Insurance company fails to take DD's. I'm I liable?

Paul_DNAP

JackieToo wrote: »

I just wonder if we were all sat in a room face to face your responses/replies would have been the same.
I think not.

To be honest, if we were having this discussion face to face I would very firmly, but politely, tell you that you received a service that you are legally and morally bound to pay for, so snap up their offer of half off before they change their minds.


Even if it's their role to take the payment, it is still your duty to ensure that you are paying for services you receive (and yes, it's bonkers that people like that rely on you to oversee them, but they do.)


If you don't pay, it's only going to cause more trouble in the long run, they could pass it over to debt collection (which will just gather an unfathomable amount of fees and admin charges before your next opportunity to pay it comes up). Even worse if they (instead or as well as) decide to cancel your policy for missed payments, as that is a big red flag in your credit report and also you'll have to declare "yes I have had an insurance policy cancelled" anytime you try to insure anything which won't come cheap.


So, as politely as possible, my advice is - just pay it and close the door on the whole sorry affair.

Aylesbury_Duck

yogi_girl wrote: »

We had this very problem a few years back where the insurance company took the 1st payment out of our account then failed to take any other payments out for the rest of the year .
Home insurance as well .
We ,like you , where fuming that they then wanted us to pay the full amount in order to continue the coverage for the following year.
We then promptly rang another insurance company to ask for advice & they informed us that providing you DO NOT take out the new policy & go to a different insurance company you are then not liable to pay for their mistake ,so that is what we did ,we signed up with the company who gave us the advice ,cancelled the 1st policy as it was up for renewal & got a cheaper deal with better coverage DONT TAKE OUT THE NEW POLICY ,you won’t have to pay . Hope it helps

That's utter rubbish, but fortunately for you it worked. Your advice of

DONT TAKE OUT THE NEW POLICY ,you won’t have to pay

is also rubbish. It's simply not true.

ETA: anyone else suspicious that a new user has popped up suddenly to try and validate OP's argument shortly after they had a strop that they weren't getting the answers they wanted?

powerful_Rogue

yogi_girl wrote: »

We had this very problem a few years back where the insurance company took the 1st payment out of our account then failed to take any other payments out for the rest of the year .
Home insurance as well .
We ,like you , where fuming that they then wanted us to pay the full amount in order to continue the coverage for the following year.
We then promptly rang another insurance company to ask for advice & they informed us that providing you DO NOT take out the new policy & go to a different insurance company you are then not liable to pay for their mistake ,so that is what we did ,we signed up with the company who gave us the advice ,cancelled the 1st policy as it was up for renewal & got a cheaper deal with better coverage DONT TAKE OUT THE NEW POLICY ,you won’t have to pay . Hope it helps

Worst advice ever.
As already highlighted in this thread, if the OP does not pay, then the insurance company will cancel the policy. This is going to cost the OP a LOT of money on renewals going forward forever.

Pollycat

yogi_girl wrote: »

We had this very problem a few years back where the insurance company took the 1st payment out of our account then failed to take any other payments out for the rest of the year .
Home insurance as well .
We ,like you , where fuming that they then wanted us to pay the full amount in order to continue the coverage for the following year.
We then promptly rang another insurance company to ask for advice & they informed us that providing you DO NOT take out the new policy & go to a different insurance company you are then not liable to pay for their mistake ,so that is what we did ,we signed up with the company who gave us the advice ,cancelled the 1st policy as it was up for renewal & got a cheaper deal with better coverage DONT TAKE OUT THE NEW POLICY ,you won’t have to pay . Hope it helps

But it isn't a NEW POLICY.
The payment the company is asking for is for a period that ended in September 2019.
So the OP has had the benefit of cover for the whole year.

JackieToo wrote: »

September 2018 I renewed my home insurance with the insurance company, whom I have been with for many years. DD is set for 4 payments a year, they take the 1st instalment as I renewed.
September 2019 I renew again, and again DD is set for 4 payments a year they take the 1st instalment at renewal.
Mid Dec I receive a letter saying my card set up for the DD is about to expire and could I send details of the new card.
I then get a letter saying that I owe £348 from the previous year (sept '18-Sept '19) due to an error on their behalf!
So when I phone them up to give the new card details I mention the other letter about the £348 asked why it happened (my card details were ok at that time) and I didn't think I should pay as it was their fault, they then agreed to reduce it to half. But I need to know if I am legally obliged to pay this now, they didn't find this amount missing when I made my renewal in September 2019.
TYIA for any helpful advice

Aylesbury_Duck

And just like that, "yogi girl" disappears as fast as she arrived! Uncanny.

Pollycat

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

And just like that, "yogi girl" disappears as fast as she arrived! Uncanny.

Very odd indeed.
Hope the OP wasn't planning on taking yogi girl's advice. :eek:

Aylesbury_Duck

Pollycat wrote: »

Very odd indeed.
Hope the OP wasn't planning on taking yogi girl's advice. :eek:

She realised she could use a mirror instead of the forum.

Pollycat

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

And just like that, "yogi girl" disappears as fast as she arrived! Uncanny.

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

She realised she could use a mirror instead of the forum.

Hmmmm.
But several savvy posters quoted yogi girl's post.
So deleting it doesn't remove it from view.

JackieToo

Well, what a lot of activity on this post, I wasn't going to come back after the first days encounter with some unpleasant comments but curiosity got the better of me.
I have not nor never will deceive anyone with 2 ids for the sake of making a point. If I was going to make a case for the OP (me) I would have come up with a better 'this happened to me' scenario!
Anyway, I have been in touch with my insurance company, who have agreed to accept an even smaller amount and have given me until my next renewal to pay it, which I thought reasonable. They apologised profusely and also say they would not have cancelled my policy. I explained that as we also have 3 other policies with them that go out monthly and that this one only went out 1/4 erly and on a different day we had not noticed it wasn't going out.
All sorted now.
Thank you to all the posters who made polite comments, none of which I took as anything but your opinion and advice.
To all the others who use these forums for 'sport' get a life!

Aylesbury_Duck

JackieToo wrote: »

Well, what a lot of activity on this post, I wasn't going to come back after the first days encounter with some unpleasant comments but curiosity got the better of me.
I have not nor never will deceive anyone with 2 ids for the sake of making a point. If I was going to make a case for the OP (me) I would have come up with a better 'this happened to me' scenario!
Anyway, I have been in touch with my insurance company, who have agreed to accept an even smaller amount and have given me until my next renewal to pay it, which I thought reasonable. They apologised profusely and also say they would not have cancelled my policy. I explained that as we also have 3 other policies with them that go out monthly and that this one only went out 1/4 erly and on a different day we had not noticed it wasn't going out.
All sorted now.
Thank you to all the posters who made polite comments, none of which I took as anything but your opinion and advice.
To all the others who use these forums for 'sport' get a life!

That's the miracle of the forum. Sticky situation, ask advice, argue with it because it's not what you wanted to hear, have a strop, come back shortly afterwards to confirm everything's sorted. Happens all the time.

Going back to your original question: Are you liable to pay? Yes.
Did they mess up? Yes.
Should they make some sort of gesture to recognise their error? Yes.
Did anyone offer incorrect advice? No.

You've both compromised. They've offered a discount and you've calmed down over 48 hours and gone from not wanting to pay anything to paying a reduced sum.