britishdrive

michaelamullinder

my husband and myself have been paying £39 each to this so called company . thinking it was an official government website when changing our address 
we have both been charged every month from january until now . 
only realised this week . emailed them straight away and they have cancelled it
just wondering if there’s away we can get our money back
i i didn’t have any email from them on the day i changed our day but as soon as i emailed them and they cancelled.funnily enough they sent me all the details which apparently id signed up too and said they were sorry to loose us and we would be missing out on alot
well what  do they actually do for £39 a month? 
can anyone help please 

born_again

Only hope of getting it back is via company refunding you.
You have no chargeback rights.

You need to be careful that when using a gov website that it has a .gov.uk ending. Anything else is not legit. As well as avoid add or sponsored links... Government would never pay..

Grumpy_chap

michaelamullinder said:

my husband and myself have been paying £39 each to this so called company . thinking it was an official government website when changing our address 
we have both been charged every month from january until now . 
only realised this week . emailed them straight away and they have cancelled it
just wondering if there’s away we can get our money back
i i didn’t have any email from them on the day i changed our day but as soon as i emailed them and they cancelled.funnily enough they sent me all the details which apparently id signed up too and said they were sorry to loose us and we would be missing out on alot
well what  do they actually do for £39 a month? 
can anyone help please 

How did you find the company / service?
What information was available then?

Can you confirm the company / website you have engaged?  The results I receive when searching for "britishdrive" don't seem relevant to the content of the post.

NoodleDoodleMan

You've each been paying £39 from January through to July without being aware ?

Did you think it was a one off payment ?

 

DullGreyGuy

michaelamullinder said:

my husband and myself have been paying £39 each to this so called company . thinking it was an official government website when changing our address 
we have both been charged every month from january until now . 
only realised this week . emailed them straight away and they have cancelled it
just wondering if there’s away we can get our money back
i i didn’t have any email from them on the day i changed our day but as soon as i emailed them and they cancelled.funnily enough they sent me all the details which apparently id signed up too and said they were sorry to loose us and we would be missing out on alot
well what  do they actually do for £39 a month? 
can anyone help please 

You may want to ask Admin to change your username if thats your real full name

Looking at their website not via a google ad they have a range of "services", some of which would be free elsewhere, and give you a choice of buying one for £39 or buying all of them continuously for £39 per month. Many websites look different when coming from a Google Ad so may be more pushed towards the subscription model. 

It also says through various parts of the website that they are an independent third party and it may be cheaper if you go to the .gov.uk website however they offer great customer service etc. 

Ultimately these websites are typically seen as bad value but not actually fraudulent you can have a conversation with your bank if there are any options but dont hold your breath.

There have been a number of people that have taken their bank to the Ombudsman for these types of transactions but the ombudsman tends not to uphold them because it's not fraud. An example of such a case is https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-3825204.pdf

Grumpy_chap said:

Can you confirm the company / website you have engaged?  The results I receive when searching for "britishdrive" don't seem relevant to the content of the post.

https://britishdrive.com/

born_again

If that is the correct site, then they even give a link to .gov.uk site 

Since we are a third-party business, the official Government website may offer some of our services at a lower cost. If you prefer to apply independently, you can do so by following this link.

DullGreyGuy

born_again said:

If that is the correct site, then they even give a link to .gov.uk site 

Since we are a third-party business, the official Government website may offer some of our services at a lower cost. If you prefer to apply independently, you can do so by following this link.

They even have it on the "cheap tyres" and other services the government doesnt offer. 

Jami74

OP don't feel bad, I had 2 family members that got caught with this (although thankfully they both realised pretty quickly). They both thought they were on the government website when changing address and both paid what they thought was a one off mandatory fee for changing the address on their driving license. I suspect somewhere in small writing there was something to say that it was a recurring payment.

At least it is cancelled now and the lesson going forward is to check your credit card transactions more than six monthly. At a minimum once a month, ideally more often.