Direct Debit over charging

The Sparrow

Ok so I recently switched my insurance to Quinn Direct and to avail of the no-claims bonus I had to send in my no claims certificate from my previous insurer. So I did just that and a couple of weeks later I received a letter from Quinn Direct saying that they never received it and would be charging me more. So I rang them and explained that I had sent it in to them in good time and they said that if I sent it in again before the February direct debit came out that it would be fine and my premium would not be raised. I did just that and they told me today that they received it on the 30th of January.

But on the 12th of February they bumped up my direct debit payment by 84 euros. I rang them today and they apologised for the over charging. They said that they would reduce my March Direct Debit by 40 euros and then reduce each subsequent paymen by six euro to cover the overcharging. Obviously I wasn`t very happy with this and I said that it wouldn`t work for me because I would need a full refund of the 84 euros. They said that there was nothing that they could do because it was a direct debit and that was the best I could hope for.

So basically they said that they would give me some of the money back next month and I would have to wait 8 months until I get the full amount of the rest back! Is this legal? Can they get away with this? They simply wouldn`t budge on the phone.

Appolpgies if this has been covered before, but i had a look through the forum and didn`t see anything like this. Does anyone know how I can get the full amount back? I know its not a huge amount but I'm a student and I could really do with it!

misterq

The more I think about the more reluctant I am to fill out any more direct debit forms.

The problem is that banks don't seem to give a toss if you are overcharged, double charged etc. You don't seem to have the same sort of recourse you do when paying by credit card etc, when you can dispute the charges.

Their position is ridiculous. They want you to hang on for months for full payment, yet if you did that to them they would cancel your insurance before you could say "Quinn Direct - Direct rip off!".

Stick to your guns and demand your money back or tell them you will cancel your policy.

I know what you are going to say next: You can't cancel as it is the best deal of a bad lot.

Well, see if your bluff gets called!

antoinolachtnai

I would contact the financial ombudsman.

http://financialombudsman.ie/

This is small-scale stuff, but it is very insidious.

If you were in the UK, you would be able to ring the bank and charge back the direct debit. (see http://www.bacs.co.uk/BPSL/directdebit/generalpublic/yourrights/ )

You should point this out to the ombudsman as well.

Antoin.

Padraig Mor

No way are they within their rights. www.smallclaims.ie is where you need to go!

Trampas

Thats Quinn Direct for you.

They only look after No1.

With Quinn you get what you pay for.

I wouldn't never ever get insured with Quinn