Hi there,i had an accident last year in my car as i was hit by another driver.It wasn't my fault and as i had to pay my excess of £250 i got a cheque through the post after the claim from my insurance company,a few weeks later i got another cheque in the post for £250.I now have a letter from them saying i have recieved letters from them demanding £250 as i was paid my excess twice and if i don't pay them they will pass it on to their solicitors and i will then have a detrimental affect on my credit rating.

Can they take me to court over this or is it a case of tough luck,you shouldn't have paid me twice and its now over a year ago.

I'm no longer insured with them as the claim was a farce from the beginning and i'm no longer with them because of that.

Or should i just pay them to keep my name clean?

Any advice anyone?

To keep an overpayment like this is theft. You know you are only entitled to one payment and an error has been made, you are required to repay.

Yes, you should return the money to its rightful owner. If someone pays you money by accident, they are allowed to recover it once they realise their mistake. Ideally, you should have returned it voluntarily as soon as they sent you the second payment but I know not everyone would do that.

It's not worth you damaging your credit rating by trying to keep hold of the money and if they took you to court they would win anyway.

i've sent them a cheque in the post,i was annoyed by them as the claim cost me money due to their incompetence in sorting my car repairs out.

I can understand you being annoyed if there was a long delay in sorting out the claim. Maybe you could try complaining about that separately - they might compensate you for it, if the claim cost you money.

I agree, if your issue is with the claims process then make a formal complaint and see how you get on, although if its over a year ago then you may have a bit of an uphill struggle.

Keeping money that you weren't entitled to would only have ended up causing you hassle so you did the right thing by returning it.

DA