Debit card

morgymoo

My car insurance was due but the company had my old debit card details, I forgot to cancel but assumed that they couldn't take the money as there was no valid card. I was issued with a new one. Wrong apparently the bank said they would have contacted visa who would have authorised the payment. I have raised a complaint but this could happen to anything I or anyone else has bought in the past, card invalid just contact visa they will authorise payment for anything bought previously on old card. Where do I stand on this anyone know please?

colsten

You gave them a CPA - continuous payment authority. Google it.

NottinghamKnight

Have you spoken to the insurer? Have you got another policy elsewhere or do you no longer have a car?

bradders1983

You stand nowhere on it, unfortunately, as you made an incorrect assumption. Costly but you won't do it again more than likely.

[Deleted User]

morgymoo said:

My car insurance was due but the company had my old debit card details, I forgot to cancel but assumed that they couldn't take the money as there was no valid card. I was issued with a new one. Wrong apparently the bank said they would have contacted visa who would have authorised the payment. I have raised a complaint but this could happen to anything I or anyone else has bought in the past, card invalid just contact visa they will authorise payment for anything bought previously on old card. Where do I stand on this anyone know please?

 Nothing you can do, you authorised payment. Next time remember to cancel. 

mab3000

Payments by card for services such as car insurance are normally set up as continuous authority card payments, where the payment is set up to automatically charge the card when a renewal is due, unless otherwise instructed. And yes they can still continue to debit your account despite the change in card details, this is what has been agreed to. 

I’m afraid neither the bank nor the insurance company are at fault here. Your best bet is to politely ask the insurance company if they would cancel and refund you in full due to you not realising that a payment can still go through despite the card being replaced. 

colsten

mab3000 said:

Payments by card for services such as car insurance are normally set up as continuous authority card payments, where the payment is set up to automatically charge the card when a renewal is due, unless otherwise instructed. 

 

 Normally? I have been paying for various insurances - car, contents, buildings, home energency - with either a debit or a credit card. Not one of them is a CPA. They write to me each year before renewal becomes due, and I then decide whether I’ll pay them again. If I don’t make another payment, the insurance ends.

You would have to agree to automatic renewals for an insurance company to charge you automatically.

bradders1983

colsten said:

mab3000 said:

Payments by card for services such as car insurance are normally set up as continuous authority card payments, where the payment is set up to automatically charge the card when a renewal is due, unless otherwise instructed. 

 

 Normally? I have been paying for various insurances - car, contents, buildings, home energency - with either a debit or a credit card. Not one of them is a CPA. They write to me each year before renewal becomes due, and I then decide whether I’ll pay them again. If I don’t make another payment, the insurance ends.

You would have to agree to automatic renewals for an insurance company to charge you automatically.

Almost every car insurance provider I have been with in the last 18 years has sent me a letter a few weeks before renewal saying that if I do NOT want to renew, I have to contact them, or they use the same card as last time.

That is what has happened here, and the OP has made an incorrect assumption about how debit cards operate.  

The company only have to give her a pro rata refund, minus their usual admin fee, as per the terms of most car insurance policies.

born_again

morgymoo said:

My car insurance was due but the company had my old debit card details, I forgot to cancel but assumed that they couldn't take the money as there was no valid card. I was issued with a new one. Wrong apparently the bank said they would have contacted visa who would have authorised the payment. I have raised a complaint but this could happen to anything I or anyone else has bought in the past, card invalid just contact visa they will authorise payment for anything bought previously on old card. Where do I stand on this anyone know please?

I wish I had a £ for each time I hear this...
Visa do not authorise payments, your bank does. CPA do not require the CVV, only the card number. Which odds on will be the same if it was a straight renewal card.
Google Visa Account Updater for how it works.

badger09

colsten said:

mab3000 said:

Payments by card for services such as car insurance are normally set up as continuous authority card payments, where the payment is set up to automatically charge the card when a renewal is due, unless otherwise instructed. 

 

 Normally? I have been paying for various insurances - car, contents, buildings, home energency - with either a debit or a credit card. Not one of them is a CPA. They write to me each year before renewal becomes due, and I then decide whether I’ll pay them again. If I don’t make another payment, the insurance ends.

You would have to agree to automatic renewals for an insurance company to charge you automatically.

I avoid CPA like the plague and have never had one for any type of insurance.

I was given no choice when I insured my car recently with M&S Insurance. It was only after I'd done it that CPA was mentioned in the online documents. I immediately used online chat and was told I could cancel the CPA online. Long story short, after 2 further 'chats' I was told it is not possible to cancel CPA online until 30 days after 1st year's payment has cleared. Call handler said he would do it for me after 30 day period, but I have diary note to check it has been done.

NottinghamKnight

Car insurance is one of the few, probably only, examples where there is some justification for auto renewal, as it is a legal obligation to maintain car insurance and it could be argued that the consequences of auto renewal are less serious than being uninsured, for some at least.