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MSE News: Campaign victory as Experian pays out for unfairly sold insurance…
Former_MSE_Helen
Former MSE 2.4K Posts
Some Experian customers have been told this week that they'll be refunded £200+ for unfairly sold ID fraud insurance...
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Campaign victory as Experian pays out for unfairly sold insurance… are you due £100s back?
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Campaign victory as Experian pays out for unfairly sold insurance… are you due £100s back?
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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CRAs are not nice businesses and they have the world's personal data in their hands (not just UK). I am not kidding or being paranoid when I say that within a couple of clicks they probably can discover exactly who I am and my inside leg measurement if they are so disposed.
Standing up to these outfits should have become an election issue decades ago, but politicians generally are scared stiff to upset the only type of commerce the country now seems to know how to do (the financial rip off stuff).
CRAs keep tabs and see everyone as a cross-sell opportunity, and as fools of course easily to be parted from their money (witness £5.99 pm being increased to £14.99pm).
The UK is now one of the most corrupt developed countries on earth thanks to the excesses of the City, and companies like Experian are clearly not immune to excess either!
Have we got what we deserve ?
We read that £6.40 pm was the "insurance premium".
What we aren't told is:
(a) Who was the insurer and for which part ? And who owns the insurer?
(b) Was it all real insurance or was it part subscription service provided by Experian or by an outsourced call centre operation masquerading as insurance?
(c) How much reached the real insurer as their net insurance premium ?
(d) How much was the was real insurance commission and who received it ?
(e) As a new insurance invention, how much of the real insurance premiums ever got paid out again as claims by the insurer ?
(f) Who else offered the same kind of "insurance" and at what price?
(g) Is there evidence of cartel behaviour and/or market rigging ?
PPI was a cartel rigged product. They all charged the same price within a percent or two on CC balances for example, despite the many insurance companies involved ultimately being owned and controlled by the banks that were selling it in many instances.
PPI was a great example of massive mark up on premiums way beyond what was ever paid out in claims, and I reckon it is also way beyond what they will ever pay out in misselling claims too! It was so lucrative that they never bothered changing the premium rates after they got settled in.
Contrast these insurance wheezes with essential cover like Home and Car Insurance where every renewal the premium apparently has to change to reflect claims costs and tight margins.
Because of the part which is so-called insurance (mostly a myth that has been debunked by MSE) with the rest of the "insurance premium" being something else entirely - maybe a "service" - I strongly question, as an ex insurance principles and practice man, whether these operations were operating fully within the law. I venture this because the "policy" was fronted by an organisation (Experian in this case) who are not authorised as an insurer, and because very little, if any, of the product was real insurance. But it was sold as such.
All these contracts should be totally transparent right down to the last penny and telephone number of all the Chief Executives involved.
I call them all crooks.
What do others call them?
so the question, do i have a leg to stand on re-raising this?
You could have a word with the Ombudsman through their helpline on 0800 023 4567 if you want to test the waters.
I contacted Experian by telephone and informed them I wished to make an official complaint, that I hadn't asked for the extra cover and wished to reclaim the difference I was paying from ordinary cover.
Within a couple of weeks they repaid me £92.50 which was the extra I had paid during my whole membership including 5% interest!!
Claiming was so easy! No forms to complete, just the one 'phone call.
(I was asked why I had made the reclaim. I informed them it was the result of information I received via MSE!).
Thank you MSE. Great result!:T
Thanks for posting your result; it may encourage other rejected claimants to press their claims.
Over the years I have gone through cycles of having the membership, then closing it down, reopening it again etc.
I closed it once & for all earlier this year as I started taking more notice of my finances & realised how much I was paying for this service.
Can anybody tell me how I can find out the dates I had the membership without having to reopen my account as I know I was definitely paying this higher amount so would like to put a claim in for it.
Thanks in advance
If you know roughly when you first paid the extra premium then just claim a refund of those premiums paid from that time.
You can find more info and a template letter from MSE's page <here>.
Thanks Magic Martin xx