Threatening letter from old insurance company

Corkgirl18

Hi, I'll try to keep this brief.

I cancelled my insurance with a company a few days before it was due for renewal. They renew automatically usually.
I spoke to a guy on the phone who wrote a note in my file that it was to be cancelled and said there was no problem. He told me I needed to cancel my direct debit with my bank. He also said the documentation for renewal including new disks may have been sent out already and that I had to return them with a note.
They arrived about a week later and I returned them.

Today I got a letter from the insurance company (dated 9th March) saying I had an outstanding debt of 100 odd euro and if I didn't pay it within a week they were sending it on to their debt collectors.

Obviously I'm going to ring them in the morning but just wanted to get an idea before I rang them if I actually am liable to pay this amount or any pointers on how to approach the phone call.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

hullaballoo

Have you paid the full premium for the year gone? If you cancelled the DD after telling them you were cancelling, is it possible there was a last DD that should have been processed that wasn't as a result of the cancellation? That would mean there may be an amount due to them for the last month's cover.

Just make sure the premium for the year just gone was fully paid by referring to your own accounts and whatever paperwork they sent out when you renewed last year to account for interest and then either pay what's due or ignore it if you're fully paid up.

Victor

'Renewal date' and 'start of police date' may be different - there may be a condition in your previous policy that you must notify them by X days before 'start of police date' if you wish to cancel.

Did you take up insurance with another company? Get evidence of this and show the previous company.

joeguevara

Firstly, have you received confirmation of your no claims bonus? If no, then it may be worth the 100 bucks. If yes, happy days.

If it was a yes, ring them back up and say you want a complaint on the basis that they failed to process your instruction promptly which is a breach of provision 3.3 of the consumer protection code. Say you want to make a formal complaint. If they say that you must put it in writing, say that they are required to treat an oral complaint as if it was a written complaint.

They have 5 business days to acknowledge complaint and 40 business days to adjudicate on it (they must update you on 20).if it is not concluded in your favor you can go to Financial Ombudsman.

Seek all records. They may make you to a data access on this. Maximum 6.35.request all communications including call recordings and/or contemporaneous notes, policy docs and renewal notices relating to the policy.

Finally seek a statement of competency of all people who dealt with you. If they refuse say it is a requirement of the Minimum Competency Code. Should scare them enough to drop debt collectors for the sake of a 100 bucks.

Corkgirl18

Sorry for the delay in reply and thanks a million for all the help.
Apparently the €100 was to cover the period between cancelling the insurance on the phone and them receiving the documents I returned.
I wasn't having any of it and used some of the information posted here - quoting consumer protection codes etc :pac: and eventually she gave up!
Delighted!
Really appreciate the help.