Car insurance payment !

sucs68

Can somebody please clear something up for me, in April i renewed my car insurance with Tesco, i paid the full amount, and according to my online banking the payment came out on the 15 April,then on the 23 Sept the exact same amount was put back into my account from Tesco banking. I didn't receive any letter or any other form of communication from Tesco...so i left it. Then last week i received a letter from them saying i owed them the full amount? I rang them & told them i paid it in full in April, they said i hadn't, i told them i did & then in Sept the money was returned into my account, they said that was impossible? Anyway my question is this...i have been told that if you pay for something but then the company give you the money back (accidently) then thats their fault & you dont have to repay it back? is this true? I'm still having the arguement with Tesco, basically they are calling me liar so now i'm having to send them copies of my bank statement showing the money going out & then back in.:cool:

rs65

sucs68 wrote: »

Anyway my question is this...i have been told that if you pay for something but then the company give you the money back (accidently) then thats their fault & you dont have to repay it back? is this true?

No. Seems they have made a mistake and if you want cover to continue you must repay it.

Point out to them that they would have been in touch much sooner if you hadn't paid in April but you still need to pay.

MarkyMarkD

There's no point having an academic debate about the money going out and into your account. You clearly owe them the money so just pay them.

vaio

Yep, as others have said, you still owe them.

Having said that, if the mistake had been yours you can be sure there would be some admin charges to pay to sort it out so I'd be inclined to send them a bill for the provision of duplicate statements, £50 has been ruled as fair by the FOS

pararct

Hope your not still driving the motor and it is parked off the road. You could be committing a whole raft of offences under the RTA if not.

Get the money paid back asap......

InsideInsurance

sucs68 wrote: »

i have been told that if you pay for something but then the company give you the money back (accidently) then thats their fault & you dont have to repay it back? is this true?

Not true in the slightest, however both parties would have to be reasonable in agreeing terms of repayment. If you can afford to pay it instantly you should (and the courts would make you if it went to debt collection). If you cannot afford to pay it immediately a reasonable offer would have to be accepted but that wouldnt necessarily stop them from cancelling the policy it would just be for the debt in connection to time already on cover

sucs68

Thanks for all the replies, as i thought i will have to pay. I have been keeping an eye on my insurance & made sure that it hadn't been canceled. I just want them to admit that its their mistake instead of some little upstart basically calling me a liar, anyway i've been to the bank & got previous statements showing the payment leaving my account & then going back in 5 months later, so we will see what happens.

McKneff

I dont understand why you are saing they think you are a liar, they have to verify what you say, surely.

Same as going into the supermarket and you giving the operator a £20 note and her giving you change for a tenner.

You tell her what happened, she is not going to give you the tenner without checking the till.

Just pay up and move on. It'll cost you an awful lot of hassle and money if the suddenly decide to cancel your insurance.
It would be hard for you to get insurance elswehere becuase you would be asked 'have you ever had an insurance cancel your insurance' you would have to answer 'yes' for years and pay a premium for it.

In fact Id get on the phone and pay it asap.

NJBSaver

They must have sent a certificate of motor insurance?

I'm going to stick my head above the parapet. If there is no risk of a claim between April and September and you have 9 years+ no claims (wouldn't miss the additional year) then I'd be cancelling the policy and taking my business elsewhere. Free insurance for six months.

McKneff

Cancelling it wouldnt work, they will charge you at least £50 cancellation fee, plus probably an admin fee, and they could argue that they have insured you for the last 8 or 9 months, if you had had a claim within that time, you would have expected them to pay out, citing it was their error. And they would have had to pay out, so in effect you have been insured.

vaio

Yep, just as we frequently argue for fair treatment for punters, the same applies even though the boot is on the other foot in this case.

The OP has been insured and therefore needs to pay the agreed price for that cover. The fact that he has paid and for some reason the insurance company refunded him a few months later doesn’t alter anything and if the insurance company can’t trace the transactions on their system then the OP should assist them.

Having said all that, and in the interests of balance, I also think the OP should get the traditional admin fee that insurance companies charge for pretty much every non-routine letter/phone call/provision of duplicate bits of paper etc.