Insurance charged me twice, maxed my overdraft

I2ussell

Hi,

I paid for new car insurance at the beginning of the week and then a couple of days later a second payment of the same amount was pending on my account, which put me over my overdraft limit. I called my bank and they confirmed that it was the insurance company who the second payment was going too and that I would be charged £6 a day for going into my overdraft.

The bank have given me an authorisation code to pass on to the accounts dept of my insurer and they should refund me. (Both bank and insurer told me this)

Should I be entitled to extra payment from my insurer to cover the overdraft charges on my account as the second payment was a mistake and would t have received the charges if it hadn't been taken out? How should I go about this?

Buzby

No entitlement to compensation - but if the breached your understanding of the debit schedule, they should - as a goodwill gesture - refund this.

As you have discovered, the DD guarantee actually means little. If you live your financial life close to the wire, a DD is not advisable.

InsideInsurance

A pending transaction is simply an authorisation and this should never cause fees to be applied in itself (though it may cause other payments to be rejected and fees applied for that) as no payment has actually been taken.

In the first instance you need to clarify what has happened with your bank