Admirial insurance auto renewing despite being told not to. Taking payments without consent.

[Adie1974]

I have an issue with Admirial insurance.

 

I bought another car about 2 months or so prior to my insurance expiring and paid the transfer / admin fee of about £20 or there abouts.

 

Their renewal was several hundred more than quotes I received prior to buying the car

 

when paying this transfer fee I specifically stated not to auto renew my insurance.

 

The man said he noted this down on the system.

(Their quotes for the new car being around £700 a year, normally paying around £300)

 

I always paid annually.

 

My renewal was mid-September and received an email that my funds did not go through (luckily it was an old card I used for the admin fee)

and emailed them of my previous conversation that I did not want to auto renew.

 

I then received my "confirmation of motor insurance", charging some £1000 more than swift insurance. (£1300)

 

Their renewal is set up now as monthly payments so unsure how that can auto renew and change from annual to monthly, so this is another concern.

 

I have just had another email saying that if I do not pay within 7 days I have committed an offence under the road traffic act and

“DEFAULT NOTICE SERVED UNDER SECTION 87 (1) OF THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974”

Admiral have ignored both telephone calls and emails and threatening with court action should I not pay.

Another issue was that my old car was taken off the road from around Feb 2013 till july 2013

so asked them to place insurance on hold which they failed to do.

What can I do about this.

[citizenB]

Do you have an email address for them ?

 

Either email or write urgently - head your letter / email "Formal Complaint" and pretty much confirm what you have said above.

 

If you have to send a letter, I would send by Special Delivery.

[Adie1974]

i have replied to the emails they sent - i always leave a paper trail

[unclebulgaria67]

You need to follow Admirals official complaint process as shown in their policy booklet. Provide them with details of the alternative cover and of when you phoned them to stop the auto renewal. Admiral should then just lapse the policy, with nothing owed by you.

[Adie1974]

Just to update that they have just taken a payment from my dads card now

[unclebulgaria67]

Just to update that they have just taken a payment from my dads card now

 

Get your Dad to ask his bank to reject the payment as unauthorised. You need to make a complaint to Admiral and to go to the FOS if necessary.

[Adie1974]

Just to let you all know payment sorted.

 

At start of call I asked to confirm that all calls (in and out) are recorded then said that I cancelled the auto renew when I changed car.

 

He confirmed he saw it on system as not to auto renew but could not understand why it was auto renewed.

 

HOWEVER

 

Because my dad’s car, originally my car, was on a multicar policy he said the insurance for his car was now £700, shooting from £300,

using it for SDP and for only 3000 miles.

 

This car has been in the family for 12 years and never paid over £350 for it, and that was me using it for business.

 

It was lucky that my dads insurance runs out on 8th Oct so we said not to auto renew and got a quote via go compare whist on phone to him for £250

 

I want to make others aware and I can see the downfall of multi car that if a family member removes a car then existing cars,

with several months to run on insurance, will or may inflate in price with the driver having no or little rights.

 

I also said about my other car then was taken off the road in feb (SORN) and they should of held my insurance until I got another car (JUNE).

 

They said provide evidence of SORN and will get a partial refund J

[Adie1974]

Just to update - payment has been taken again - my dad on phone as we speak

[ericsbrother]

You need to speak to your bank and do a recharge. Tell the bank to stop any future payments as you cannot trust any company to stop a continuous payment authority.

[dx100uk]

follow the chargeback and CPA cancellation details below:

 

We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companie

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/- it works!

 

banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

This fsa [now the FCA] 11:24 31/05/2013 guide has now been updated:

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/consumer_...ghts_guide.pdf

 

Here's the text:

 

Cancelling a regular

card payment:

 

When you give your credit or debit card details to a company and authorise them to take regular payments from your account,

such as for a gym membership or magazine subscription,

it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’ or ‘continuous payment authority’.

These are often confused with direct debits, but do not offer the same guarantee if the amount or date of the payment changes.

In most cases, regular payments can be cancelled by telling the company taking the payments.

.

However,

you have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments.

Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments.

Be aware, though, that you will still be responsible for paying any money that you owe.

.

see: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?336569-How-to-remove-a-lender-s-continuous-payment-authority(2-Viewing)-nbsp

.

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

and

Attach the following to your claim and in the interim period write to your bank and attach the following (Keep a copy)

Regulation 55 of The Payment Services Regulations 2009:

55.—(1) A payment transaction is to be regarded as having been authorised by the payer for the purposes of this Part only if the payer has given its consent to—

(a)the execution of the payment transaction; or .

(b)the execution of a series of payment transactions of which that payment transaction forms part. .

(2) Such consent—

(a)may be given before or, if agreed between the payer and its payment service provider, after the execution of the payment transaction; and .

(b)must be given in the form, and in accordance with the procedure, agreed between the payer and its payment service provider. .

(3) The payer may withdraw its consent to a payment transaction at any time before the point at which the payment order can no longer be revoked under regulation 67.

(4) Subject to regulation 67(3) to (5), the payer may withdraw its consent to the execution of a series of payment transactions at any time with the effect that any future payment transactions are not regarded as authorised for the purposes of this Part.

This means that you can simply ask your bank to refuse the payments, it is also good practice to let the lender know too.

So, if you would like your creditor to stop trying to take a payment all you need to do, in theory, is to inform them that you remove their authority. It's probably better to do this in writing and via recorded delivery - if possible.

You can learn more about your rights via the following fsa guide :

Ending recurring payments from credit cards

57 Recurring payments, is the term used to describe transactions for which a client has granted written permission for her/his credit or debit card to be debited for recurring goods or services, for example, club membership subscriptions, insurance cover or payday loansicon. The card may be debited annually, monthly or at other regular intervals.

.

58 In most cases, recurring payments can be cancelled by telling the trader taking the payments. However, a client has the right to withdraw consent by simply telling whoever issued the card (the bank, building society or credit card company) that s/he does not want a payment to be made. S/he can tell the card issuer by phone, email or letter.

.

59 The card issuer has no right to insist that the client ask the trader to stop taking the payment first. The card issuer has to stop the payments if the client has asked them to. The client could point out to the card issuer that they should follow the FSA guidance available in the FSA know your rightsicon booklet which is available on the FSA website at www.fsa.gov.uk.

.

59a If money is still taken from the client's account, it will be deemed to be an unauthorised transaction, and the card issuer must give her/him an immediate refund. The card issuer will have to cancel any interest and charges added to the her/his account because the payment was taken. It is not up to the client to prove that s/he told the card issuer to stop taking payments. Instead, the card issuer would have to prove that s/he did not tell them to stop making payments.

.

60 The client should make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service when all the internal complaints systems within the company issuing the card have been exhausted.

I hope this information is of assistance

 

New june 2013

 

Regulator orders Banks and mutuals to review complaints about not cancelling recurring payments from November 2009.

Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement

by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority said.

The FCA has been examining how easy it is for customers to cancel Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs)

due either to payday lendersicon or for other regular payments such as subscriptions or gymicon memberships.

 

CPAs, which are also commonly called recurring transactions or recurring payments,

are relatively easy to set up but can be hard to cancel, causing problems for consumers trying to manage their finances,the FCA said.

 

Now, following the FCA review of how the largest high street banks and mutuals process requests to cancel CPAs, they have agreed that they will ensure that when a customer asks for a recurring payment to end, that will be sufficient to cancel the arrangement. They have also confirmed that should a payment go through by mistake following cancellation by a customer the customer will be refunded immediately.

 

In addition to securing this commitment, the largest banks and mutuals have agreed to review every individual complaint they have received about the non-cancellation of a CPA and to pay redress where payments have continued to be made despite the customer cancelling the arrangement. This applies to all complaints since November 2009 when the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, began regulating banking conduct.

 

Clive Adamson, the FCA’s director of supervision, said: “It’s important that consumers are confident that banks are meeting their everyday banking needs. Today customers can be confident that when they ask for a Continuous Payment Authority to be cancelled – it will be cancelled - and that it can be done easily.

 

“We recognise that historically this is an area where some customers have struggled but the banks and mutuals have responded positively to our work on this issue. From now on we expect them to be getting this right. In addition, they have committed to review past complaints.”

 

http://www.ftadviser.com/2013/06/28/regulation/regulators/fca-banks-have-to-cancel-recurring-payments-if-requested-UxbeHUuYQIy0SEYbGRE4tJ/article.html