Beware the RAC

flossy_splodge

:mad: years ago I paid for membership of the RAC for my DD as she was traveling a lot at night and i didn't want her stranded in the event of car breakdown.
She accepted that she would take over payments from year 2.
At Year 2 the RAC debited my account (Barclaycard) without my agreement.
I rang and explained that my daughter no longer had a car and I had not authorised a second year of membership so please action a refund.
I also contacted Barclaycard to tell them to stop any further charges from the RAC.
I have just found that the RAC have now charged me for a THIRD year, in spite of previous communication.
I was in one of the big banks yesterday and in chatting to a senior staff member mentioned the problem I was having that the RAC have stolen my money and Barclaycard won't get it back for me.
The response?
Oh yes, the RAC are well known for this!!!!!
OMG, how does such a previously reputable company descend into thievery?
Anyone know tel number for CEO or equivalent please?
:eek:

keyser666

They havent stolen your money

flossy_splodge

Crocoduck wrote: »

It's a continuous payment authority. This allows for a recurring payment to be taken from your card until you cancel the payment. You must contact the RAC to cancel the payment, otherwise they will keep taking it You will have agreed to this when you first took out the membership, although I appreciate it may well have been in the small print.

Did you not receive a renewal notice from the RAC? They always send me one annually.

Yes i fully realise this but when I contacted them a year ago about THAT renewal they accepted that I had told them it was for one year only!

keyser666 wrote: »

They havent stolen your money

Interesting...what else would you call taking someones money without authorisation.
If it seems like stealing, looks like stealing and smells like stealing, it probably IS stealing.:eek:

PhylPho

Just some points of clarification:

1) The RAC is no longer a 'motoring organisation' owned by its members. It long since became a commrcial entity to be bought and traded. It's currently owned by an American private equity group -- i.e., an investment business that knows more about leveraging debt than about levering a tyre off a rim.

2) You gave the RAC a Continuous Payment Authority. You do NOT -- repeat: you do NOT -- have to contact the RAC first in order to cancel that CPA. Instead, you should contact your card issuer immediately and cancel it with them. To then confirm that cancellation, you should write to the RAC advising what you've done.

There has been so much confusion over cancellation rights re CPAs that the Financial Services Authority has now stepped in to sort out the mess -- a mess significantly exacerbated by idiots running the Office of Fair Trading which has been telling consumers for quite a while that they can't unilaterally instruct their bank or cc company to stop a CPA.

It's not entirely clear from your post when all this happened or what, if anything, you put *in writing* to the RAC and what they put in writing to you about renewal. Good luck with getting your money back.

bod1467

My wife is treasurer of our local school's PTA (Parent/Teacher Association). 2 years ago the RAC extracted funds from the PTA account via direct debit (what DD?) for no good reason. My wife instructed the bank (in writing) to cancel any DD mandate that might exist and to refund the monies under the DD guarantee scheme - this they did. She also wrote to the RAC informing them of their error - I believe she got a reply but I'm not sure.

Last year all was OK.

THIS year ... RAC took the money again! How? My wife has already informed the bank verbally (3 times) and in writing (2 times) and STILL they haven't actioned the DD guarantee! THREE months after the first request!

So black marks to the RAC AND to the Bank Of Scotland!

PhylPho

bod1467 wrote: »

My wife is treasurer of our local school's PTA (Parent/Teacher Association). 2 years ago the RAC extracted funds from the PTA account via direct debit (what DD?) for no good reason. My wife instructed the bank (in writing) to cancel any DD mandate that might exist and to refund the monies under the DD guarantee scheme - this they did. She also wrote to the RAC informing them of their error - I believe she got a reply but I'm not sure.

Last year all was OK.

THIS year ... RAC took the money again! How? My wife has already informed the bank verbally (3 times) and in writing (2 times) and STILL they haven't actioned the DD guarantee! THREE months after the first request!

So black marks to the RAC AND to the Bank Of Scotland!

Just write to the branch again, a Signed For letter addressed to the manager. The letter should advise the bank that it has 14 days within which to conform to its statutory obligations and that failure to return the monies to the account in that time will result in a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman in view of the blatant breach of the Payment Services Regulations 2009.

flossy_splodge

PhylPho wrote: »

Just write to the branch again, a Signed For letter addressed to the manager. The letter should advise the bank that it has 14 days within which to conform to its statutory obligations and that failure to return the monies to the account in that time will result in a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman in view of the blatant breach of the Payment Services Regulations 2009.

Super input, thanks.
Will post back in a few days, all is a bit up in the air at mo whilst I wait for responses from RAC and Barclaycard.
Thanks again for your input.

bod1467

I think PhylPho was replying to my (hijack) post, but the advice probably still applies for your case.

Ilona

I reckon that the RAC are working with Barclays and are the same organisation. I rang the RAC to cancel my membership because the cost had shot up. They asked which bank I was with. When I answered Barclays they miraculously said, oh we have a special deal with Barclays and can offer you a lower price. I smell a rat. Put everything in writing, check all paperwork.
Ilona

System

Ilona wrote: »

I reckon that the RAC are working with Barclays and are the same organisation. I rang the RAC to cancel my membership because the cost had shot up. They asked which bank I was with. When I answered Barclays they miraculously said, oh we have a special deal with Barclays and can offer you a lower price. I smell a rat. Put everything in writing, check all paperwork.
Ilona

RAC always lower the price of renewal if you phone up to cancel.