Insurance company take money without me authorising it.

RubyGirl

My life insurance policy was due for renewal, I was waiting on the letter to be sent out telling me it was up, did I want to go ahead with them again and how I wanted to pay.

I wanted to pay by direct debit every month this year, last year I paid in full.
They took the full amount out of my account today (money I needed for my mortgage on Monday).

I rang them up and they said this is their policy once you sign up to payment method last year?

They said they can send me out the form for direct debit and they will refund the money then.

This is not much good to me now I have no money for my mortgage on Monday.

Surely this can't be the case.

slimjimmc

It's quite common for contracts such as life assurance policies to be automatically renewed when you pay by DD unless you expressly cancel in advance. There's likely to be something in the small print of your agreement saying something to that effect, in which case I suspect the onus is on you keep track of renewal and to notify your insurance company of your wish to change from annual DD to monthly DD well in advance.
However it's bad form not to be sent some form of advance notice. Under the rules for the Direct Debit Scheme you are supposed to be issued with a notice (e.g. invoice) at least 14 days in advance of the funds being drawn down. For DD+ the minimum notice period is 7 days.

foggy_lad

if you feel this payment was not authorised then you can get your bank to refund the payment immediately, you will probably have to go into your branch as otherwise they will most likely fob you off.

foggy_lad

Also once you tell your bank that this was an unauthorised debit on your account they MUST ACT and refund your account, it will then be up to you to settle the debt with the company.

RubyGirl

Thank's all for advice, bank sorted it for me today so happy out.

katy67

Hi Ruby girl

Your post is in The lrish Sun today and just wondering did you write to them.
Reason l ask is nearly every week, someone post from here is in the Irish Sun on saturdays and often wonder, was it written to the paper or was it copied from here. l'm just curious thats all

RubyGirl

katy67 wrote: »

Hi Ruby girl

Your post is in The lrish Sun today and just wondering did you write to them.
Reason l ask is nearly every week, someone post from here is in the Irish Sun on saturdays and often wonder, was it written to the paper or was it copied from here. l'm just curious thats all

Oh no def not. Must check it out.

dudara

Please don't go off-topic.

dudara

katy67

Sorry Dudura

Just wanted to let the op know about it

But why was the other posts removed?