Ping Insurance taking unauthorised payments

Jenni_D

As you are not asking a question, perhaps this would be better in the Praise, Vent and Warnings board? 🤷‍♀️

sausage_time

I have merged them @Mr.Mean and @p00hsticks.  The one on Consumer Rights has more traction.

Mr.Mean

Except that in this instance they did not give 30 days notice either.

Mr.Mean

To be clear - original renewal was due April 4th, no communication from Ping since inception of the policy commencing April 4th 2024.
Renewal invitation sent June 3rd 25. Moneys requested from bank June 4th.
There is no way on gods earth that this complies with any t&cs . 

masonic

I don't think there is anyone doubting that they failed to send the renewal quote in a timely manner, and in fact were 2 months late. As discussed in your other thread (not yet merged), they'd be on very thin ground if they tried to deny a claim during that void period, and all indications are that they'd consider the insurance as continuous providing those who wish to renew do so when they are sent the renewal quote (in cases where automatic renewal fails). That is their penance for their slip-up - some customers who would have lapsed will retain cover.

Mr.Mean

I appreciate should the case arise there would be a fight to be fought. I’m just trying to highlight the fact that there could be a lot of people out there having payments taken from their account that they’re not expecting. And that they should have the option of getting a refund without a fight. Anyone who has a seasonal pitch has to provide up to date certificate of insurance. If your insurance company don’t provide one, then of course you’re going to go somewhere else.

masonic

Well that is nothing unusual, given the previously justified practice of auto-renewal that is common in insurance. If anything, consumers will have an easier time arguing for a refund as a result of this quote blunder, and for those who opted out as per T&C it will be a slam-dunk as always.

DullGreyGuy

Mr.Mean said:

I appreciate should the case arise there would be a fight to be fought. I’m just trying to highlight the fact that there could be a lot of people out there having payments taken from their account that they’re not expecting. And that they should have the option of getting a refund without a fight. Anyone who has a seasonal pitch has to provide up to date certificate of insurance. If your insurance company don’t provide one, then of course you’re going to go somewhere else.

Almost certainly, if it was a system glitch then they will know who's been impacted and are likely to be proactive in dealing with the matter if its a major problem and create a process if its a minor issue. 

For example a former client had a project that went wrong, the first thing they knew of it was 3 customers phoned up saying they'd gotten their renewal invites and it said it would charge a card ending "1234" but they have no card ending "1234". 

An interesting 48 hours followed where the cause of the problem was identified, the system corrected and a PR plan created. In that case customer's card numbers had gotten mixed up but no one had been charged and so the impact was small. We didnt make any public statements, we did have a letter to send anyone else that phones but that turned out to be a single other person. So thousands of letters sent, 4 people contacted us. Goes to show the level of attention people give to their insurance docs. 

Mr.Mean

This is way off my intended alert but Since we do seem to have industry experts here, I’m curious as to how long a period of inactivity could a company  make a sudden claim on a card ?
And There seems to be a train of thought here that if there is an  auto renewal clause and the company doesn’t send or action a renewal quote, it would then be deemed at fault and you would be covered. The policy in question is only caravan insurance but if it was motor insurance what would the police say when you failed to be able to produce a motor insurance certificate. I think they’d say “you’re nicked”
Highly unlikely it would happen with motor insurance to lose all your underwriters but what if?

DullGreyGuy

Mr.Mean said:

This is way off my intended alert but Since we do seem to have industry experts here, I’m curious as to how long a period of inactivity could a company  make a sudden claim on a card ?
And There seems to be a train of thought here that if there is an  auto renewal clause and the company doesn’t send or action a renewal quote, it would then be deemed at fault and you would be covered. The policy in question is only caravan insurance but if it was motor insurance what would the police say when you failed to be able to produce a motor insurance certificate. I think they’d say “you’re nicked”
Highly unlikely it would happen with motor insurance to lose all your underwriters but what if?

Assuming a Continuous Payment Authority has been setup then the idea is they can take periodic payments using it. I dont know if there is an upper bound between payments but if there is its certainly over 12 months as its regularly used on annual insurance policies which in principle could be nearly 15 months gap for those that allow very early quotes. 

Contrary to popular belief when an insurance company has made a mistake they often do put their hands up to it, that said, it does take a competent advisor and/or IT department to identify a problem rather than just automatically state the renewal was sent out in good time. Like my example above, it tends to impact more than one customer and when its agents get multiple calls about the same problem then the chances of someone looking into it increases. 

It has happened with Motor, a former client had a batch of policies that didnt renew properly due to a problem. 2 got stopped by police, we sent a letter of indemnity confirming that we would have covered any claim had an incident happened and compensation for the inconvenience. 

Have had other similar cases, policyholder called to insure AB12 ABP and the agent misheard it and entered AB12 ABT, coincidentally both registration were for a Ford Focus (or whatever) and the customer didnt check the docs when they arrived. Again stopped for driving without insurance, this one went to court but again we sent a letter of indemnity and a larger compensation cheque and they were let off... its one of the two legitimate defences for driving without insurance which is otherwise a strict liability offence.