Packaged Accouts

alan3204

Im hoping someone can help with what seems like a bit of a mystery, my partner is in the early stages of making a claim against a high street bank with regards to a packaged account which included breakdown insurance, after a phone call from someone at the bank she was informed that she didnt have a claim against the bank as a claim was made in October 2012 for a breakdown, which was true except we didnt claim through the bank, i called Greenflag direct that day on a policy i took out with them, which Greenflag confirmed on the phone to me. Greenflag also confirmed that no claim was made through a bank derived policy for our car !

My question and the mystery is: How did the bank know about the claim and our vehicle registration number ??? when the claim didn't go through them ?

Thanks in advance

Alan

dunstonh

My question and the mystery is: How did the bank know about the claim and our vehicle registration number ??

When the packaged bank account was set up, you would register the vehicle with the breakdown company.

When you made your complaint, the bank would ask the company if you have made any claims or not.

Dobbibill

Was it definitely a new policy or did you upgrade from 'roadside assistance' (which is what some packaged accounts provide) to 'relay' or 'homestart' type of cover?

alan3204

"When the packaged bank account was set up, you would register the vehicle with the breakdown company."

According to the bank the account was upgraded !! in 1998 and the vehicle was a 2005 so this cant have been how they knew. As we weren't aware of the cover we never registered any vehicle with the bank, all breakdown policies we've ever had with any of the main providers over the years have all been purchased directly by me through the breakdown company and not a 3rd party.

dunstonh

alan3204 wrote: »

"When the packaged bank account was set up, you would register the vehicle with the breakdown company."

According to the bank the account was upgraded !! in 1998 and the vehicle was a 2005 so this cant have been how they knew. As we weren't aware of the cover we never registered any vehicle with the bank, all breakdown policies we've ever had with any of the main providers over the years have all been purchased directly by me through the breakdown company and not a 3rd party.

Maybe it was the recovery comparny that linked it. After all, your name, date of birth and address didnt change.

its also very unusual for someone to break down on the very same day they had bought the recovery service (in that order). What that perhaps suggests is you used the recovery service that day and did an upgrade. Maybe you were covered but the car details were only added that day. So many possibilities.

The upgrade thing mentioned by Dobbibill sounds plausible. It would explain why you bought the same day you used the service and why the event was recorded on the "new" plan and not the packaged side.

You could go around in circles getting nowhere with this. If you disagree, then your only real choice is to go to the FOS. However, be prepared for rejection. The FOS have no issues with packaged bank accounts as a product. They only uphold around 1 in 10 complaints referred to them on PBAs. However, that is really your only option if you do not accept the answer from the bank.

alan3204

dunstonh wrote: »

When the packaged bank account was set up, you would register the vehicle with the breakdown company.

When you made your complaint, the bank would ask the company if you have made any claims or not.

dunstonh wrote: »

Maybe it was the recovery comparny that linked it. After all, your name, date of birth and address didnt change.

its also very unusual for someone to break down on the very same day they had bought the recovery service (in that order). What that perhaps suggests is you used the recovery service that day and did an upgrade. Maybe you were covered but the car details were only added that day. So many possibilities.

The upgrade thing mentioned by Dobbibill sounds plausible. It would explain why you bought the same day you used the service and why the event was recorded on the "new" plan and not the packaged side.

You could go around in circles getting nowhere with this. If you disagree, then your only real choice is to go to the FOS. However, be prepared for rejection. The FOS have no issues with packaged bank accounts as a product. They only uphold around 1 in 10 complaints referred to them on PBAs. However, that is really your only option if you do not accept the answer from the bank.

Sorry guys but i mustn't be explaining myself very well, i never said i bought the policy the same day i claimed ? not sure where you've got that from ?

I bought the breakdown policy DIRECT from Greenflag for the year 2011/2012 and the breakdown claim was made by me direct to Greenflag in Oct 12, the claim had nothing to do with the bank. So how did they know about it ? at no point have we ever given our vehicle details to the bank, for us to have done that we would need to have been aware of the breakdown cover in the packaged account, but we weren't, because if we had known, why would we take out another breakdown policy with Greenflag ?

It would make no financial sense to have the same car covered twice on 2 different policies ! Now i grant you, we may well have forgotten we had breakdown cover through the bank ! but if that was the case how could we have claimed off a policy we didn't remember we had !! and even if its the driver that's covered and not the car the claim still wasn't made through the bank, who would have had their own policy arrangements with a breakdown company, we claimed of our OWN policy not the banks, so the question remains...how did they acquire the details of the breakdown claim ? i can only think it came inadvertently from Greenflag who may have been contacted by the bank asking if any claims had been made based on my partner's name and address and Greenflag have said yes without checking on who's policy the claim was actually made. My head hurts now !!

Dobbibill

If you can produce policy details of the independent policy, this would support your mis-selling claim. You wouldn't pay for a policy if you had cover via your bank.
Let us know how it progresses.

alan3204

Many thanks for your help and advice.

AndyPK

Dobbibill wrote: »

Was it definitely a new policy or did you upgrade from 'roadside assistance' (which is what some packaged accounts provide) to 'relay' or 'homestart' type of cover?

Didn't know you could upgrade?

Can you do that with Lloyds and AA ?

jonesMUFCforever

AndyPK wrote: »

Didn't know you could upgrade?

Can you do that with Lloyds and AA ?

You were able to do so until very recently (do you not read the letters they send you LOL:D) but now it is not an option.
Not sure which side took the decision.

alan3204

Just a quick update on this one, we have had a letter from the Bank stating that the account was not mis sold, however the interesting thing in the letter is, referring to my original post were the bank stated we made a breakdown claim in October 2012 through which they said was through Greenflag, they now say it was in fact through the AA !
Will do some checking and keep you posted.