How to claim back overpayment of Direct Debit

riverboat2001

I've been paying two direct debits for Mortgage payment protection and Critical Illness cover.
However the mortgage they apply to was paid off in April 2011.

(i have no mortgage at all now:j)

Can i claim these payments back? If so, how?

(I had thought they were life insurance, that's why i let them run:o)

Archi_Bald

If you are certain you owe nothing, call your bank and tell them you did not authorise the payments. Refer to the Direct Debit Guarantee http://www.directdebit.co.uk/DIRECTDEBITEXPLAINED/Pages/DirectDebitGuarantee.aspx

Check your account - if there are DDs for companies you have not authorised to take money, cancel them.

If you are not certain whether you owe any money, make further checks, e.g. by calling the companies that charged you.

riverboat2001

Archi_Bald wrote: »

If you are certain you owe nothing, call your bank and tell them you did not authorise the payments. Refer to the Direct Debit Guarantee http://www.directdebit.co.uk/DIRECTDEBITEXPLAINED/Pages/DirectDebitGuarantee.aspx

Check your account - if there are DDs for companies you have not authorised to take money, cancel them.

If you are not certain whether you owe any money, make further checks, e.g. by calling the companies that charged you.

These payments WERE authorised when i took out the original mortgage, I'm certain that i owe nothing.

Archi_Bald

riverboat2001 wrote: »

These payments WERE authorised when i took out the original mortgage

Yes but they were not when they took the most recent payments, were they? Unless I misunderstand your post?

When exactly did they take the last payments? When should thay have stopped to take payments?

YorkshireBoy

I've never had either, but unless the benefits were 'assigned' (ie paid directly) to the mortgage provider I wouldn't think you could claim any of them back?

riverboat2001

Well, the mortgage they were covering was paid off in April 2011.
They are still going out off my account (cancelling them today)

Was i responsible for cancelling them when the mortgage was paid off, or should they have stopped requesting it?

@Yorkshireboy:
They were covering a mortgage and a re-mortgage (called an equity release?)
The mortgages were from HSBC and the direct debits for the PPI were to HSBC.

YorkshireBoy

You haven't answered my question...

Were the benefits to be paid directly to you to go towards covering your mortgage payments?

Or were they to be paid directly to your mortgage account with HSBC, and fully meet whatever your mortgage payment was at the time of making a claim?

If the former, then a claim would almost certainly be refused. If the latter (and you'd need to check the policy details), then possibly HSBC should have cancelled the policies or at least written to you outlining your options.

riverboat2001

According to the terms and conditions:

"How do i claim if my plan is linked to my mortgage?

You follow the same claim steps except that after you have completed the discharge for, the money is released to the mortgage lender to pay off your loan"

Archi_Bald

There's no reason for paying mortgage payment protection after you have paid off your mortgage. Even if you had signed some sort of policy that went beyond the repayment date of your mortgage, you would have a very good case for not paying a penny beyond the date you repaid your mortgage.

Its's slightly different for the Critical Illness cover. This could, potentially, be perpetual. There is certainly no compelling reason why it should stop when your mortgage has been repaid. What does your policy say?

Please do provide some hard facts if you want any helpful responses.

jonesMUFCforever

Another way to look at it is - if you had to make a claim then the insurer would have had to pay out based on your last mortgage payments.

I believe (especially these days) that a mortgage payment and any kind of insurance are not linked.
Therefore paying off a mortgage would not cancel any protection policies. Indeed it would be very dangerous thing for the bank to do if your health or job had changed - for all they know you could have wanted the policies for something else.

OP by all means claim the D/D's back from the bank - al this will do is make the insurance company come after you for the premiums.
If you did not cancel you still have the policy benefits.