Big hammer, little nut.

colbee

I look after things for my 91 years old mother-in-law who lives in her own house with her 89 years old sister. Last year I arranged online house and contents insurance for her and paid for it using my credit card.
This year's renewal premium was, I thought, unreasonable so I placed the business elsewhere.
The renewal notice, from a well-known building society, stated ....'We will take payment from your Mastercard card number *******. (

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) If we don't hear from you, we'll renew your insurance automatically.'
So I telephoned and told a bright and bushy-tailed sounding young man that the insurance will not be renewed. He said I, not being the policy holder, could not make that decision, even when I said mother-in-law was not up to telephonic communication.
I then told him that as the credit card is mine, the building society does not now have my authority to raid it, and that should resolve the matter.
"Not at all" said he, "We will respect your instruction not to take money from your card but we will still go ahead with the renewal and issue documentation".
He said the point of doing this was that if the premium was not then paid (by my mother-in-law) the matter would be placed in the hands of a debt collection agency which could lead to her being taken to court over non-payment. (at 91 years of age). If I wished I could write explaining the situation for due consideration.
I asked to speak to his supervisor - he refused, saying this was a matter he would not, and had no need, to refer upwards. So I said I wished to make a complaint about him. This did prompt him to get his 'team-leader' who had an altogether different attitude but has still left me having to write to the building society to achieve resolution -apparently this cannot be done by e-mail.
With the benefit of hindsight, I should have got my wife to pose as her mother but what a load of absolute b******s just about something as mundane as house insurance. And the building society was not fussed when it originally took money from a credit card which was not in the name of the policy holder.

alwaysonthego_2

Sounds like an idiot! We had a similar problem with dh, he hates talking on the phone , so I had to send a letter with my dh signiture saying he gave consent for me to deal with his account on his behalf. couldn't you apply for power of attornity.

Butlers1982

What they are saying though is correct. Its called Data Protection.
I dont see what your point is, You gave the card details in the past which stay on file, Now your wishing to cancel the premium(but you cant it has to be done by the policy holder) which is correct, and now your saying they cant take anymore money from your card so they will act with recovery, how did you expect them to act.

They are following the correct procedure. Im sure youd be complaining if the policy had been cancelled and the policy holder hadnt of been the one doing the cancelling.

I stand with the company. they are not doing anything wrong

vikingaero

Butlers1982 wrote: »

I stand with the company. they are not doing anything wrong

Except use a modicum of common sense. :rolleyes:

colbee

Butlers1982 wrote: »

What they are saying though is correct. Its called Data Protection.
I dont see what your point is, You gave the card details in the past which stay on file, Now your wishing to cancel the premium(but you cant it has to be done by the policy holder) which is correct, and now your saying they cant take anymore money from your card so they will act with recovery, how did you expect them to act.

They are following the correct procedure. Im sure youd be complaining if the policy had been cancelled and the policy holder hadnt of been the one doing the cancelling.

I stand with the company. they are not doing anything wrong

You seem to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick! I did give card details last year to pay (in one lump sum) for that year's insurance only. That year expires on 8/8/07. I do not wish to cancel any premium; I simply do not wish to renew with the same company. Sorry if you find this confusing -perhaps you work for the company in question.

fudgeukraine

Common sense is all very good, but they still have to adhere to the Data Protection act. I've had to deal with it before when I worked in a call centre and although it's very frustrating for both parties I wasn't prepared to get sacked or sued for breaking it solely to save a caller 5 some inconvienience.

OP - I'd advise you to write a letter to the company asking for authorisation on the account and have both parties sign it, this should enable you to cancel the contract.

Unfortunately at present they will not accept a cancellation request from yourself as you are not the policy holder, it's irrelevent who pays the actual policy, as Butlers1982 has mentioned, if you do stop the payments, then they will have to recover the money through alternate means.

Good luck sorting it out anyway

uktim29

It's seems you want to make a complaint about someone who was just giving you correct information

alwaysonthego_2

uktim29 wrote: »

It's seems you want to make a complaint about someone who was just giving you correct information

but it could have been explained to the op instead of threatening him with court action surely

Butlers1982

You seem to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick

What along with the other posters? Or is it you???

Erm hard decision . .

robnye

unfortunately - whils thte data protection act has it uses, it make a few CS staff act like gods..... when as said a little common sense would suffice, although this is that you need to get a letter sent in including the person signature - authorising you to talk to the said company....... i can sympathise with both sides as i have had a similar story regarding dealing with something for my MIL and also had to give authority for my DW to talk to another company regarding something that affected us jointly

colbee

Butlers1982 wrote: »

What along with the other posters? Or is it you???

Erm hard decision . .

No, just re-read my original post and you will see that you have somehow managed to put a totally different interpretation on what I have written.
Furthermore, the original 'contract' was for one year's insurance and did not give the building society carte blanche to presume a contract to infinity. I don't understand why you have difficulty grasping the essence of this.
The Data Protection Act applies where a relationship exists between two or more parties: as of 9/8/07 no relationship will exist between my mother-in-law and the building society/insurance company.
Many insurance companies will not quote where the policy holder is not the owner of the property. Power of Attorney is fine in many cases but on occasion might not suit particular circumstances.