unauthorised payments

Hotunderthecollar

Help and advice please.
I informed my bank(barclays) I was on holiday in Morocco for 3 weeks.Just before I was due to return I used an internet cafe to read my emails.My car insurance company had sent me a reminder email that if I wanted to renew my car insurance to fill in a online DD mandate and the procedure would be painless.
I replied that I no longer wanted car insurance because I would be selling my car on my return and of course I did not fill in any details.
I then recieved an email from "ONECALLDIRECT" thanking me for renewing my insurance and they have taken £261.75 from my current account including £20 admin charges and actually before the date it was due.
I have never set up a direct debit with them and paid for my insurance last year over the internet as a one off payment with my debit card.
ONECALLDIRECT have ignored my 5 emails to them.
Today a young lady at barclays bank informed me that when you pay for items over the internet you have formed a contract with the seller and it was quite ok for them then to take money from my account.OF COURSE SHE WAS SORRY it had happened but the bank has no responsability for the unauthorised repayment.
How can this be true ?

dunstonh

I have never set up a direct debit with them and paid for my insurance last year over the internet as a one off payment with my debit card.

They used the debit card to collect it. Not direct debit.

Many car insurance policies have automatic renewal unless you phone them to tell them you are not renewing.

Today a young lady at barclays bank informed me that when you pay for items over the internet you have formed a contract with the seller and it was quite ok for them then to take money from my account.OF COURSE SHE WAS SORRY it had happened but the bank has no responsability for the unauthorised repayment.
How can this be true ?

The bank is correct.

However, if you contact the insurer and tell them the date and time you rang them (and ideally the name of the person) then they can look into why the premium was collected and refund it to you. If you only emailed them and the email address was not valid (some return addresses are not) then they may never have got your message. Hence why the renewed it.

magpiecottage

dunstonh wrote: »

The bank is correct.

I disagree.

FSA Rule BCOBS 5.1.11R says:

"(1) Where a banking customer denies having authorised a payment, it is for the firm to prove that the payment was authorised.

(2) Where a payment from a banking customer's account was not authorised by the banking customer, a firm must, within a reasonable period, refund the amount of the unauthorised payment to the banking customer and, where applicable, restore the banking customer's account to the state it would have been in had the unauthorised payment not taken place."

Therefore, unless the bank can prove the payment WAS authorised, it must reverse both it and the consquences.

You can complain to either the bank or the broker and, if necessary, take them to FOS.

dunstonh

The problem is that the bank will give them 30 days to supply evidence that the payment was authorised. They will almost certainly supply the details (which auto renewal car insurance does have and continuous payment authority) and the bank will have to take the money again. You end up back at square one.

By going straight to the insurer, you eliminate all that wait.

magpiecottage

dunstonh wrote: »

The problem is that the bank will give them 30 days to supply evidence that the payment was authorised. They will almost certainly supply the details (which auto renewal car insurance does have and continuous payment authority) and the bank will have to take the money again. You end up back at square one.

By going straight to the insurer, you eliminate all that wait.

Not if the OP sends a hard copy of the e-mail withdrawing the authorisation.

However doing that AND complaining to the insurer will probably be the best approach.

Just make sure you do not end up redressed twice. That would almost certainly be fraudulent.