How do I stop Auto renewal charging c. card?

sarah.lj

We seem to have an on going problem with the HSBC automatic insurance renewal system.

My husband paid for his daughters car insurance last October (2010) in full with his virgin credit card, she subsequently has sold the car on (around May time) and as far as we can tell we think she may have sold the policy on to someone as well.

Around May time there was a charge to his credit card (a little under £200) which turned out to be from the HSBC Insurance, they refused to discuss anything with my husband as he is not the policy holder (his daughter claims to know nothing about it) they could not even confirm any of the addresses that his daughter has had so we think someone else has changed the address and name and policy holder hence the extra charge to the policy.

They refused to remove his card details from the policy, which seems totally illegal to me, as he is the owner of the card they should be prepared to talk to him about it. He cancelled the card but kept the Virgin account and Virgin issued him a new card, the policy renewal date is the 8th October 2011 and his card has now been charged with a new full year of insurance…so as far as I can see someone is stealing his money to pay for their insurance.

Virgin has been very helpful and have frozen the transaction and the people at HSBC have said they will remove the auto renewal function from the policy, but I very very much doubt this will happen as it’s the only way they are going to get their money.

My husband has looked in to this a little online and he is very nervous about cancelling the Virgin account as he said if HSBC try to take more money from the account and are unable to do so, it will affect his credit rating!!

I just don’t know what to do, there must be some way of removing the card from their records, they cannot just refuse and keep charging him with money for someone else’s insurance, so he’s faced with either having to go through this process of talking to Virgin/HSBC everytime funds are taken from the policy or he risks getting a black mark against his currently impeccable credit rating!!

Help!?!?

dazza.mk

sarah.lj wrote: »

We seem to have an on going problem with the HSBC automatic insurance renewal system.

My husband paid for his daughters car insurance last October (2010) in full with his virgin credit card, she subsequently has sold the car on (around May time) and as far as we can tell we think she may have sold the policy on to someone as well.

Around May time there was a charge to his credit card (a little under £200) which turned out to be from the HSBC Insurance, they refused to discuss anything with my husband as he is not the policy holder (his daughter claims to know nothing about it) they could not even confirm any of the addresses that his daughter has had so we think someone else has changed the address and name and policy holder hence the extra charge to the policy.

They refused to remove his card details from the policy, which seems totally illegal to me, as he is the owner of the card they should be prepared to talk to him about it. He cancelled the card but kept the Virgin account and Virgin issued him a new card, the policy renewal date is the 8th October 2011 and his card has now been charged with a new full year of insurance…so as far as I can see someone is stealing his money to pay for their insurance.

Virgin has been very helpful and have frozen the transaction and the people at HSBC have said they will remove the auto renewal function from the policy, but I very very much doubt this will happen as it’s the only way they are going to get their money.

My husband has looked in to this a little online and he is very nervous about cancelling the Virgin account as he said if HSBC try to take more money from the account and are unable to do so, it will affect his credit rating!!

I just don’t know what to do, there must be some way of removing the card from their records, they cannot just refuse and keep charging him with money for someone else’s insurance, so he’s faced with either having to go through this process of talking to Virgin/HSBC everytime funds are taken from the policy or he risks getting a black mark against his currently impeccable credit rating!!

Help!?!?

You can't sell the policy on to someone else, he needs to simply raise any transactions as fraudulent (as he didn't authorise them).

In terms of affecting his credit rating, won't happen a closed credit card would be reopened by the incoming transaction.

dunstonh

They refused to remove his card details from the policy, which seems totally illegal to me, as he is the owner of the card they should be prepared to talk to him about it.

it is not illegal. It is a data protection issue. Unfortunately, your daughter is the policyholder. not your husband.

He cancelled the card but kept the Virgin account and Virgin issued him a new card, the policy renewal date is the 8th October 2011 and his card has now been charged with a new full year of insurance…so as far as I can see someone is stealing his money to pay for their insurance.

It is not stealing. Cancelling the card does not cancel any continuous payment agreement.

Is there any reason why your daughter did not cancel the insurance policy when the car was sold? Or then why she didnt tell them she didnt wish to renew the policy when the renewal notice arrived? Or why he hasnt got your daughter to phone the insurance company.

Once the insurer know the car has been sold and when, they can refund the money (minus a cancellation charge).

He may well be successful if he puts a disputed transaction in with the bank. However, if the insurer supply details from the original application and show it was a continuous payment agreement there is a strong possibility that the bank will have to honour the payment (he agreed to pay the insurance each and every year the policy was in force until the policyholder says otherwise). So, getting your daughter to deal with the insurer may well be quicker. If the unauthorised payment reclaim does work, then it will create a debt with the insurer which your daughter will be liable for and it could affect her credit rating unless she contacts the insurer to tell them when the car was sold.

InsideInsurance

sarah.lj wrote: »

as far as we can tell we think she may have

Surely the first thing that you do is to speak to your daughter and find out what is going on?

If things are still in her name and a chargeback does go through it could cause her significant problems in getting insurance again in the future as the policy most likely would be cancelled for unauthorised use of a TP card (aka fraud)

kingstreet

Other questions echoed.

When she sold the car, did she inform the insurers?

Did she buy another vehicle? If so, how was it insured?

Is there some reason no-one is asking the daughter? My first port of call would have been to ask her to phone the insurer for an explanation.

sarah.lj

If it was really just as simple as talking to my step-daughter i would have sorted it by now! She refuses to help or talk about it, which leads me to conclude she's done something that she's ashamed of. We believe the policy is no longer in her name (but cannot confirm this as the insurer will not discuss it with us) they have told it's no longer registered to her address so whomever now has the policy has changed it to their address.

My step daughter is very stupid and is likey to have added someone else to the policy (for a price) and may even still have it in her name but added someone to the policy...or maybe just changed the vehicle detials...I just don't know the problem is she claims to not know anything and the insurer wont talk to us....so can't see where we go from here?? So far we have been able to get the transactions stopped (with great help from the CC comp) but it's very frustrating not knowing when it may happen again. :-(

kingstreet

sarah.lj wrote: »

If it was really just as simple as talking to my step-daughter i would have sorted it by now! She refuses to help or talk about it, which leads me to conclude she's done something that she's ashamed of(

If you'd mentioned this in your opening post, we wouldn't have made that suggestion.

In the circumstances, you are doing as much as you can.

rs65

there is no way the policy has changed name. It will still be in her name but i suspect she has maybe came to some arrangement with whoever bought her car.

if you have managed to stop cc payments then they will turn to her for payment, which may focus her mind.

InsideInsurance

As they may also have passed it to the police given you've accused her of fraud by cancelling the payment as unauthorised, which I am sure will focus her mind

lisyloo

by cancelling the payment as unauthorised

Surely this is only a temporary measure as a quick check of the documents will show this has been authorised.

InsideInsurance

The argument will be the permission was withdrawn but the daughter refuses to pass this information on to the insurer thus making the transaction fraudulent. Insurers don't often pass things to the police for single cases but sometimes if its a nice easy case, which these tend to be, they will.