Budget (Avon) DD on bank statement

milky69

So whilst l dont agree with the tickbox thing has anyone actually checked out the policy ?

I have and to be honest for £3.99 a month its not a bad payout.

Keith_Benton

Got a letter from Avon Insurance today asking for us to pay the outstanding premiums. This appears to be different from the other posts here. No knowledge of any policy in place or how it came to be. I suspect the letter approach is a chancer type one. Send a letter, make the reader think they are missing out and bingo - watch the muppets pay up.

The letter says that if we do nothing the policy will lapse which is exactly what we will do - nothing. We need also to check bank statements but we are fairly sure that no payments have been made.

Caz_daw

Noticed this payment of £4 a month to Avon insurance just traced it back to 2011 found this thread and rang them (thanks for posting) had somehow got this through Halifax car insurance was put through to them and they've given me full refund :-) defiantly worth chasing up!

vcrawford

Thank you so much for this thread, I have called them and they have offered me a full refund which works out at £192.

neiljmac

Buzby wrote: »

Agreed - no scam. Just an inattentive purchaser. With Budget, did you also miss where you gave them the ability to call for funds on your plastic at renewal automatically too?

Well Buzby. Clearly, not everyone is as perfect as you are! We should aspire to your amazingness

I am probably not the only one who has never knowingly had any dealings with the Budget outfit? All of my insurance, that I can remember, has been through Natwest. However, a forum on civinfo dott com/forum/insurance/103523-avon-insurance-scam.html, suggests that it may be linked to an old and long expired RAC subscription I had, many moons ago.

I have just done a quick calculation, and I should be able to ask for between £350 +£550, such is the length of time it has been lurking on my account.

Lesson learned: Check my statement more thoroughly and also thinks I sign up for!

Happy New Year to all! :beer:

WistowWay

The £3.99 coming out of my account was via Direct Dial (insurance) not RAC or Budget but it was for the same policy sold in the same manner in December of 2012. Once known to me I contacted Avon and not Dial and after speaking with the frontline advisor I spoke with the customer relations team. The key question they asked me was "Was it that you where not aware we would charge you once the 6 months free period was up?". I stated that I was not aware of ever having or agreed to the policy nor had I received any policy documents thus had no way of claiming. This prompted an immediate reimbursement of the 33 payments (how did I miss them!!). the policy has now been cancelled. Most interestingly with the policy cancelled they said that they could not entertain a dispute/complaint. I gathered from the whole conversation that they no longer use the ticked box method (not since June 2013) and the initial response from the first person I spoke to of sending out the documents and not having them back as "undelivered" counted as acceptance of policy is not justifiable at their end.

Dancie_5

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the previous posts regarding the budget Avon direct debit. I was going through my online bank statements this morning and had not realised that budget insurance had been taking out £3.99 a month since 2013 😩 My partner had previous van insurance with them all that time ago. After contacting the helpline stated on the previous post he explained the situation and then after getting slightly angry he got transferred to the customer service team. The lady on the phone was very helpful After he mentioned all the previous posts! They are now sending a cheque out for £130. I feel a complete idiot for not realising sooner!!!
Thank you so much again x

AndrewSaidThis

Thanks for this thread guys, my £4.00 mysterious Avon Insurance has been ticking away for ages... but thanks to you I now know the slightly devious reason for it. I think it was from when I had courtesy insurance cover when I drove my new car home.... which means they've had £4.00 for just over a year.

I've killed the DD transaction via my online banking, so they can go whistle from now on.

Andrew

madmickey

No, this is a SCAM as it is plainly not visible to those taking out Motor Insurance with Budget. I am very careful to ensure I do not pay for any extras when purchasing anything and I have no recollection of an option to deselect this!

The mere fact that so many have fallen for this confirms it is a deceitful scam!

lornae

I noticed that a direct debit was coming out of my bank account every month for £3.99 to a company called Budget Avon. I trawled through previous bank statements and in total 44 payments amounting to £176.00 had been paid to them from 2013 to date. They first started when i took out car insurance with Budget, but continued even when I had changed insurance companies over the years.I contacted Budget Avon customer services on 01789 415 050, and spoke to a lady who confirmed that the payments were all above board and they had contacted me several times to remind me what this payment was for and that it was still coming out of my account. (I cannot recall receiving any correspondance). I asked her to cancel the policy immediately and put me through to someone who could reimburse me. She transferred me to Budget Insurance themselves. The lady there, confirmed that the payments related to an optional personal accident insurance that was additional to my normal car insurance. She confirmed that this was free for the first 6 months, and then i had to pay £3.99 a month for it. She confirmed that i had this because i had failed to untick a box asking if i wanted it. She then said to resolve the problem she would repay me £52.00 of the £176.00 I had paid. I told her i was not happy with that, she then offered me £88.00 - which was half of what i had paid out. I told her that although that was better than nothing, i was still unhappy as i had changed insurance companies throughout this time and yet i was still paying for a service I did not want, I pointed out that surely i should tick a box if i wanted such a policy - not have to untick it. She agreed with me and said it was a massive scandal, and it was miss selling of products. She then put me on hold, and had took advice from her supervisor. When she returned she said she would refund me the full £176.00 and asked if that would close my complaint. To which i replied "of course" I have been assured that i will receive a cheque within 21 days. My advice for anyone trying to get their money back.... would be to not accept any offers of payment, but to hold out u until you are offered the full amount. I personally will check my bank statements far more thoroughly in future.