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.

Dav010

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

Bobeagleburger

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.

Weepsie

It's in the terms that it auto renewal unless you specifically request it it not to. Pita, but always read the small print.

Hefty travel insurance

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?

Bobeagleburger

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