s out- goings i soon realised that she didn't have a clue what she was paying out each month or more to the point how much she was being conned.

These companies see an older venerable lady coming and just rip her off!

First issue: my mother pays £235 a month to this onebill company (securehomes)...when i add up what the monthly payments to these companies would be if she didn’t use onebill it only comes to £192 a month. One bill states they only charge £14-15 a month for the service but from what i can see they are charging more like £40+.

Next she purchased a sofa from SCS for £699 last year which was supposed to be interest free for a year - but they started billing straight away. They also sold her fabric guard for £200 - this sofa is not fully fabric! I Worked out she will end up paying over £1600 for this £699 sofa!

She has just renewed her house insurance and from what i can see she is paying twice as much as she should do...and she was unknowingly sold legal expenses and Home emergency with the insurance for the last five years! Can i challenge the price or have reason enough to cancel the policy?
Same story for her car insurance she is paying over £700 a year with full no claims on a 1.3 rover!
She has small mortgage with nationwide (less that £5000) Nationwide advised her that she needs to have this decreasing life insurance to cover the mortgage in the event of her death. This covers her mortgage for £21,000 this year! She only has £3000 left on the mortgage….the insurance is with Zurich? Not sure if this was provided by Nationwide but it seems a little bit of a con. Can I just cancel this?

Lots of other little things but I can sort them out
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Martin

HappyMJ

dirtydogmitchell wrote: »

hello,

I’m hoping for a little advise., After spending some time today looking over my mother’s out- goings i soon realised that she didn't have a clue what she was paying out each month or more to the point how much she was being conned.

These companies see an older venerable lady coming and just rip her off!

First issue: my mother pays £235 a month to this onebill company (securehomes)...when i add up what the monthly payments to these companies would be if she didn’t use onebill it only comes to £192 a month. One bill states they only charge £14-15 a month for the service but from what i can see they are charging more like £40+.

Next she purchased a sofa from SCS for £699 last year which was supposed to be interest free for a year - but they started billing straight away. They also sold her fabric guard for £200 - this sofa is not fully fabric! I Worked out she will end up paying over £1600 for this £699 sofa!

She has just renewed her house insurance and from what i can see she is paying twice as much as she should do...and she was unknowingly sold legal expenses and Home emergency with the insurance for the last five years! Can i challenge the price or have reason enough to cancel the policy?
Same story for her car insurance she is paying over £700 a year with full no claims on a 1.3 rover!
She has small mortgage with nationwide (less that £5000) Nationwide advised her that she needs to have this decreasing life insurance to cover the mortgage in the event of her death. This covers her mortgage for £21,000 this year! She only has £3000 left on the mortgage….the insurance is with Zurich? Not sure if this was provided by Nationwide but it seems a little bit of a con. Can I just cancel this?

Lots of other little things but I can sort them out
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Martin

You can't cancel insurance if the policy holder didn't shop around. Teach her to shop around at renewal.

merlin68

You can cancel, but you will probably be charged a fee. We had to get new car insurance as the old car died and we bought a new one. It was £96 to cancel. You need to read the terms.
Good luck wish mil was so amenable, mine refuses to be helped. LOL.

Aesop

dirtydogmitchell wrote: »

First issue: my mother pays £235 a month to this onebill company (securehomes)...when i add up what the monthly payments to these companies would be if she didn’t use onebill it only comes to £192 a month. One bill states they only charge £14-15 a month for the service but from what i can see they are charging more like £40+.

You need to write a letter from your Mother - get her to read it and sign it, to these people, querying why she is being charged £40+ a month when she was told £14-15 a month. They may have added extras which she has agreed to by signing. Only once you know what they are, "your mother" can dispute them, with your help.


Next she purchased a sofa from SCS for £699 last year which was supposed to be interest free for a year - but they started billing straight away. They also sold her fabric guard for £200 - this sofa is not fully fabric! I Worked out she will end up paying over £1600 for this £699 sofa!

Not sure what you can do about this. Again you would have to write a letter on your mother's behalf, get her to read it and sign it, querying why they have sold her fabric guard when sofa is not fully fabric. And why would she need this additional cover. When sofas are made, they usually coat them with chemicals that make it easy to clean them of spillages, etc. so why would she need it? They may agree to stop payments, but not necessarily refund all she has paid to date.


She has just renewed her house insurance and from what i can see she is paying twice as much as she should do...and she was unknowingly sold legal expenses and Home emergency with the insurance for the last five years! Can i challenge the price or have reason enough to cancel the policy?

There is probably a clause, that your mother cannot cancel the policy early without a penalty. But again write on behalf of your mother, ask her to read it and sign it, asking them to remove the legal expenses and Home Emergency, and would they consider refunding her for the last 5 years. But you will need to provide them with a good reason why they should. As to the price - unfortunately, having signed upto it, they may not reduce it. And again there may be a penalty for early cancellation.

You need to sit down and work out whether it is worth pulling out early for a cheaper cover with someone else, how much is she likely to save?

Same story for her car insurance she is paying over £700 a year with full no claims on a 1.3 rover!


as above.

She has small mortgage with nationwide (less that £5000) Nationwide advised her that she needs to have this decreasing life insurance to cover the mortgage in the event of her death. This covers her mortgage for £21,000 this year! She only has £3000 left on the mortgage….the insurance is with Zurich? Not sure if this was provided by Nationwide but it seems a little bit of a con. Can I just cancel this?

Lots of other little things but I can sort them out
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Martin

again wit the nationwide mortgage insurance. You cannot contact these companies on your mother's behalf without her written permission and some of these may still not agree to deal with you directly.

Do you have access to a financial advisor? someone who maybe able to advise on the home insurance?

and speak to your mother about renewals. Ask her when things are coming up for renewal, to let you shop around to save her money before she automatically renews to anything.

dirtydogmitchell

Sorry i didn't mean that i would act on her behalf and just cancel the bills or contact the companies.

and....

yeah if only she would come to me when she purchases somethink new or renews a bill! I' ve been bangin on about it for years.

Aesop

dirtydogmitchell wrote: »

Sorry i didn't mean that i would act on her behalf and just cancel the bills or contact the companies.

and....

yeah if only she would come to me when she purchases somethink new or renews a bill! I' ve been bangin on about it for years.

maybe when she sees how much money you will be saving her she will. But saying that, some people just cannot be helped!