Insurance Collection Bureau!

[tony3x]

The background:

 

My son,

in his first years insurance,

had an accident (his fault) in May this year.

His car was a write off and he was paid out.

 

The broker (My Policy) called him (before the actual payout) and told him that he needed to get a new car within 21 days or the policy will be cancelled.

 

I have checked this with the actual insurers T&C's - no mention of 21 days but does say it will be cancelled if not transferred to another vehicle.

He said that was not in a position to get a new vehicle so they advised to cancel the policy.

 

Fast forward to yesterday.

 

He receives a 'demand' from the Insurance Collection Bureau for £90.

He emailed My Policy to find out what this was about and they replied £40 cancellation fee + the ICB admin fee.

 

The thing is they replied to his email within the hour and said they had listened to the recording of the call and he was made aware of the £40 charge

- we have asked for a copy of this recording.

 

Aside from this My Policy have never made any request for the funds,

the last communication he had with them was the the above phone call.

 

We have also asked for copies of all the requests for payment they have made.

Anyone come across this scenario before.

[dx100uk]

they are sc@mming DCA

 

if you owe anything pay them [the ins co.] direct

a DCA is not a bailiff

and cant add anything to a supposed 'debt'

 

ignore them totally

[unclebulgaria67]

Agree. If anything was owed the Insurers of the My Policy would have written.

 

The point i would make is this.

 

When the claim was paid out, if there was any remaining premium owed, because the annual premium was paid monthly, then any amount owed would have been deducted from the claim settlement.

 

When the policy was cancelled, because it could not be continued, this was an administrative requirement of the Insurers and therefore I am not sure why a cancellation admin fee should be due. The absence of a letter asking for payment suggests that My Policy never intended to charge this, but on their system it was not overidden to nil.

[tony3x]

The premium was paid upfront and the T&C's of the policy say no refund of premium on a total loss if a replacement vehicle is not used. Wording from the policy;

 

7. Total Losses and stolen vehicles

If as a result of a claim the insured vehicle is

determined to be a total loss or your vehicle has

been stolen and not recovered:

• this policy will be cancelled without refund of

premium; and

• all pre-paid miles remaining in the current period

of insurance will be forfeited

unless you change your vehicle to another that

would normally be acceptable to us or the stolen

vehicle is recovered and not a total loss.

In the event of the policy being cancelled due to the

insured vehicle being a total loss or stolen and not

recovered, and there being no replacement vehicle

to insure (or if there is a replacement vehicle to

insure which is unacceptable to us), all outstanding

or overdue premiums, including any administration

charge due, must be paid immediately. We may at

our discretion reduce the claims payment by the

amount of outstanding or overdue premiums that

you owe us.

 

My Policy fees;

STANDARD CHARGES

New policy arrangement fee £50

Mid-term adjustments £40

Cancellation within the first 14 days £75

Cancellation (we refund NET of our commission) £40

Renewal of policies £40

Finance Arrangement Fee £25

Copy Documents £15

 

The other thing is that although my son was paid out he has never received a statement detailing the payout - not sure is this is a requirement.

 

Be interesting to see what My Policy come back with.

[Bazooka Boo]

Ah yes, ICB, think that because they give themselves the name ''Insurance Collection Bureau'' drivers will automatically pay what they demand!!!

 

As DX says ignore the fleecers, you owe them nothing, for their trouble, I'd be mindful of complaining to the FOS about them.

[tony3x]

Just an update,

My son emailed My Policy on the same email address he had used before to request a copy of the alleged phone call (not a transcript) and any other relevant information. He has also had this email conversation with ICB;

Dear XXX,

 

Thank you for your recent email.

 

With regards to this, I can confirm that we obviously have a contract with our client but this is confidential and has no relevance to you or your outstanding balance.

 

I can also confirm that we do not need to have documentation on our system to proof that you have an outstanding balance as our client sending your account over to us is proof in itself.

 

Due to you trying to avoid payment by discussing things that are irrelevant, your account has now been passed over to our solicitors and they will be in contact with you in due course.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Insurance Collections Bureau.

 

 

 

son:

Thank you for replying and admitting that you do not hold any documentation regarding the alleged debt. This can only mean to me that you do not even know if there is any money owed and your 'demand' was purely speculative in the hope that payment would be made without question. Unfortunately I do not believe any monies are owed and until My Policy can prove otherwise this will remain the same.

This will be my last correspondence with you and I will ignore any further speculative invoices that you may send out.

Dear XXX,

 

Thank you for your recent email.

 

With regards to this, as stated in the previous email, I can confirm that your outstanding balance has been passed over to us from our client My Policy LTD, this was on 02/11/2017 and since this date, we have tried to contact you.

 

I can also confirm that it is our responsibility to chase for an outstanding balance, not to provide you with documentation that we do not have on our system, therefore I advise you to contact our client directly for this and I am sure that they will be able to confirm to you that we are acting on their behalf.

 

If you would like to dispute the amount owing then please contact our client directly, please only contact us to discuss payment.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Insurance Collections Bureau.

Son:

Thank you for your reply.

1) Can you confirm if the alleged debt has been assigned to you? If so please provide a copy of the deed of assignment.

2) Please provide proof, by post, that the alleged debt exists by providing copies of all communications that have been sent to me explaining that so and the requests for payment - this includes recordings (not transcripts) of any telephone calls.

3) Please explain why it has taken nearly 6 months from the cancellation of the policy for this alleged debt to be chased for the first time.

Regards

 

 

Dear XXX

Thank you for your recent email.

 

With regards to this, I can confirm that until the client advises us to close your account, our process will continue.

 

I can also confirm that your outstanding balance has been passed over to us, therefore we are within our rights to chase for the amount outstanding as we have been instructed to do so by our client, My Policy LTD in the instance.

 

Additionally, all of our processes and procedures are regulated and finalised by the FCA, this allows us to pursue and chase for an outstanding amount within our legally regulated guidelines.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Insurance Collections Bureau.

 

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your reply.

After contacting My Policy regarding this and getting their initial response I have now requested from them full details of my account, including a recording the telephone call.

 

I must make you aware that My Policy have never requested payment of the cancellation charge so I feel quite aggrieved that you now want to charge me a fee for something I knew nothing about. I am dealing direct with My Policy regarding this and will make any payment, if due, to them.

 

Please make sure there is no further payment demands from ICB as I do not owe you any 'fee'. Any further demands will be deemed as harassment and reported accordingly.

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Dear XXX

 

Thank you for your recent email.

 

With regards to this, I can confirm that we have been in contact with the client and this is the response we have received:

 

'The client emailed us on 14-11-17 stating he never agreed to the cancellation fee. One of my colleagues has listened to the call and he did agree to the fee.'

 

Due to your policy being cancelled mid-term, a cancellation fee and additional charges have occurred.

 

I advise you to read your terms and conditions as it is stated within them what fees occur when your policy is cancelled.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Insurance Collections Bureau.

 

Dear Sirs,

 

With reference to the above account number and your letter dated 06/11/2017, this is the first I have heard about any outstanding amount. As such I have contacted My Policy Ltd for a full explanation of how and why this fee is due.

 

I have no intention of paying this until My Policy have confirmed that it is actually due, as I do not believe that it is.

 

Please contact My Policy for further information regarding this.

 

If however you do wish to contact me further, please do so only in writing.

 

Kind Regards

 

[tony3x]

And yesterday he received the 'solicitors letter' from Canford Law.

 

I explained the process to him and showed that Canford Law are at the same address as ICB.

It contains the usual 'Notice of Intended Proceedings' and 'we may issue proceedings'.

 

I am quite prepared to tough this out but he is 20 and is a bit concerned.

 

The funny thing is Canford admit to not having a copy of the My Policy or ICB file, and from the emails ICB admit to not having a copy of the My Policy file.

 

Thinking of emailing ICB and saying they owe me £100 because my son says so!

[SuperVillain]

I see you put solicitors letter quote marks.

 

I've dealt with these solicitors before.

 

They did issue court proceedings against my client at the time in relation to hire charges following an RTA.

 

Didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary with them, and the claim settled at an early stage like a lot of those claims tend to do.

 

As far as the claim against your son goes,

I think he needs to get a hold of a recording of the phonecall mentioned in the email exchange, so you can listen to what was discussed.

[tony3x]

He has requested a recording of the call. Funny thing is that My Policy answered his first email (when they said they had listened to the recording) within an hour but so far, nearly a week later they haven't replied to his request for a copy.

 

He has also asked for copies of all correspondence from My Policy where they requested the 'admin fee', again no reply.

 

As for the solicitors , they have been instructed by ICB who do not own the alleged debt so not sure this is correct.

[dx100uk]

same portacabin next desk nearer the bog door.

 

no-one will do court solely for penalty fees.

[Bazooka Boo]

Personally I'd ignore anything further from these ICB clowns, playing letter tennis, or email ping pong, is tedious, and simply endorses their childish behaviour.

 

They'll soon get bored.

[unclebulgaria67]

Agree. I would not be communicating with any company that is this poor.

 

The point is the policy was cancelled following a total write off claim. It was an admin process by the Insurers themselves and as such Insurers would not bother normally. It is not as if anyone phoning asking to cancel and someone dealt with a phone instruction.

[ericsbrother]

if the policy was paid upfront there hs been no cancellation, just the car doent exist and therefore they keep the money as they say they will and offer nothing furher in return. If they had refunded the remaining balance of the annual premium then a charge may be applicable but that would be deducted from the refund.

It appears as though they are trying to charge you for spending your money. Now if you went into a shop and bought an ice cream and dropped it you dont get another ice cream for free but there again the shop doent charge you a fee for not eating the ice cream either.

Some of their fees are unenforceable but many brokers apply them regardless. They know that they are against the FCA rules but they dont care as most of their customers wont know that or wont argue

[tony3x]

Thx for the reply.

The premium was paid in full and upfront. The car was a write off so he did not get any refund of premium as far as he knows. All he received is a cheque in 'settlement of his claim' with no breakdown as to what was attributed to what. He has requested this from both the broker (MyPolicy) and the Ins company by so far nothing back.

 

He is more worried than I am as it has gone very quiet from My Policy since he requested a copy of the call that they supposedly managed to listen to within an hour of him saying no one told him about the cancellation fee when they suggested he cancel. I feel they are chancers, ICB & My Policy, and will not hesitate to make a complaint and go to the ombudsman if necessary.

[ericsbrother]

If they did suggest he cancels a policy that would have terminated by the vehicle being written off then they have misled him at best and tried to defraud him at worst.

He should be putting things into writing in letters and not emails and demanding from the insurance co a breakdown of what they paid and how they arrived at that figure and the use the same to ask the brokers for a breakdown of their accounts, charges etc. he would also need to ask the insurers why they paid the broker and not him directly. It may be the brokers were given the policy refund and just kept it, I can name a company in Purley that does just that unless people get angry about it and then they still add charges that dont exist.