Halifax cancelled my home insurance policy because I did not update my payment details

boj27

Hi, 

bit of a back story to this one. I bought my first house in April of this year. It was due to complete on the 7th of April so I had my home insurance scheduled to start then. Then it got pushed back to the 23rd of April. So I rang them and they rescheduled it. I then found out it was getting pushed back another week and was told it would complete on the 27th of April. So I again I rang Halifax and they advised that they could only reschedule it once, so I’d have to cancel and take another policy out which is exactly what I did. While on the phone, the lady said I may get some correspondence regarding the policy (which never happened) but I should ignore it.

just had a letter through on the 26th of July (been away since the 18th of July) and opened it today. They advised my policy had been cancelled because I did not update my payment details. This policy was paid in one annual payment, not a recurring payment method; if I had cancelled a credit card or debit card it was being paid on I could understand but I haven’t! This was for the policy number which I had to start on the 27th.

I paid my home insurance policy in full on the 15th of April this year, for it to be effective 27th of April. I’m now really confused and worried. 

I checked my bank account just now for anything pertaining to Halifax and i can see they took payment on the 15th and it got refunded on the 23rd for whatever reason even though I did not ask for it to be. 

I have received no letters, emails or phone calls regarding any of this - what do I do? Am I now going to have to answer “yes” to the questions on insurance forms where it says have I ever had a policy cancelled? I did a quote and it adds like £200-300 a year onto my home insurance policy. Does this only affect house insurance insurance or every insurance policy I’ll ever take? 

Im really worried and need some reassurance  

I’m yet to ring them and find out what’s gone on but I’m expecting the worst since this is an insurance company after all 

unforeseen

It was refunded because you cancelled the insurance to start a new one on the 27th

Sandtree

boj27 said:

Does this only affect house insurance insurance or every insurance policy I’ll ever take? 

Every general insurance policy (home, car, pet etc) but not long term insurance (life, PHI, critical illness)

dunstonh

I checked my bank account just now for anything pertaining to Halifax and i can see they took payment on the 15th and it got refunded on the 23rd for whatever reason even though I did not ask for it to be. 

As they could only reschedule the start date once, the second time you contacted them meant you could not proceed with that policy.  Hence why it was refunded.  

Am I now going to have to answer “yes” to the questions on insurance forms where it says have I ever had a policy cancelled?

No.  Not for something like this.  Theoretically, it would but it is not a cancellation reason that interests the insurers.


You could go back to Halifax and ask them why didn't they contact you when they didn't have your payment details correct?   Going straight to cancellation is unusual.  Normally you would expect to be contacted and given a window to make an alternative payment method.

Sandtree

dunstonh said:
No.  Not for something like this.  Theoretically, it would but it is not a cancellation reason that interests the insurers.

Non-payment, which is the reason for cancellation, is absolutely a reason that every insurer I've worked for would want declared and would decline to quote if it is declared - and would void the policy for fraud if they took your advice and didnt declare it.

dunstonh

Sandtree said:

dunstonh said:
No.  Not for something like this.  Theoretically, it would but it is not a cancellation reason that interests the insurers.

Non-payment, which is the reason for cancellation, is absolutely a reason that every insurer I've worked for would want declared and would decline to quote if it is declared - and would void the policy for fraud if they took your advice and didnt declare it.

However, as it currently stands, it is down to a clerical error by Halifax.   Not non-payment.     I just phoned one of the companies we deal with and they would not class it as a declarable reason as described.   i.e. failure for the provider to collect the money to begin with.   They did say they would class it as declarable if the payment had bounced and the policyholder had failed to pay the premium.

It's the sort of reason that speaking to someone first (where the conversation is recorded) would be better than just going through a comparison site and not having the ability to discuss the issue.

To belt and brace it, it would be worth going back to Halifax to ask them 
a) why did they not request the money in the first place
b) why did they not communicate with the policyholder when they realised they didn't have the payment details.

Sandtree

dunstonh said:

Sandtree said:

dunstonh said:
No.  Not for something like this.  Theoretically, it would but it is not a cancellation reason that interests the insurers.

Non-payment, which is the reason for cancellation, is absolutely a reason that every insurer I've worked for would want declared and would decline to quote if it is declared - and would void the policy for fraud if they took your advice and didnt declare it.

However, as it currently stands, it is down to a clerical error by Halifax.   Not non-payment.  

I beg to differ, at the moment its down as non-payment however it appears it may be due to a clerical error and if that is how the complaint is resolved then I would fully agree that the error of the insurer wouldnt penalize the customer but at the moment its an oddity which needs investigating/

boj27

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies. 

I got on to Halifax first thing this morning, and they aren’t sure what has gone on but they didn’t seem to decline when I asked them to reinstate my policy. They confirmed I hadn’t cancelled it and they believe one of their staff has done something wrong clerically but they couldn’t give me a straight answer. 

Anyway, reinstated and all happy….maybe now I can sleep tonight!