Santander home insurance woes

ezzune

Hello, I am helping a friend who is in a bit of a pickle, but neither of us were able to get anywhere with customer services.

My friend has had insurance with Santander for the last 1 and a half years, paying from the same bank account for this entire period.

However recently the monthly direct debit wasn't taken from her account, but there was no record of a failed transaction on her bank page. She was asked to contact Santander and after doing so she was told their was an issue with payment. She was told it would be resolved and to ignore any cancellation letters she would receive (she recieved one over the next few days).

There was no transaction, so she assumed it would be taken out at the same time as the next transaction, but that didn't appear either.

After contacting Santander again they said there was another problem and she owed her bill + a cancellation fee. She explained the situation and the lady said she could pay her outstanding debts and the cover would continue. After paying the lady promptly said "I'm sorry, we can't continue the cover" and ended the conversation.

Now she feels she was tricked into paying a cancellation fee and has been left without home insurance and can't find anywhere for a price comparable to what she had.

We are going to contact the bank on Monday to find evidence of these transactions. What I would like is advice on how to proceed, I really feel like she has been cheated here and all she wants to do is resume her previous cover with Santander.

Many thanks,
Ezzune.

huckster

The bank receiving the debits will be able to confirm whether Santander Home Ins tried to take the payments. They will also be able to confirm that there was a live DD authority on the account to accept payments and there was no issue that would have stopped payment being made.

Armed with this information, phone the Santander Home Insurance complaints telephone number and register an official complaint.

Santander Home Insurance is administered by Budget Insurance, who have a poor reputation for customer service. When you make a complaint, you must be firm with them and ask to speak to a manager if possible to obtain a quick response to your problem.

Quentin

She needs to get this cancellation reversed if she can - a cancelled policy on your record has long lasting consequences.

She should write a complaint asking them to reinstate her policy.

If unhappy with the reply she should escalate this to the FOS.

ezzune

Thank you for the advice both of you! I was afraid it was a lost hope. I will follow your advice and contact the bank and then Santander on monday. Will post back then with results or for further advice.

Thanks again!

Gopher99

huckster wrote: »

Santander Home Insurance is administered by Budget Insurance

This is not 100% correct. Budget administer some Santander policies however many of Santander's home insurance policies are underwritten by Aviva with the customer service and policy administration work done by Santander themselves.

*Scarlett

It would obviously not be unusual for a company to cancel a policy for non payment.

Your friend has contacted the company and they told her on the first occasion that they would sort it and to ignore the cancellation letter.

The second call informed her to pay the amount owing + canx fee and they would continue cover. The only thing I'm confused about is why they asked her to pay a cancellation fee if they were going to continue cover?

I'm sure that these conversations have been recorded by Santander and you can request that these be reviewed by a manager or ask them for a copy for yourself (there is normally a charge for this - poss £10?)

If you are getting nowhere with Santander then try

http://financial-ombudsman.org.uk/