D&G plans / cover

dav865

Hi, I'm new here, hope I'm putting this in the correct section of the forums!

I'm helping my mum sort out some finances. She has monthly direct debit payments going to D&G (Domestic & General) and unfortunately she has forgotten what they are for! So I have been guiding her with her enquiries by email to D&G and we have established the issue looks to be to do with her changing address and not informing them. The policies appear to simply auto renew, which means she just continues to pay without thinking about it. So far we've identified what two of the plans are in relation to, but there are two further plans that date back a lot longer so they have asked for address details going back to 2003!

So my question to the good people of the forum is....can D&G continue to maintain a DD payments for say nearly 20 years if they have never heard from the person in that time? Presumably they should send out a renewal document and if it gets returned to them (by the new occupant at the address) as "addressee gone away" they should cancel the policy? Seems to me that a lot of people that don't manage finances well may continue to make payments for this type of cover for items they probably no longer have/own. 

We're still corresponding politely with D&G, but I'm inclined to think there's something wrong with their processes that allow this to happen. Would appreciate people's thoughts on this before we start talking to them about making a complaint ..
Thanks in advance

Sandtree

Low value auto-renewing subscriptions often rely on people's laziness be they cover plans like this or website/app access etc.

Unfortunately the majority of people dont bother with returning post for other people but just put it in the bin instead and so in all probability D&G havent been informed that there is any possible problem. They said the letter saying we'll renew unless we hear otherwise and they dont hear anything.

The onus is on you to ensure you keep your contact details up to date and on top of your bank statements

dav865

Yes and I suspect this is the line they will take when we query this point with them.

But....what about when the same person then takes out plans with them a few years later at different addresses, and the payments are all being collected from the same bank account? i.e. 1 bank account, but different addresses attached to the plans.

Should they not think.....hang on a minute, we're collecting multiple payments from this bank account but the plans are from differing addresses? Surely they should start looking at their data and think to themselves maybe this person has moved and we should make an effort to get the renewal documents to the correct address?

Appreciate my mum is at fault for not checking statements and not advising them of address changes, but surely they have some responsibility for the data the hold?

Sandtree

Access to bank details is often restricted for obvious reasons so who could run such checks is reduced; counter-fraud teams often do look for this sort of thing but there are plenty of people that have 2nd homes, are landlords, pay things for their children etc all of which can result in multiple risk addresses against the bank account. 

Therefore certainly when my ex worked in policy counterfraud (home and car insurance ,mainly rather than service plans etc) they were more interested in cases where 10+ policies at different addresses etc have been paid for using the same card - in most cases these were "unauthorised brokers" (a polite term for people offering cheap insurance down the pub) and very rarely was it someone who'd moved house a few times and forgotten their travel insurance or home insurance and bought again... and some were people with lots of kids who's gadget insurances