cheek and ordasity!

[shellsbells-x]

I recently cancelled an insurance policy with hastings and was told over the phone that I was liable to pay a charge of £98.

 

I did not have this at the time of the call so I asked them to cancel the policy and send a letter to confirm the charges (I didn't think my other half would believe me but kinds of hoped he'd be able to help).

 

I was told I'd recieve an email which I had to reply to in order to cancel the policy and 7 days later if the payment hadn't been made a 3rd party would contact me to recover the exhaustionate cancellation fee. I agreed that was fine and thought it would at least give me the opportunity to budget for the payment or to arrange a payment plan (I have just left work to study as a Mature student at university).

 

I replied to the email to cancel the policy (twice as it kept on coming) and waited for a letter to detail the charges and give me some payment options.

 

yesterday I sent an email to my bank as there was a huge difference between my balance and available cash. Today I receive a letter from hastings where they had the ordasity to say 'thank you for getting in touch with us. we are pleased to confirm your credit/debit card payment of £129.09'... WHAT?

1. I did not 'get in touch'

2. I have not made any such card payment

3. Even if we get down to the T&Cs where Hastings will say that keeping my card details is all in the small print, who told me it was £129.09?

 

Maybe they could have taken a couple of thousand? it's money I don't have and didn't agree to pay on that date using that payment method anyway? Did they just make it up and hope for the best?

 

I have informed my bank that I did not authorise this charge and based on the method used to recover this money AND the fact that they took what may aswell be a made up charge from me without any hint of a notification I will be following their complaints procedure through to the financial ombudsman.

 

on a side note my partner has just bought himself another car (he has a couple). despite hastings coming up on comparison websites he has now chosen to use a different company. sorry Hastings!

Edited September 28, 2013 by ims21

[unclebulgaria67]

Your bank has to refund you any unanthorised debt card transaction on you requesting this. So I hope that they have done this.

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/product_news/banking/know_your_rights/solving/index.shtml

 

Hastings have made a mistake here and you are quite right to go to the FOS if necessary. I suspect that Hastings will have to write the amount off now, due to the mistake they have made. If their staff are not following a set compliant process, they will be in trouble with the FCA. They should have just cancelled the policy on your instruction and then written to you with details of the cancellation amount due. The member of staff you dealt with Hastings by the sounds of it, needs to receive some re-training on the correct processes they have to follow.

[Hastings Direct. Joe - Soc]

Hi shellsbells-x, Thank you for taking the time to post about your experience. I am very sorry to hear that you are unhappy and that this situation has left you in financial difficulty, can you please get in contact with us directly and supply your policy details? We will then be able to investigate what has happened and attempt to resolve this situation for you. This will also allow us to provide feedback to the members of staff involved to ensure that similar situations do not occur in the future. [email protected] Many Thanks, Jamie