IVISA charged me £23.99 for a free EHIC card

teasmashed

Listening to Moneybox on Radio 4 made me realise that https://www.apply-ehic-e111-card.org.uk is not the official site for applying for the EHIC (E111 as was) European health card.

They have charged me £23.99 for what is still a free card.

Has anyone had any joy at getting refunded in these sort of (scam) circumstances? What's the best way to go about it?

custardy

They offered a service you chose to use
yes its a scam but you have the option to look around and research yourself

from their FAQ

IS THERE ANY CHARGE FOR EHIC?
A. You can apply for the card with us for a service charge of £19.95 or via the official EHIC online application form.

DTDfanBoy

Did you pay any attention to the website, this appears prominently on the first page you encounter.

The NHS has the ultimate decision on all EHIC applications. The i visa company ltd is not part of/affiliated with the NHS, we do not have the power to grant you an EHIC ourselves. However through our services you can apply for your EHIC for a fee of £23.99. Your EHIC lets you get state healthcare at a reduced cost or sometimes for free. You are able to purchase an EHIC directly through the NHS for free, however in doing so you will not be able to benefit from the services and offers listed below

jpsartre

All things considered £24 is a cheap lesson to learn to watch out when you use the internet.

f4phixeruk

Work mate got caught out by one of these sites. Then argued with me that it was the only way to get an EHIC. That was till I showed him the OFFICIAL site.
Still didnt get an apology for being right.

Obviously_the_best

That is one of the clearest websites for showing that it's not actually NHS. If you got caught out by that one, then I recommend you buy nothing more on the internet until you've had someone check over each webpage you wish to buy from.

Mr_Wang

I was talking to someone in India a couple of years ago who was a self made millionaire (Indian)

He explained that when applying for foreign visas the forms are usually in English and so he started out charging friends, then friends of friends, and quickly became a state wide then ultimately nation wide business filling in these forms and sending them off.

He cornered a market that couldn't read or write English and provided a service to them.

The site the OP has paid is similar to the example above, there is a market in England where naive individuals require services that are otherwise free. I don't think it is fair to mock the OP either, if we start mocking people who pay for their ECHC card then we should mock every single person that walks into a travel agent because believe me - They pay a damn site more than £24

claire16c

It bemuses me how websites offering these services are 'scans' yet plenty of travel agents will charge a few for doing the exact same thing, and some people pay it!

Delree

We call them scams because they prey on naive people who don't know any better to provide a simple 10 second service.
Another good one are websites charging sometimes £50 to get you an ETSA for the USA when they are only $14.

I'll be honest, this board is full of people crying about these sites it almost makes me tempted to start a site myself, it looks easy money.

Mr_Wang

Delree wrote: »

We call them scams because they prey on naive people who don't know any better to provide a simple 10 second service.
Another good one are websites charging sometimes £50 to get you an ETSA for the USA when they are only $14.

I'll be honest, this board is full of people crying about these sites it almost makes me tempted to start a site myself, it looks easy money.

You would make a fortune from all those who do a Google search for ETSA rather than ESTA

claire16c

Delree wrote: »

We call them scams because they prey on naive people who don't know any better to provide a simple 10 second service.
Another good one are websites charging sometimes £50 to get you an ETSA for the USA when they are only $14.

I'll be honest, this board is full of people crying about these sites it almost makes me tempted to start a site myself, it looks easy money.

Yup me too.

Some travel agents will also fill out Estas for people for a cost.