AA cancelled car ins due to arrears, there were no arrears! car impounded by police - help

[dx100uk]

I think people wanted to see the insurance policy agreement?

 

 

dx

[Viikkie]

I think people wanted to see the insurance policy agreement?

 

 

dx

Sorry I'll upload in the morning , thought people asked what I paid deposit , installment amounts , date paid ,date due etc..and this

..document as that info on it

[BankFodder]

wow their loans to pay for insurance are a rip off at 26%

 

 

most only charge 10% or there abouts.

 

Yes, the not really insurers. They are moneylenders.

 

I understand that you say that you prefer to wait until you receive a response from your ongoing complaint to the AA. However, I can tell you that the customer service person who has responded to you here is very high level and I would suggest that at the very least you send off a copy of your message to the email address they have posted here along with the reference number. I think that you will be more likely to get rapid attention to this complaint.

 

I have already said that I think that there is a breach of the ICOBS rules and I don't think that you should get drawn into any protracted exchange of correspondence and goodwill gestures. I think you need it sorted out comprehensively and quickly. I agree that having it sorted out internally by the AA would be the best way to go but on the other hand, don't get drawn into their reluctance.

 

You say that you have already started a complaint with the AA. How long ago did this begin? What response have you had from them so far?

[unclebulgaria67]

deposit was payed at the start of the policy 22.04 .16 my first installment was not due till the 21st june ,

 

22nd April start date and first monthly payment by DD not due until June 21st ?

 

Did you mean 22nd May start date, otherwise this does not make sense ?

 

If it is April start date, being that you only paid one month deposit, you were in arrears when cancelled. If May start date, you had paid a deposit covering you for first month and AA should have written or contacted you regarding cancelled DD, asking you how you wanted to pay to avoid cancellation.

[Viikkie]

Hi no arrears that was the agreement deposit date 22.4 and first payment 21.6 this is what the policy stated as below first payment 59 days after policy start date

 

Payment information

We can confirm that your Instalment Account will be debited with the total amount payable of £611.01. We have already collected a deposit of £53.97 and the remaining balance will be paid in monthly instalments. You will shortly receive a separate pack from us containing details of your instalment plan plus a Credit Agreement to sign and send back.

Your cover for the year ahead Total inc. interest: £611.01 Deposit amount: £53.97 Monthly: £50.64*

The monthly amount includes interest charged at a rate of 14.68% flat rate (APR 26.9%). The total quoted includes a discount of £21.90.

*The monthly amount is estimated based upon 11 monthly payments commencing 59 days after your cover start date. Details of your payments will be included in your Credit Agreement pack which will be with you shortly.

The total cost of the above AA Car Insurance includes our fee of £28.00 under your contract with us, AA Insurance Services, for arranging your AA Car Insurance. The total amount where applicable includes Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) at the prevailing rate.

Making a claim

If you need to make a claim, call our claims department on 0800 269 622. Calls to this number are free and lines are open 24/7.

[unclebulgaria67]

Hi no arrears that was the agreement deposit date 22.4 and first payment 21.6 this is what the policy stated as below first payment 59 days after policy start date

 

Payment information

We can confirm that your Instalment Account will be debited with the total amount payable of £611.01. We have already collected a deposit of £53.97 and the remaining balance will be paid in monthly instalments. You will shortly receive a separate pack from us containing details of your instalment plan plus a Credit Agreement to sign and send back.

Your cover for the year ahead Total inc. interest: £611.01 Deposit amount: £53.97 Monthly: £50.64*

The monthly amount includes interest charged at a rate of 14.68% flat rate (APR 26.9%). The total quoted includes a discount of £21.90.

*The monthly amount is estimated based upon 11 monthly payments commencing 59 days after your cover start date. Details of your payments will be included in your Credit Agreement pack which will be with you shortly.

The total cost of the above AA Car Insurance includes our fee of £28.00 under your contract with us, AA Insurance Services, for arranging your AA Car Insurance. The total amount where applicable includes Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) at the prevailing rate.

Making a claim

If you need to make a claim, call our claims department on 0800 269 622. Calls to this number are free and lines are open 24/7.

 

On your certificate of insurance what dates are shown. Start date of cover and end date ?

 

Have AA written to you after cancellation saying you owe them money ?

[Viikkie]

On your certificate of insurance what dates are shown. Start date of cover and end date ?

 

Have AA written to you after cancellation saying you owe them money ?

 

no nothing from them at all

[BankFodder]

So can you bring us up-to-date on this please.

 

I understand that you have a complaint in with the AA – but that is before their customer service person posted on this forum and gave you a reference number. Have you now contacted them using that reference number?

 

Have you had any replies from anybody?

[Viikkie]

,,

PolicyDocument aa .pdf

[Viikkie]

So can you bring is up-to-date on this please.

 

I understand that you have a complaint in with the AA – but that is before their customer service person posted on this forum and gave your reference number. Have you now contacted them using that reference number?

 

Have you had any replies from anybody?

 

hi just received email yesterday ill upload

[BankFodder]

I notice that in their "important notes" they say

Failure to make full payment (including additional premiums) could result in an administration charge being

levied to cover additional expenses incurred by AA Insurance Services in debt recovery.

This seems to be the only reference they make to failure of payments or to direct debits. In other words there seem to be any other provision or warning about possible cancellation of insurance. So if there is nothing else written somewhere else, then not only have they acted in breach of their statutory duty under ICOBS, but I would say that they have breached their own terms and conditions as well.

 

I can almost guarantee you that the AA will not produce a satisfactory solution on this. I can almost guarantee you that the best you get will be some gesture of goodwill given under conditions of confidentiality – but I can scarcely imagine that they will lift a finger to address the conviction that you have received.

[Viikkie]

hi

received the following 2 separate emails from the AA attached files

still awaiting response .

 

today i also received this letter see were i have highlighted it ,

 

 

they now say i have defaulted on my payment and now cancelled .

 

 

also demanding payment ,they cancelled before payment due it gets better.

july1.pdf

july2.pdf

july 4.pdf

[stu007]

As they are treating this as a Complaint as stated in the letter in post#37 (2nd PDF) you should also ask them to provide you with a copy of their Complaints Policy/Procedure as you need to know if they have actually followed their own Complaints Policy/Procedure.

[BankFodder]

I have already asked you if you have contacted them using the reference number suppied by their rep on this thread - but you haven't replied.

 

We can probably help you but you need to answer questions.

 

Once again - it is highly unlikely that these people will deviate form their dinosaur procedures unless they are forced to.

[unclebulgaria67]

It seems your complaint has been escalated to the Exec chairmans office according to first attachment and as you have followed that path you will have to see what happens.

 

I still don't quite understand why a deposit premium was collected for 1/12th of the premium and then the next payment by DD was not until 59 days later. Then in the meantime before this was due, you cancelled the DD mandate and AA cancelled the policy without you being contacted either about the cancelled DD mandate or the cancellation of the policy.

 

It would seem to be a flaw in AA's admin system if they allow one months deposit and then not collecting the next payment for 2 months, therefore meaning that after the first month of cover the policyholder is in arrears with payment. This means that if the DD mandate is cancelled after the first month, that AA are most likely to proceed to cancellation straightaway, as they don't have premium paid to continue cover. If they wrote out to the policyholder giving 14 days to resolve the payment issue and then allowed a further 7 days cancellation notice, they are exposing themselves to a risk of at least 21 days of unpaid insurance, which they might not receive,

 

What AA should be doing is either to collect two months deposit upfront or if one month deposit, ensuring next payment is collected by DD about one after inception. To allow 59 days for the second payment is just stupid, as it opens them up to abuse by people seeking free insurance cover. I.e people deliberately only pay the one month deposit and then cancel the DD near to the due date 59 days later. The other problem is having the last payment due very close to the renewal date means that people cancel DD's for renewal, therefore cancelling before the last payment has gone through.

[Viikkie]

response from aa customer service who i emailed first before i was given the reference by AA CHAT ON THIS FORUM TO CONTACT THEM

 

 

Thank you for your email of 20 June regarding your AA Car Insurance policy. I am sorry that you have had cause to contact us.

 

I understand you are unhappy to discover that your policy has been cancelled due to the failure to maintain a valid direct debit instruction under your Credit Instalment Agreement. You have advised you did not receive any letters regarding this matter.

 

I have investigated your concerns and can confirm that a letter was sent to you dated 4 May explaining the mandate had been cancelled which is a breach of the agreement. This resulted in a £12 default and also notified you of our intention to collect the full outstanding balance if the mandate was not reinstated.

 

On 24th May, we attempted to collect the full annual payment from the payment card used to make the deposit but the payment was unsuccessful. As such, a further letter was sent dated 27 May explaining the policy would be cancelled with effect from 5 June.

 

As no response was received to these letters, the policy was cancelled. I am sorry if you did not receive them however, they have not been returned undelivered by the Post Office and as such, we did not know they had not been received. A copy of the letters have been attached for your reference.

 

In view of the above, I can only confirm that your insurance policy has been correctly cancelled as per the "Termination" terms and conditions of your Credit Instalment Agreement (Section 7a). Unfortunately, I am not in a position to uphold your complaint as I have not found any evidence of AA error.

 

To fulfil our regulatory requirement, I am obliged to inform you that I will close my file, however, if you would like me to address any additional matters, please let me know using the contact details provided. You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge. Although there are time limits for referring your complaint to the Ombudsman, we will consent to the Ombudsman considering your complaint even if you refer the complaint outside the time limits. Please refer to the attached hyperlink for further details if required.

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

 

In closing, I understand my response may fail to meet your expectations and for this I apologise however, I hope I have been able to clarify the situation further. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Calum McLaughlin

Member Relations

CS/4401150

AAP0278969

Tel: 0344 209 0556 or 0161 333 5910

[email protected]

[Conniff]

I can't see both letters not being delivered, so you need to look closer to home and see who has been tampering with your mail.

 

You say there were 'no' arrears, do you have a bank statement that shows payments were taken ?

[unclebulgaria67]

You can ask your Bank to see whether they can check to see if there was a failed card payment on 24th May. It might not show on the account screens the Bank staff can see, but they should be able to ask their department that deals with card transactions whether an attempt was made. If you find no attempt was made and get confirmation of this is writing from your Bank, it will undermine their response to you.

 

The problem with many large Insurance offices is that they have huge print centres and there is little tracking to evidence that a letter was actually printed and posted. All they are relying on is a record showing that x letter was requested to be printed on x date. It is not proof it was actually sent. Depending on how AA print centre works, their IT staff might be able to check whether the letter was actually printed. Sometimes letters can be requested to be printed, but for some reason the request never reaches the print centre. It is whether AA are able to check their systems and willing to admit if there was a problem.