Halifax Insurance

A_Nice_Englishman

I sold my house on 4 May and rang Halifax Insurance on that day to cancel my insurance. They confirmed that a refund was due and a cheque would be sent to me within five working days.

(I should explain at this point that I rented the house out and hadn't lived there for five years. Halifax had been writing to me at my current address and indeed the letter confirming the refund was sent here)

I had not received the cheque by 22 June so I rang again. They said the cheque had been sent to the old address in error and they would stop it and issue a new one.

Still no cheque by 10 August so I rang yet again. I was promised a cheque within five working days.

23 August (yesterday). Still no cheque. Rang again. The person I spoke to put me on hold while she spoke to someone else and when she came back she said there was a backlog of stops to be put on cheques but mine would be stopped on 24 August and they would be able to issue a new cheque a week later.

I said that waiting for four months for my money was unacceptable and I wished to complain. I was put through to a manager who rang me back after 10 mins to say she would ensure an electronic transfer would be sent today and she would email to confirm when it had been done.

I haven't had an email.

Thanks for reading this. I needed the rant!

I will update the thread as and when anything happens.

MarkyMarkD

You are quite right that they are taking far too long to resolve this.

But you won't see the money if they pay it by BACS until the middle of next week, so it's probably worth chilling until then.

I'd suggest that, if you have no money in your account by Wednesday, hassle them again if you can be bothered.

A_Nice_Englishman

In fact it will probably be Thursday before I see my money due to the bank holiday.

MarkyMarkD

I thought that as you spoke to them on Thursday, if they started the BACS process on Friday the money should be there by Wednesday - 2 working days later.

A_Nice_Englishman

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I thought that as you spoke to them on Thursday, if they started the BACS process on Friday the money should be there by Wednesday - 2 working days later.

I though it was three days for a BACS transfer so I'll get it a day earlier than I was expecting
Assuming they actually did action it on Friday of course.

MarkyMarkD

It's the same timescale as the cheque clearance process - the money should clear on the third working day which is TWO days after you start the process.

A_Nice_Englishman

Well it's Wednesday and I've had no email and no refund.

I'm going to have to make a formal written complaint tonight/tomorrow.

A_Nice_Englishman

Update: I wrote to Halifax on August 31 and have today received a letter from their complaints department saying they will respond within 28 days.

Ironically, given that the original problem was caused by my refund being sent to the wrong address, the latest letter was sent to ......the wrong address!

regularsaver1

I have always got (from branch ringing home ins dept) refunds for customers paid back into their bank account within 5-7 working days from the home insurance dept

is there a reason a cheque was requested initially?

is there a full correspondence address collected for the home insurance policy as you didn't live there all the years?

A_Nice_Englishman

I wasn't given a choice of payment methods for the refund.

Since I left the insured property I've had three different addresses and correspondence had always been sent to the correct one. My letter of complaint was from my current address, the reply was sent to my previous one.

regularsaver1

If you paid by direct debit then I always found this was always suggested by them and backdated. I'm guessinmg you paid annually because a refund was due?

Sounds strange that the reply was sent to the previous address - I guess they looked at the policy address, but they should have picked up you do not live there anymore because of the address on your complaint letter.