Ping Insurance taking unauthorised payments

Mr.Mean

If anyone has had insurance through Ping, especially Caravan insurance, check your emails and bank/credit card accounts.
they recently sent me a renewal offer, for a policy to start 2 months after the original renewal date, of course I was not going to take them up on that as had obtained alternative insurance.
Today I received a message saying a payment had failed ( my card details changed in May) 
They are blaming a glitch and are not forthcoming with how many people are affected, they’re also refusing to make a public announcement and saying they’re dealing with it internally.
purposely or not their systems are using historic card details to take unauthorised payments from previous customers. I say previous because like me I’m sure everyone obtained insurance from another provider when Ping were unable to offer a renewal.
I was fortunate to have had my card details changed before the transaction was attempted. Many, number unknown as Ping refuse to disclose, will not be so lucky.
I urge anyone who thinks this may apply to check.

Hope this has helped at least one person.

if you have fallen victim to this ensure you claim compensation as well as the refund, lost interest, possible overdraft charges etc.

It must be time to change the auto renewal rules, Make it a one click authorisation, instead of “we’re taking your money until you jump through hoops to stop us”


please feel free to copy and send through other channels 

Mr.Mean

 If anyone has had insurance through Ping, especially Caravan insurance, check your emails and bank/credit card accounts.
they recently sent me a renewal offer, for a policy to start 2 months after the original renewal date, of course I was not going to take them up on that as had obtained alternative insurance.
Today I received a message saying a payment had failed ( my card details changed in May) 
They are blaming a glitch and are not forthcoming with how many people are affected, they’re also refusing to make a public announcement and saying they’re dealing with it internally.
purposely or not their systems are using historic card details to take unauthorised payments from previous customers. I say previous because like me I’m sure everyone obtained insurance from another provider when Ping were unable to offer a renewal.
I was fortunate to have had my card details changed before the transaction was attempted. Many, number unknown as Ping refuse to disclose, will not be so lucky.
I urge anyone who thinks this may apply to check.

Hope this has helped at least one person.

It must be time to change the auto renewal rules, Make it a one click authorisation, instead of “we’re taking your money until you jump through hoops to stop us”


please feel free to copy and send through other channels 

DullGreyGuy

Mr.Mean said:
It must be time to change the auto renewal rules, Make it a one click authorisation, instead of “we’re taking your money until you jump through hoops to stop us”

Unfortunately you are going to face an uphill struggle to get auto renewal made rarer, its significantly credited for the reduction in uninsured drivers and there are vast numbers of others who've had their !!!!!! saved when they forgot when their renewal was and made a substantial claim shortly after a renewal. 

We have had several people on here sustain substantial losses after forgetting their policy wasnt on auto-renewal which has had some dire consequences for them. Hence you get cases like https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN4179033.pdf going to the ombudsman where the customer explicitly refused auto-renewal, forgot to renew it, then their home sustained massive fire damage. Its cases like this that make it questionable if companies should have to pay the FOS fees on not upheld cases given they did exactly what the insured asked and yet still have to pay £650 to the FOS for the complaint. 


Its against forum rules to post the same thing in many different places

born_again

Can only echo the above.
But did you tell PING to cancel any renewal?

Lucky for you they did not use the Visa/Mastercard update system to obtain new card details.

p00hsticks

duplicate thread - have requested that they are merged

Ping Insurance taking unauthorised payments — MoneySavingExpert Forum

masonic

Requested a merge with https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6610837/unauthorised-payments-being-taken-by-ping

Mr.Mean

the lithe point is they explicitly said to accept the renewal the customer had to log in and accept or telephone the customer service line.
why are you taking us down this rabbit hole, it was only an add on comment.
The company made no contact at time of renewal to say they were experiencing issues in securing an underwriter, there was no communication to say that we’d continue to be insured until they could make a renewal offer.
it would be reasonable to assume that you were going to be left without cover.
How can you cancel an expired policy?

Mr.Mean

Ping themselves have apologised for trying to take the payment, they have said the policy should’ve been accepted by phone or online.
they’ve said it was a  glitch, perhaps it was.
I’m merely trying to draw customers attention to this as Ping say they’re dealing with internally, which may  or may not mean, they’ll only take action if contacted.

Ergates

Mr.Mean said:

the lithe point is they explicitly said to accept the renewal the customer had to log in and accept or telephone the customer service line.
why are you taking us down this rabbit hole, it was only an add on comment.
The company made no contact at time of renewal to say they were experiencing issues in securing an underwriter, there was no communication to say that we’d continue to be insured until they could make a renewal offer.
it would be reasonable to assume that you were going to be left without cover.
How can you cancel an expired policy?

Could you, perhaps, translate that into English?

Mr.Mean

Which words are you not understanding? Or are you just referring to a typo at the beginning which should have read main? 

Perhaps this is not the consumer forum I expected it to be. 

I understand playing devil’s advocate can be useful and obviously there are people clued up on insurance CPA. I wonder if some actually work for insurance companies.
The truth of the matter is most are not and as Ping has already apologised for trying to take the payment this was not the case. 

I’m merely trying to alert people who may be unaware that this could be happening to them.

how is a comment like” Could you, perhaps, translate that into English?” be at all helpful and as far as I can see wholly undeserved.

masonic

"AUTOMATIC RENEWAL
To make sure You continue to be covered after the expiry date of Your
policy, Ping Insure will automatically renew Your insurance policy,
unless You have opted out when purchasing this policy.
Automatically renewing Your policy means Ping Insure will keep
Your payment details securely on file so that Ping Insure can
debit Your premium at Your next renewal. Ping Insure will contact
You up to 30 days prior to Your renewal date, to confirm the new
premium payable.
If You do not wish to renew Your policy, you can opt out at up to 48
hours before Your policy is renewed.
Please note: All renewals are actioned up to 48 hours prior to the
expiry date of Your current policy
You can opt out of auto renewal by:
• Login into Your Ping Insure account online and unticking the
auto renewal box
• Contacting our customer service team by email
customerservices@pinginsure.co.uk
If You have opted out of auto renew, Ping Insure will still contact
You 30 days prior to the expiry of Your policy, to confirm the
renewal price of Your policy plus how to arrange for Your policy to

be renewed."

If you opted out as per the above and payment was nevertheless taken, then clearly that would be their mistake and would need to be refunded. Otherwise, it would be your mistake and you'd be relying on good will.