Insurance Companies taking money from elderly person - help!

Puddings

Hello all, 

Hoping for some advice as I've seen just how great you all are at these things. 

Over the last year, my 97 year old gran has had a number of sums of money taken from her account, usually around £150 each time, for various 'insurances'. The first she hears about these are when a 'certificate' is received in the post - such as the attached. All of the insurances are for things she either doesn't have or doesn't have responsibility for as she is in a council house and has been for over 60 years. 

I have been in contact with one company as per the below email trail - I'm getting no response, what next? Thank you!



On 2022-09-27 14:36, XX wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I am emailing on behalf of my 97-year-old gran, of XXX - I have full Power of Attorney to deal with her
> property and financial affairs. I can provide a copy of this if
> required.
>
>  She has recently received the attached certificate that deems to be
> from your company. In addition, a charge of £140.45 (plus non-GBP
> transaction fees) has been taken from her bank account under
> HOMEREPAIR - she claims she received a call on 20th September but was
> unable to understand he conversation.
>
>  I can also see that 2 payments of £139.99 were taken from her
> account on 03/03/2022 and 07/04/2022 under YHCSERVICES and we have no
> idea what this is for. From your website she does not have
> responsibility for any of the items listed as covered by any of your
> services. She claims she received a call shortly before each payment
> was taken to state that the policy was set up by a family member on
> her behalf and she can only cancel the service if she paid a
> cancellation fee of £139.99.
>
>  I am of course in touch with the fraud team at her bank but was
> hoping you could shed some light on any of these transactions.
>
>  Many thanks,

From: care@yhcs.co.uk <care@yhcs.co.uk>
Sent: 27 September 2022 16:25
To: XX
Subject: Re: Policy query

 

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Please find below the details of all repair and maintenance plans Mrs
XX has agreed to.

1. "HISENSE TV + TV REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE" plan on the 2nd of March
2022 at the price of 139.99 GBP with a duration of 1 year.

2. "HOME ELECTRICAL CONTENTS REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE PLAN" on the 6th of
April 2022 at the price of 139.99 GBP with a duration of 1 year.

3. "EMERGENCY HOME ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE PLAN" on the
20th of September 2022 at the price of 139.99 GBP with a duration of 2
years.

Mrs XX EMERGENCY HOME ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
PLAN can be cancelled and fully refunded upon your request, seeing as
she is still within the 14 day cooling off period.

However, as for the first two repair and maintenance plans, there will
be no refund due, seeing as they are both well out of the cooling off
period.

Please do confirm how you wish to proceed.

Kind Regards,

Your Home Care Services

From: 
Sent: 27 September 2022 16:44
To: care@yhcs.co.uk <care@yhcs.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Policy query 

Hello, 

Thank you for the information. 

I can confirm that item 3 should definitely be cancelled and refunded in full as she has no responsibility for the electrical system in her home. I can confirm that she has been charged £140.45 plus non-GBP transaction charges of £4.19 and £0.50 which I also expect to be refunded as a foreign charge was neither explained nor confirmed. 

As for the other 2 'services' again Mrs XX does not have any responsibility for the items these apparently cover and, as a vulnerable adult, it is alleged she was coerced (by using fear) into taking these two products by your sales person. 

Could you please confirm:

• your complaints procedure 
• your policy in regards to vulnerable adults and financial exploitation
• How you obtained the contact details of Mrs XX

Many thanks, 

eskbanker

How are the payments being taken?  If by direct debit then these are relatively easy to spot via her bank, and cancel, although cancelling a DD mandate doesn't actually cancel any contracts that she's signed up to, but should prevent further payments to that company in the scenario where contract cancellation has been instructed.

Likewise, if payments are being taken by continuous payment authority, further payments can be stopped via the bank, even though they'll often deny this.

Have you been able to locate any terms and conditions governing the provision of these services?

DullGreyGuy

This is being written as a repair plan and not insurance and therefore your options are limited and no right to escalate to a regulator/ombudsman.

How has she been paying? Debit card? You could speak to her bank about any options there to clawback payments but if its debit card then there is typically a 110 day limit but don't know how they would respond in relation to alleged coercion if there is no evidence to support it. 

There are competent people who buy insurances or other things that they really didn't need... had a draw full of poor quality shoe protection sprays the ex was always convinced to buy when shopping for shoes. If they were something that could do with protection I'd use my much better product. I'd struggle to blame the sales assistant though as they obv have no idea what I had

Puddings

Thanks both, she has had one or two calls in the last year that she recollects but in those was told that she HAD to pay this amount to cancel as it had already been agreed and if she didn't she'd be in trouble. It scared her - she's not ever had to manage money in her life but unfortunately my aunt, who lived with her and managed everything, passed away in December 2021 very suddenly. 

Payments have been taken by debit card - this latest one has never been in touch with gran so not sure how they got the details. I'm checking her account as regularly as I can and have spoken to the bank to stop what I can. 

The only thing we have is an A4 sheet of paper with the 'certificate' although I have managed to find each companies website. 

tightauldgit

I'd be in touch with the bank and asking their advice as this seems more like fraud to me. 

Whether there's anything that can be done to recover the money I don't know. 

elsien

Puddings said:

Thanks both, she has had one or two calls in the last year that she recollects but in those was told that she HAD to pay this amount to cancel as it had already been agreed and if she didn't she'd be in trouble. It scared her - she's not ever had to manage money in her life but unfortunately my aunt, who lived with her and managed everything, passed away in December 2021 very suddenly. 

Payments have been taken by debit card - this latest one has never been in touch with gran so not sure how they got the details. I'm checking her account as regularly as I can and have spoken to the bank to stop what I can. 

The only thing we have is an A4 sheet of paper with the 'certificate' although I have managed to find each companies website. 

Are you sure about this?
Are they calling and she’s agreeing then either forgetting or not wanting to admit she may have made a mistake?
Is she registered with the telephone preference service or does she have a call-blocker phone? 

flossymcfly

Is there something the bank can do whereby each debit card payment has to be confirmed in the app? I don't even know if this is possible, I'm just thinking of some online purchases which require confirmation through the app. That would at least alert you to the fact something was afoot

elsien

You are her LPA. Are you acting for her while she has capacity around her finances with her consent, or is she not have capacity around managing her own money. If the latter then you may need to consider whether stop her having access to a card might be in her best interests? 

Puddings

elsien said:

Puddings said:

Thanks both, she has had one or two calls in the last year that she recollects but in those was told that she HAD to pay this amount to cancel as it had already been agreed and if she didn't she'd be in trouble. It scared her - she's not ever had to manage money in her life but unfortunately my aunt, who lived with her and managed everything, passed away in December 2021 very suddenly. 

Payments have been taken by debit card - this latest one has never been in touch with gran so not sure how they got the details. I'm checking her account as regularly as I can and have spoken to the bank to stop what I can. 

The only thing we have is an A4 sheet of paper with the 'certificate' although I have managed to find each companies website. 

Are you sure about this?
Are they calling and she’s agreeing then either forgetting or not wanting to admit she may have made a mistake?
Is she registered with the telephone preference service or does she have a call-blocker phone? 

You're right, I'm not 100% sure but she's definitely learned a lot over the last year and this latest I'm sure she'd never give her details out now having been stung previously. I will look into the telephone thing, good idea. 

elsien said:

You are her LPA. Are you acting for her while she has capacity around her finances with her consent, or is she not have capacity around managing her own money. If the latter then you may need to consider whether stop her having access to a card might be in her best interests? 

Acting whilst she has capacity but with her consent - this is because she really does not have a clue (and she's happy to admit this) what needs paying, how she pays or who to pay for things. LPA came about after the first couple of 'insurance/repair' calls that scared her early last year. 

Thanks all so much for the advice so far, will do what I can! 

Placitasgirl

My dad suffers from Alzheimer's Disease and before he went into a home he bought numerous "agreements" like these. He'd be engaged in conversation by cold callers, convinced he needed what they were selling and give them his bank details. He once bought two washing machine warranties in one day; his washing machine was 3 months old and fully covered. 

I only managed to get a refund from one company who were very helpful and I ended up installing a call blocker on his telephone line. This meant that only numbers I had given programmed in/permitted access to could get through to Dad; any other callers go the message "we are unable to connect your call". 

I also (as his PoA) spoke with his bank who put a block on his debit card so it could not be used in this way. I have a card for his account and can use it for anything needed. 

Brie

So gran is competent in the medical sense but not competent financially.  That she's 97 and never dealt with finances makes her a vulnerable customer and the companies should be treating her as such.  The bank(s) should as well.  On this basis you should lodge an official complaint first with the companies and then if that doesn't succeed with her bank for not looking out for someone in her vulnerable situation.

As for her phone....go for something another poster has suggested with call blocking.  Don't bother wasting your time with the telephone preference service as that only helps with legit companies in the UK and not their call centres outside the UK or non legit companies anywhere they are located.