Tesco Insurance - advice needed on payment

[KK14]

Hi There everyone,

I was looking for some advice, I have just recently bought car insurance with Tesco, however, what I want to know is.....and if anyone has encountered the same problem with them, my policy doesn't start until 19 August, however, Tesco decided to take the payment out on 7 August - 9 working days before I thought the inital payment would have been taken.


Is this their policy to do this or are they trying to pull a fly one, as from previous experiences of getting car insurance, money has never been debited from my account until the day of the policy beginning.

I have been on the phone to Tesco Car Insurance and they have told me that they are not going to be liable for any bank charges that I may incur due to them taking money out of my account which was not for them in the first place.

Thanks.
KK14

[Darkangelsdelite]

It all depends how you set up the policy to be paid.

If its set up with either payment in full on a card or a deposit payment on a card then 10 direct debit instalments, then the payment will be applied from your card straight away (exception to this is if the policy starts more than 30 days in advance) then your monthly payments will start from whatever preferred payment date you requested, a month later.
This is read out as part of our sales script along with all the other standard regulatory stuff.
If it is set up to be paid by 12 monthly payments by direct debit, then the payment shouldn't have been applied for yet, in which we would need to investigate further and see what's happened.
Without looking at the policy in front of me, i cant really comment much further, best bet is to call in the morning and speak to customer services and we should be able to explain what's happened and how to go about rectifying it for you.
Failing that, if you want to PM me your policy number, then i will have a look at it tomorrow for you but that's entirely at your discretion.


DA

[KK14]

Hey DA, thanks for replying.

I understand completely what you are saying, however, how does it work if you have applied for insurance over the internet and opted to do the one full payment?

I done this a week ago and as far as I was aware (from going with other insurance companies) they would have taken it from the policy start date, but the guy I spoke to told me that wasn't the case and that I had authorised them to take money from account the minute I had entered my payment details?

However, the first time I spoke to him he was adamant that money had not been taken from my account, stating that the he was awaiting confirmation from the bank, whcih takes 3-5 working days, however, I have hard copy proof that money was indeed taken out on 7 August after the process began on 6 August.

The male I was speaking to was in one of the call centres, and he then also told me that it specifically tells customers on the website that they take the money straight away and when i disagreed, he said "OH WELL IT SHOULD SAY IT ON YOUR CONFIRMATION E-MAIL", again I disagreed because I had thoroughly checked this and then he turned to the last option by stating that it should tell me on my hardcopy details and low and behold it said nothing on them either, several times he kept going away to speak to someone but still never came up with a reason as to why money had been taken out.

The second time I spoke to the male (he phoned me back) he said Tesco would not be liable for any bank charges which I would incur because I "should have known the money was coming out of my account for my insurance"

Despite him offering to refund my money, whcih would take 5 working days to receive back, I could re-apply for insurance and then he said I could then opt for a specific date of when I wanted the money to be taken out - totally bemused me when he said that, not to mention when the renewal date comes around, Tesco take the money from my account 10-14 days after the renewal date .

I was losing the will to live with this guy, however, he said he would contact me back tomorrow to find out if I wished to cancel the policy and re-open a new one....told him I had to think about it.

[Darkangelsdelite]

It does seem that the consultant you spoke to has gone around the houses a bit for something that should be really simple to sort out.
I would have to agree with him in the sense that I'm pretty sure that our website states that we will apply the funds to your card within 7 days from the date you accept the quote (not from the start of the policy). It on the final screen where you enter you card details and select if you want the policy to auto renew on the same card next year.
The confirmation email is literally that, an email confirming the policy is set up, it has no useful info on it at all so no idea why he's mentioned that.
Again, there's probably nothing on the policy docs either as by the time you would have got them, the payment would already have been applied.
Unless he's been trained to deal with payments, he might not know how to correctly read the info on the accounts screen so may have just guessed if it had been cleared or not, it would probably show as being applied but not cleared yet, the banks take ages to notify us if the payment has gone through so you would probably know before us.
To be fair, even if he cancelled your policy and set up a new one for the 19th, the refund would take a few days to clear your account and the payment for the new policy would be applied straight away, there's no way to override it. I'd just leave it for now, if it does turn out that you get charged by your bank, then we would need to look into it as a complaint and decide what to do, but my initial answer is that it does state it on the website as we have to under FSA regulations.

anything more you need then feel free to ask.

DA

[KK14]

Much appreciated for your help DA.

[Darkangelsdelite]

No Probs, hope you get it all sorted.

DA