Missed Direct Debitt

robertsclark

I've had an email from our pet insurer (Scratch&Patch) advising me that I have missed a payment. Direct Debits are arranged be GoCardless

"The providers of your Direct Debit have confirmed that a payment due for your pet insurance policy has been missed.

If you wish to continue your pet insurance with us then we will require this missed direct debit payment to be paid by 03/08/2021. If payment is not made by this date then the policy will be cancelled from the default date and you may also incur a £30 cancellation fee."

Looking through my statements, I think that they failed to raise a DD when the policy renewed in August 2019.  Are they still entitled to try and claim this given it is now almost two years?  As it is their responsibility to raise the DD can they really charge me a cancellation fee?

Many thanks for any guidance on this!

Robert

PRAISETHESUN

You owe the money so yes they are entitled to chase you for it - they have 6 years to do so. I'd just pay it otherwise you might find your policy cancelled, which can cause issues with future insurers down the line. 

General_Grant

robertsclark said:

I've had an email from our pet insurer (Scratch&Patch) advising me that I have missed a payment. Direct Debits are arranged be GoCardless

"The providers of your Direct Debit have confirmed that a payment due for your pet insurance policy has been missed.

If you wish to continue your pet insurance with us then we will require this missed direct debit payment to be paid by 03/08/2021. If payment is not made by this date then the policy will be cancelled from the default date and you may also incur a £30 cancellation fee."

Looking through my statements, I think that they failed to raise a DD when the policy renewed in August 2019.  Are they still entitled to try and claim this given it is now almost two years?  As it is their responsibility to raise the DD can they really charge me a cancellation fee?

Many thanks for any guidance on this!

Robert

Presumably it is meant to be an annual policy, so what happened for the 2020 renewal?

If the DD wasn't set up properly and you didn't pay the annual fee then I would guess you weren't insured after the 2019 policy ended. 

Did you ever make a claim?  

robertsclark

Thanks for the advice

Just to add, I've never made a claim, and the policy has renewed every year since then without any other missed DD payments. 

sheramber

"The providers of your Direct Debit have confirmed that a payment due for your pet insurance policy has been missed.

Did they not tell you what payment was missed. They must know where to allocate it.

robertsclark

When I spoke to a customer services rep, he couldn't see from his information where the missing payment was, so has referred it to the accounts department!

schiff

My version of hell is to spend 24/7 phoning customer services.