foreign car hire firm taken £450 after returning home - help

[Russell Howard]

Hi all

 

my daughter & her husband have just come back from Italy,

 

they hired a car for the few days on holiday no problems, however, when they returned

 

the car the hire company did not check the car because the employee was the only one in the office

and could not leave the office so he just took my daughters word that all was good.

 

Well all must have been good because a few days later the £300 (i think) deposit was returned to her bank account ... good.

 

But, a few days after that two charges were made by the hire company (locauto) via her card number that they had from the booking to her account totalling £450.00

 

No notification was made to her about the charges and she did not authorise them,

 

her bank NatWest do not want to know

 

however they did say it was not fraud???

even though she did not give permission.

 

Any thoughts or actions we can take would be very much appreciated.

 

Looking ahead for when anyone else pays for something via card

how do you stop the company just taking money via that card number whenever they like?

 

I know they have the security number on the back but they can still take money.

 

Please advice would be very welcome. Russ

[dx100uk]

get on to NatWest and demand a chargeback

 

and the closure and cancellation of the CPA.

 

DONT get off the phone till you get the moneybak

KEEP going up the chain

 

this is a well known stunt often pulled by foreign hire car companies

 

GENERAL NOTES ON CHARGEBACK & CPA

 

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!

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banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

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This fsa guide has now been updated:

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

.

Here's the text:

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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,

y.ou 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.

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

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

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http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/feb/24/continuous-payments-authority-know-your-rights?newsfeed=true

..

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New june 2013

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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

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Also mentioned your displeasure that as whomever took your money had obviously attempted this many times

probably activating your banks own anti fraud software - nobody had the decency to inform my you this was going on.?

[Russell Howard]

Many thanks ... NatWest Monday morning here we go. Russ

[dx100uk]

do it now

 

they have 24/7 banking line

 

dx

[Russell Howard]

Will do

[renegadeimp]

Don't take no for an answer. Force them to put you through to a manager. Sounds like the phone reps are under trained again.