Hi I would be grateful if anyone could give me any help. My friend was insured through swinton and I was named driver on the policy. The policy was due for renewel in july and I had only been named driver from May I had paid with my debit card for the change of policy as i was being put on as named driver and also did the direct debit from my account. My friend told them in july they were not going to renew and thought no more of it until they received a text message stating there insurance had been renewed so they phoned and told them they had already said they were not renewing it so swintons said they would have to pay £90 cancellation and admin charges. When I check my bank account this morning a payment of £88.40 has been taken from my debit card when I rang my bank they say the payment went to swinton. I did not authorise to take any payment from my debit card are they allowed to do this as it was not my policy and also I never gave them any permission to take any payment off my debit card apart from the initial payment in may.When I rang swintons this morning I was told they cant do anything until Tuesday as the account dept is shhut till tuesday cause of bank holiday any help on this matter would be appreiceated.

If they collected it from your account using the debit card details, you are going to have to wait until Tuesday. Your bank can't return the payment. Your friend will need to phone them Tuesday with a complaint. The complaint being that they did not cancel as requested and they have debited a third parties account, without their authority. You actually need a third party mandate/authority to collect the premium this way. They have to collect your address details and send you details of any payments due.

Because it is your friends policy, only your friend can sort this out, due to data protection and the contract being in your friends name.

Don't ever use Swinton again. They are really well known for this type of thing.

Yes of course no one will be available to sort this out.

Looks like they had your card details on file as the policyholder,from when you made the payment.

The problems with these things are that although you might have instructed them,if it was not done in writing then you have no proof.These things should always be done in writing.

Since the Policy is not in your name,it may be that Swinton will say that they cannot deal with you without permission from the Policyholder.

I therefore suggest that you get a wriiten authorisation from him / her.

Swintons complaints handling procedures are pretty exhaustive-I know this because I claimed the £12 charges from them for late payments.

Although I did get them all returned-it was a lengthly process involving them sending a copy of their complaints procedure,followed by a number of letters -their process is one of a series of escalations.

I suggest that you get the authorisation in writing from the policyholder,and send with a letter demanding the return of your money.

State what you have said here.

Additionally request a breakdown of the cancellation fees / their charges.

I will give you the contact details of the person that you need to deal with-this saves going through all their initial CS processes.

Yor targets for resolution are the return of your money,and if not you will report it to Trading Standards and take it up with the FOS,but do not rule out a County Court Claim in which you will seek costs.

They will send you their complaints procedure.,and say they will seek to resolve within 8 weeks.

Make sure that you keep copies and send recorded delivery.

Send it to;

Steve Billington

Senior Advisor Customer Assurance Team

Swinton Insurance

Swinton House

6 Great Marlborough Street

Manchester M1 5SW

His direct dial is 0161 236 7102

Keep us posted

thanks for the quick replies I will let you know what happens on tues the advisor at the local branch did say that they wil probably refund as I was not the policyholder but I am just peeved they they took the payment from my debit card as any issues they have with outstanding amounts should of been taken up with the policyholder before using my debit card details and didn't know whether they were allowed to use my debit card without my say so

My guess is that if this is an admin error caused by the branch-it will be quickly dealt with.

hi just wanted to let you know that swinton are refunding the money they took off my debit card as I am a third party they legally had to. My local branch weren't very helpful so I called swinton complaints and the put me through to a company working on their behalf who has advised me that this regulary happens and that they will refund the money back to my card thanks for your advice

That's a good result, yazzy. Thank you for letting us know - we like to hear how people get on and you had some good advice.

HB