***WATCH MBNA HOME INSURANCE***

philipsaver1982

Purchased home and buildings insurance before Xmas.  Noticed a new direct debit on my account for £4.34 on Dec 22.  Assumed this was the first payment of HI.  Then saw first payment of Insurance go out - and then today a second payment of £4.34 leave my account.

Traced the direct debit - AWP P C SA to Allianz Assistance (Do you think they are trying to hide themselves?) and rang them on 0208 603 9653

They told me I had signed up to emergency breakdown cover when I bought my MBNA insurance.  I already have breakdown cover - and I certainly had no reason to buy this.

I had received no paperwork or emails about this direct debit - when I queried this, they refunded me the two payments (goodwill) and cancelled the direct debit - as I hadn't received any paperwork.

This is obviously a bit of a scam - as I was told this has been happening to others,  I am now going to check the MBNA website to see how this got added on.

DullGreyGuy

Looks like you selected the Home Emergency Cover which is provided by AWP P&C, the only unusual piece is that AWP are collecting payments directly whereas normally MBNA/Lloyds would collect the full premium and forward the the funds for the optional extras to the other underwriters. 

With some aggregators (eg Confused.com) you can specify if you want home emergency there or not and with others you do it on the vendors own site so there are two places you may have selected it from. 

Where do you currently have your Home Emergency cover from? Standalone policies tend to be fairly expensive compared to having it tied to the home insurance, possible exception being when it's an add on to a boiler service plan. 

Audrey_H

I’ve just checked a second direct debit payment from our account- and it’s for £4.34. 
Thanks to PhillipSaver1982 I don’t need to investigate any further. 

HamsieM

I've just received a letter from MBNAHomeEmergencyService telling me they have not been able to collect their Direct Debit and will be trying again otherwise my policy will be cancelled.
I checked my bank account and verified that Home Insurance Bis had in fact taken an amount the day prior to the letter being generated. This was at a new rate being the first payment on renewal of my Buildings & Contents policy after the first year. 
I rang the phone number given in the letter expecting it to be a relatively quick call confirming I could ignore the letter but instead got a confusing explanation that it did not relate to my Buildings & Contents but was for Home Emergency cover which is taken separately by Allianz Assistance who administer the HOME EMERGENCY element of the insurance.
As I was still confused by this explanation I was passed on to MBNA Home Insurance who confirmed that the amount I had seen taken from my account was for my Buildings & Contents which had gone up from £24.03 to £29.66 a month (£67.55 more than last year).
After ending my call I checked back through my emails to the original quote and confirmation offer which do show that Home Emergency was to be included. However, the DD's collected last year do not appear to have included an amount for the Home Emergency cover and I can find no record of setting up a separate Direct Debit for this. I assume I must have paid an initial amount when taking out the policy to cover this for the whole year and it is only now on the anniversary of taking out the insurance that Allianz Assistance find they have no DD authorisation on my account.
I will need to get back on to Allianz to get full details of the benefits of retaining Home Emergency cover, which I cannot find ever being sent to me, and will need to set up the relevant DD if it is worth it.
Much of this would have been more easily investigated if MBNA facilitated non MBNA Banker's online access to their insurance, currently you have to have a loan or credit card with them to register online.
Also, the renewal letter does not actually give a figure for the Home Emergency cover but eludes to it "If you would like to cancel your Home Emergency policy, please call Allianz Assistance on 0345 641 9776".

Apologies for such a big explanation but i hope it may help others who suddenly find they are being asked for another payment apparently out of the blue.     

alfapat

I have just set up the Home Emergency cover for the 2nd year as their Dd System was not in place , I have received p/w for it as this was not sent out either. They have now charged me separately for this twice ,£7.40., it’s not clear whether I was charged last year so may give them a ring . 
Thanks for the information I have read on this thread. I only saw this when the DD came out and thought who was Awc? 

Not sure after reading the policy whether it’s worth it , jury out on this one , and oh the MBNA home in’s went up £5 from last year!