Lloyds not able to cancel pending debit card payment

Frikkadel

Just a little frustrated at the moment with Lloyds. I had car insurance with them until 16th Oct 13 and received a renewal letter a month ago. I didn't read the whole letter and missed the part about them auto renewing unless I called to cancel. I never usually had to do that with other insurances and just assumed I wouldn't need to do anything, silly me I know.

Anyway I got car insurance with a different company, and last night at 22.30 I received an email from Lloyds Car Insurance stating my insurance will be automatically renewed at midnight and a payment will be taken out of my account in 3 days. I called them to cancel asap but they closed at 22.00 (I think its a bit cheeky sending renewal reminders after the office has closed, which is why I find myself in a predicament).

I called Lloyds telephone banking, they said they cant cancel the payment as its a debit card payment (one off amount). I called Lloyds Car Insurance in the morning, they cancelled the policy but said they cant cancel the payment as its already been requested but I could ask the bank itself to cancel it. Went back to them they said no, the Insurance office should send them a fax with an authorisation code to cancel. Called the Insurers back and no, they cant do that, its up to the bank.

So basically I was sent from pillar to post, had to make about 6 calls between the two this morning and Ive still had no joy. I have a very small amount of money left in my account, Im unemployed at the moment, and the payment amount is a lot more than what I have in there, so I will be overdrawn if the money is deducted from my account, until they return it, which they said will take up to 4 days.

I tried to send a complaint via Lloyds online complaints form but it doesn't seem to work, in fact nothing on their website works properly for some reason.

Is there anything else I can do to stop this payment coming out of my account?

InsideInsurance

If they are doing it properly then it should be done under a Continuous Payment Authority in which case your bank can stop it if authorisation hasnt already occurred for the transaction but many bank telephone staff deny that its possible to cancel a CPA with them.

If the authorisation has already been given then it will be the insurer that needs to stop the transaction.

grumbler

There is no anything to complain about as it was essentially your fault.
If the insurance company has already requested the payment, you have to wait until it's processed and then ask for a refund. If the payment was authorised only it'll drop off naturally without affecting you real balance.

marlewuk

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If they are doing it properly then it should be done under a Continuous Payment Authority in which case your bank can stop it if authorisation hasnt already occurred for the transaction but many bank telephone staff deny that its possible to cancel a CPA with them.

If the authorisation has already been given then it will be the insurer that needs to stop the transaction.

CPA can be stopped but this payment on the debit card has already been initiated and the funds have been reserved.
Lloyds wont remove this unless company contacts them directly - this is quite right.
If banks did this on the back of a customers request then a lot of businesses would be out of pocket as this would be exploited
e.g a customer walks into tesco and buys some stuff. Pays with debit card then walks out and calls bank to say they were charged in error and the pending amount should be removed immediately.

InsideInsurance

marlewuk wrote: »

Lloyds wont remove this unless company contacts them directly - this is quite right

You even quoted me where I said the same :huh:

Lloyds car insurance is a rebrand of Budget Insurance, I've no idea about their IT system but certainly other insurers systems would not have a 3 day payment process however the control given to advisors is low so "its already started" could be the standard excuse for its beyond my control.

The problem with speaking to disempowered call centre staff is you get halve truths and when you relay this to another companies disempowered they follow on the story rather than necessarily checking.

The OP says they have insufficient funds in their account to cover the payment, if was the case that authorisation had already been sort then either it would have been declined or their account would already be into an unathorised overdraft which doesnt appear to be the case from what the OP has said. I personally would have explicitly double checked with the bank to see if the authorisation had actually occurred or if the "process" was some bigger pain in the !!!! system thing with Budget rather than an actual authorisation request.