Helping elderly parent

richiek

My first post & I'm not sure if this is this right place, but anyway...

I try to save my ageing parent money by getting house insurance online. Its renewal time again & I have just found a much cheaper new biz quote elsewhere. As the current company does auto-renewals, I rang them to ask them not to renew on the previous credit card. They need to speak to the policyholder to action this & I am concerned that there may be an attempt to sell the renewal. The parent is very timid & does not like talking to anyone on he phone, so I always give my phone number...I tried saying the the credit card had expired, so they wouldn't get a payment, but they said they would renew anyway & send an invoice. I don't want to get stuck with a time-on-risk charge.
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle these situations?

floss2

You need to ask your parent to speak to the company and once they have gone through the ID check, to say " I give authority for you to speak to my child XXXXXX" then hand you the phone.

Hoepfully that should do it.

otherwise, try calling the credit card company to cancel the payment - if that is possible?

galadriel

I work in a job where we are supposed to speak to the person concerned, but have many phone call on behalf of husband/wife/father etc. Normally we ask to speak to the named person and confirm their identity and ask 'are you happy that we discuss your business with your son/daughter/whatever'. Would you be able to do that? Or maybe it would be better to cancel in writing if you have plenty of time to do so.

ka7e

My OH is very deaf and cannot deal with anyone on the phone. I always tell callers I deal with his affairs and most accept that without speaking to him! BT and the Pension service must have me on file as their contact as they ask to speak to me, not him.

sloughflint

richiek wrote: »

My first post & I'm not sure if this is this right place, but anyway...

I try to save my ageing parent money by getting house insurance online. Its renewal time again & I have just found a much cheaper new biz quote elsewhere. As the current company does auto-renewals, I rang them to ask them not to renew on the previous credit card. They need to speak to the policyholder to action this & I am concerned that there may be an attempt to sell the renewal. The parent is very timid & does not like talking to anyone on he phone, so I always give my phone number...I tried saying the the credit card had expired, so they wouldn't get a payment, but they said they would renew anyway & send an invoice. I don't want to get stuck with a time-on-risk charge.
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle these situations?

Assuming the renewal date is not for a few days, write to the company advising that you do not wish to renew and do not give them authority to debit the credit card.Send this recorded delivery.

In future, if when documentation is received, you see that they plan to keep CC details on file ready for renewal, write to them immediately and say that you do not want CC details kept. Request for these to be deleted and confirmation that this has been done sent to you ( which you can keep on file if ever another payment is taken)

These continuous credit card authorities are a right pain.
I know you were making an excuse but even if the card had expired, they could still have taken the payment.