HomeProtect/Premium Credit fine you £10 if you don't "sign" the CCA1974 agreement. Surely this is wrong?

[OldDebt_Weary]

Hello

 

This week I switched my home insurance to Home Protect, arranging to pay it monthly.

 

 

Today, I heard from a company called Premium Credit, telling me that Home Protect had set up the credit arrangement for the insurance through them.

I was then asked to register on their website and also to electronically sign a copy of the CCA1974 agreement.

 

It also stated that if I hadn't signed by 27th April, then they would add £10 to my account!

So my question is,

can they actually legally do this?

 

 

I thought the terms of the CCA1974 states you should sign ONLY if you wished to be bound by it. Effectively, they are fining me if I don't.

 

Clearly, they just want to be able to guarantee any potential court action they might take would be successful

by having a "signed" CCA1974 form but this just sound wrong to me.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

 

I see this particular company has been posted about before for exorbitant charges for failed direct debits which doesn't surprise me!

[unclebulgaria67]

It is Premium Credit that add this charge and I think it is totally wrong. It is effectively a fine for not returning a document signed. I can't believe that the FCA have allowed Premium Credit to do this, if they have asked them.

 

It does not make any difference whether you sign this document or not. They can still enforce the debt, if they can prove you have breached the contract. Signing the document is giving you the full rights of the Consumer Credit Act. I don't think it makes any difference to Premium Credit, apart from it being a way to make money. My experience has been that some Insurance companies don't even keep the CCA document sent back or don't even ask for it back. It is a fairly recent thing for some companies to ask for it back. Why this is the case, I am not totally sure.

[Conniff]

Hang on a min. You took out insurance with Home Protect on a monthly premium basis. Did home premium say they would be using the services of a finance company and that you had to sign a credit deal with them ??

 

 

I've had a quick look through their terms and conditions and it says you can monthly by direct debit but nothing about it being financed by a third party company.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Conniff

[Stigman]

Premium Credit will do everything they can penalise you and charge you extortionate fees, quite a few years ago we changed Banks during a policy and the DD got missed, Premium Credit wanted £35 for their Admin Costs, we refused to pay & cancelled the policy.

I always check now to see if the DD's will be handled by Premium Credit and if it is I will not do Business with that Company.

Stigman

[unclebulgaria67]

Hang on a min. You took out insurance with Home Protect on a monthly premium basis. Did home premium say they would be using the services of a finance company and that you had to sign a credit deal with them ??

 

 

I've had a quick look through their terms and conditions and it says you can monthly by direct debit but nothing about it being financed by a third party company.

 

Some companies do this these days. If you want to pay monthly, you take out credit via a different company and they apply all these silly charges. It is often small/medium brokers/intermediaries that don't want to employ staff to deal with accounts and get an outside company to do it for them.

[ericsbrother]

it is also a money earner for the broker. They get paid a fee for getting you to take out a policy through them and this is a bit of jam on that. The fee they get from the insurer will often double if you go down the monthly credit route and then they often offer a bigger premium discount if you start to waver at the overall premium. Some companies get no money from the policy itself and rely on you taking out the credit, gap insurnace on cars, warranty protection etc.

[OldDebt_Weary]

Thank you all very much. Am I right in thinking that the CCA1974 allows a "cooling off period" when it is possible to withdraw from the agreement without penalty? After I have found out more about these characters, the less I want to have anything to do with them. I will look for alternatives instead.