AA insurance scam.

Who2

Its christmas day and i had forgotten to do a transfer and went in on my online banking to be greeted with a transaction in progress for AA insurance of e250. set up to go out on christmas day. i havent dealt with the aa in years and just presume this transaction has been coming out annually since. i cant get last years transactions up so i cant get the unique no. i need to cancel it. im getting onto the bank as soon as they open but is there any recourse i can take to try and get my money back if this is going on for years.

The fact that seems to be missing from your post is, that you cancelled your membership. If you didn’t, it’s hard to see why you would be due any refund.

The Continental Op

Dav010 wrote: »

The fact that seems to be missing from your post is, that you cancelled your membership. If you didn’t, it’s hard to see why you would be due any refund.

Even if he didn't cancel its hard to see why the AA are taking money out of his account without notifying him first?

MarkR

The Continental Op wrote: »

Even if he didn't cancel its hard to see why the AA are taking money out of his account without notifying him first?

If he signed up for direct debit, then he would have been. Any letters recently to advise of a renewal?

Who2

I didn’t sign up for anything, I paid for my parents travel insurance of the account a good few years back.

shanec1928

Who2 wrote: »

I didn’t sign up for anything, I paid for my parents travel insurance of the account a good few years back.

You’ve been paying for it since. Wrongly it automatically renews. You would have gotten a notification about it though.

Cows Go µ

shanec1928 wrote: »

You’ve been paying for it since. Wrongly it automatically renews. You would have gotten a notification about it though.

Probably wouldn't have gotten the notification if the policy was in the parents name - if it was set up with their email or home address, the notification would go to them

Who2

I just went into spam emails and there it is a renewal notification. This is a joke

SpacialNeeds

Notification could have gone into spam. Unfortunately there won't be a refund for the previous years because they would have just had insurance cover during those periods. You could cancel this year's membership though.

Sorry to hear it.

rock22

I have heard about this scam from AA for a number of years.
A lot of people are unaware they will auto-renew

Charge back?

Who2

6 wrote: »

Charge back?

What is a charge back

punisher5112

You have 14 days to cancel.....

Charge back from bank card. Contact them.

rock22

rock22 wrote: »

I have heard about this scam from AA for a number of years.
A lot of people are unaware they will auto-renew

It's not a scam though. I'd put money on it that it mentions that it will auto renew in the T&C's.

dobman88

6 wrote: »

Charge back?

Surely you cant just do a charge back for a direct debit you signed up to and have been notified of? I'd find it hard to believe that would work out in the OPs favour.

punisher5112

I'd contact AA when you can and just state you don't want the service.

kirving

Who2 wrote: »

I just went into spam emails and there it is a renewal notification. This is a joke

The cynic in me says that this is intentional, particularly if you use a large provider like gmail or hotmail, and didn't mark it as spam yourself in the past.

I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but if the sender doesn't have the correct digital security certificates implemented on their side, it can (will) go to the receivers spam box, and on Christmas day too, which to me seems strange.

Alun

€250 for travel insurance? What kind of holidays are they going on, extreme sports in Iraq or something?

dobman88

dobman88 wrote: »

Surely you cant just do a charge back for a direct debit you signed up to and have been notified of? I'd find it hard to believe that would work out in the OPs favour.

Surely there's a grace period? Isn't 14 days the law? Cancel and get the refund by charge back, or by agreement from the company.

Who2

Alun wrote: »

€250 for travel insurance? What kind of holidays are they going on, extreme sports in Iraq or something?

Got last December statement174 euro. They are in their eighties so they are high risk. It’s a pure scam, why would I even want to renew let alone on Christmas Day. They knew what they were at.

G1032

They tried the same trick with my wife back at the end of September
She got an email to say €141 was charged to credit card
She rang them straight away and got the transaction reversed
Payment was received back into account 2 weeks later

run_Forrest_run

I was caught by this a few years ago too. An email was sent to me but I missed it and by the time I realised the money was taken out. I didn't kick up about it because I needed travel insurance for the coming year anyway but I made sure I wouldn't be caught out again.

It's a bit cheeky if you ask me, I notice that they don't do the same for car insurance, no, because they like to charge more year after year, not the same premium as the year before, pricks.

Guffy

Every Travel insurance policy is set up for auto renewal. If you purchase it over the phone the sales rep is required to ask you if you want to opt out of auto renewal. If you sign up online it may depend on the site, but you would need to check a box advising that you have read the terms an conditions, within which, it states that your policy will be auto renewed.

Its not the AA's fault it went to your spam folder but they can check if you had opened the emails and when, on their system. You can cancel the current policy within 14 days, possibly 45 as its an auto renewal. Not sure if that is dependant on the company part of the CCPC guidelines.

They can, as a gesture of goodwill, look at any other years that the auto renewal was in place. I would advise that you don't call them all guns blazing cause nine times out of ten you'll be told to do one. If your parents had insurance with another company i would pull the insurance certs to point out they were doubly insured.

This isn't a scam, it's done across the insurance industry and aims to provide continuity of cover. You should have read the terms and conditions like you had agreed too.

Guffy

6 wrote: »

Surely there's a grace period? Isn't 14 days the law? Cancel and get the refund by charge back, or by agreement from the company.

Interestingly enough, not with travel insurance. Its similar enough to digital software. In theory you can buy an AMT, go on holidays for 10 days, come home and providing there is no claim, cancel your policy.

Most companies do allow for a canx period though, particularly with auto renewals.

Guffy

Kevin Irving wrote: »

The cynic in me says that this is intentional, particularly if you use a large provider like gmail or hotmail, and didn't mark it as spam yourself in the past.

I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but if the sender doesn't have the correct digital security certificates implemented on their side, it can (will) go to the receivers spam box, and on Christmas day too, which to me seems strange.

The renewal date would depend on the purchase date. The term auto renewal gives it away, it automatically renews. The email advising this and the date would be sent out 30 days prior to the expiry and the payment would be within a week i think. Generally 5 working days.

run_Forrest_run

Guffy wrote: »

Every Travel insurance policy is set up for auto renewal.
This isn't a scam, it's done across the insurance industry and aims to provide continuity of cover.

really? every insurer? I have only had this happen to me with AA. I've used other companies for travel insurance and didn't have such issues, but maybe as you said, I happened to disable the auto-renewal part.

Continuity of cover?? funny how they don't care much about that for car insurance so, I wonder why :rolleyes:

The Continental Op

Guffy wrote: »

Every Travel insurance policy is set up for auto renewal. If you purchase it over the phone the sales rep is required to ask you if you want to opt out of auto renewal. If you sign up online it may depend on the site, but you would need to check a box advising that you have read the terms an conditions, within which, it states that your policy will be auto renewed.

Its not the AA's fault it went to your spam folder but they can check if you had opened the emails and when, on their system. You can cancel the current policy within 14 days, possibly 45 as its an auto renewal. Not sure if that is dependant on the company part of the CCPC guidelines.

They can, as a gesture of goodwill, look at any other years that the auto renewal was in place. I would advise that you don't call them all guns blazing cause nine times out of ten you'll be told to do one. If your parents had insurance with another company i would pull the insurance certs to point out they were doubly insured.

This isn't a scam, it's done across the insurance industry and aims to provide continuity of cover. You should have read the terms and conditions like you had agreed too.

No they can't. Read receipts are a thing of the past and disabled by default on many email clients Gmail for example.

Guffy

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

really? every insurer? I have only had this happen to me with AA. I've used other companies for travel insurance and didn't have such issues, but maybe as you said, I happened to disable the auto-renewal part.

Continuity of cover?? funny how they don't care much about that for car insurance so, I wonder why :rolleyes:

They do. They send you a quote as required by the CCPC, and auto renew if you do not contact them or purchase a new policy elsewhere. With car insure the data is held centrally, not the case with travel insurance.

I have had my car policy auto renewed with Aviva i think it was as i had completely forgotten about it. Thank god for that, as it wasn't until my cert came that i realised my pol was up. Rang around, got a better quote, purchased it and advised aviva of the situation and the refunded less the 7 or 8 days i had used the policy.

Car insurers are required by law to offer a renewal as far as I'm aware, but don't quote me on that.

As for travel insurence, IGI, Chill, Blue, ATII, Conrmarket, Abbey, etc. Are all companies I can guarantee auto renew.

Guffy

The Continental Op wrote: »

No they can't. Read receipts are a thing of the past and disabled by default on many email clients Gmail for example.

.... ok, i don't know what it is I'm talking about.

Seth Brundle

The Continental Op wrote: »

No they can't. Read receipts are a thing of the past and disabled by default on many email clients Gmail for example.

It is possible via html emails where an embedded image (specific to an insurance policy) is contained within the mail template and subsequently loaded when the mail is opened

Another thread where the terms & conditions agreed to weren’t read by the poster.

You can definitely get refunded OP. Consumers have rights. Contact them asap.

Auto renewals are ridiculous btw. Never ever auto renew any insurance, but that's another discussion.

Helgagirl

I had an issue with the AA and holiday insurance too. I purchased it for my husband who was going on his first overseas holiday with family members. The following year when it was due to be renewed I received an email, which I tried to cancel, but they still tried to take money from my account. I think I had emailed them a couple of times to try to cancel it, I can't remember the whole story now as this happened a few years ago. They had tried to take the money from my account despite my email, but as I hadn't enough money in my account at the time to cover the fee luckily they got no money from me. My financial situation had changed over the year from when I had originally bought the policy, and I wasn't employed, but in receipt of weekly carer's allowance payments, so it was very stressful that they were trying to take this money. Eventually some of their staff members rang me, but because my name wasn't on the policy despite me being the one who bought the policy, they wouldn't deal with me and would only talk to my husband to get the policy cancelled. As it was my account the money would be coming out from I was rightly peed off that they wouldn't deal with me.

kirving

Guffy wrote: »

Its not the AA's fault it went to your spam folder

....

This isn't a scam, it's done across the insurance industry and aims to provide continuity of cover. You should have read the terms and conditions like you had agreed too.

I would contend that it suits the insurance company for an auto-renewal email to go to spam, and it may be due to them not having their email security up to standard.

I agree on the continuity of cover which is fair enough. On occasion, VHI have called me to check that I wanted to go through with my renewal for Travel insurance that year.

(I actually missed 2 call the day before an operation I was having which the health insurance was covering. I returned the call and it took quite a bit of digging on their side to find out why I got a missed call from that office and to confirm it was nothing to do with the operation cover. Gave me a bit of a fright in the interim, but I appreciated their diligence.)

runawaybishop

This isn't a scam, thread title is misleading.

Chargeback will not work. Op, contact them asap to cancel current renewal if possible and see what can be done for the other year/s. If your parents had alternative insurance this will help, otherwise it's purely goodwill.

The Continental Op

runawaybishop wrote: »

This isn't a scam, thread title is misleading.

Chargeback will not work. Op, contact them asap to cancel current renewal if possible and see what can be done for the other year/s. If your parents had alternative insurance this will help, otherwise it's purely goodwill.

The method of selling is a scam.

Just because its in the T&C's and its legal doesn't exempt it from being a scam.

Big companies can scam people just as well as people selling non existent goods on ebay.

runawaybishop

The Continental Op wrote: »

The method of selling is a scam.

Just because its in the T&C's and its legal doesn't exempt it from being a scam.

Big companies can scam people just as well as people selling non existent goods on ebay.

It's not. It's in the T+C's and the customer is mailed before the renewal, probably twice. There is nothing fraudulent or deceptive about it, you are specifically told it auto renews and you are mailed before that happens nearly a year later.

The Continental Op

The Continental Op wrote: »

The method of selling is a scam.

Just because its in the T&C's and its legal doesn't exempt it from being a scam.

Big companies can scam people just as well as people selling non existent goods on ebay.

How is it a “scam” if the service provider is doing what the purchaser agreed to in the t&cs?

ebbsy

I'm with the AA and its auto renew, however I get an email beforehand.

Somebody asleep at the wheel, so to speak ?

Ten Pin

It is possible via html emails where an embedded image (specific to an insurance policy) is contained within the mail template and subsequently loaded when the mail is opened

...also used to track the recipient in marketing spam emails. Unique URLs for webpages are used similarly.

Good practice to disable automatic image loading in email client and don't click URLs in emails, especially URLs with endless random characters.

Guffy

ebbsy wrote: »

I'm with the AA and its auto renew, however I get an email beforehand.

Somebody asleep at the wheel, so to speak ?

Ya the insured as he didn't opt out, read his t&c's or his renewal email.

Gooser14

How is it a scam? Just because you don't properly monitor your finances doesn't make it an AA scam.

I have virus protection software which defaults to auto renewal. It is up to me to cancel the auto renewal option after I pay the annual subscription.

Guffy

Kevin Irving wrote: »

I would contend that it suits the insurance company for an auto-renewal email to go to spam, and it may be due to them not having their email security up to standard.

I agree on the continuity of cover which is fair enough. On occasion, VHI have called me to check that I wanted to go through with my renewal for Travel insurance that year.

(I actually missed 2 call the day before an operation I was having which the health insurance was covering. I returned the call and it took quite a bit of digging on their side to find out why I got a missed call from that office and to confirm it was nothing to do with the operation cover. Gave me a bit of a fright in the interim, but I appreciated their diligence.)

Of course they did. They have a list of policyholders who's policies are about to expire or are due to auto renew. When its quiet they will ring you and try to get you to do it over the phone as they are on commission for every person who says "yes, let's run through it now while i have 10 minutes."

There should have been a note left on your file by the agent advising as to why they rang you.

kirving

Guffy wrote: »

they are on commission for every person who says "yes, let's run through it now while i have 10 minutes."

There should have been a note left on your file by the agent advising as to why they rang you.

To be fair to them, I had signed up to the auto-renew so they didn't have to call me at all, they did so out of courtesy really.

Perhaps they didn't leave a note as they never got through. Was just unfortunate timing that had me worried for a while until it was confirmed.

For a €250 policy, any decent company could make a 5 minute phonecall to confirm, rather than hide behind they legalities of what is written on Page 32, Section 4.8b of the small print. It's just bad business practice IMO.

rock22

Of course it is a scam. it was well covered on radio a number of years ago. However AA continue with the practice.
Just because they put it somewhere in their T&C does not mean it is not a scam. it

rock22

rock22 wrote: »

Just because they put it somewhere in their T&C does not mean it is not a scam. it

A scam involves theft/fraud, how is it a scam if the op’s parents are insured and the payment/renewal were agreed to by the op from the outset? The op confirmed that he/she received the renewal email but unfortunately it went to spam. On a side note, who has a payment for this amount going out of their account fir years without noticing it?

From CA site:

“Paying more for something than you think it’s worth isn’t the same as being scammed. Usually, a scam will involve theft or fraud.”


The title of the thread needs to be changed to remove “scam”, it should really be “I didn’t read the T&Cs when I signed up to a service”

Who2

Who2 wrote: »

I just went into spam emails and there it is a renewal notification. This is a joke

So you got a renewal notice. Not their fault it went into your spam folder.

I don't see a problem here.

Bikerman2019

You took out a policy. It was set to auto renew. You agreed to this in the terms and conditions. They sent you a renewal notice, your email client binned it to spam.


They have done nothing wrong. Jump up and down and scream scam all you want but you are wrong.

run_Forrest_run

I love all the perfect posters here pontificating here, while it's not a scam I think the real annoyance is the auto-renewal, could ye at least just admit that and let the OP vent?

run_Forrest_run

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

I love all the perfect posters here pontificating here, while it's not a scam I think the real annoyance is the auto-renewal, could ye at least just admit that and let the OP vent?

It is by no means pontificating to point out that before complaining about being scammed, read exactly what it is you signed up to.

kirving

SouthWesterly wrote: »

So you got a renewal notice. Not their fault it went into your spam folder.

It's very often the fault of the sender that causes emails to be caught by standardized spam filters, in particular Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.

Spam filters don't work by magic, not are they random at all. If the email fits well understood criteria, it will be marked as Spam and it's very likely that ALL AA renewal notices are caught by the same filter.

You can be damn sure that the Marketing department in the same company do everything in their power to understand and bypass spam filters.