Anyone else had issues? I pay my Multibike Motorcycle policy in one go so haven’t had an issue, but both my Boat and Car insurance which I pay monthly by direct Debit have gone Tits up in the last few months. Not helped by the Post Office not delivering the letters from my insurance companies for several weeks each time. At the end of last year my Boat Insurance company contacted me to say they were going to cancel my Policy unless I contacted them to set up the Direct Debit and pay the previous months instalment which was outstanding. I’d had the renewal confirmation by post with the usual ‘you don’t need to do anything’ line on it, and have been paying them by Direct Debit for years without renewing or changing anything to do with it. The person I called was helpful, and apologetic, but couldn’t really explain why a new DD needed to be set up from scratch, but did it over the phone quickly and easily. I did of course have to pay two monthly instalments that month. Fast forward to yesterday and I had a letter from my Car insurance company saying they’d been trying to contact my wife with regard to the Direct Debit following renewal early in Feb, and that unless she contacted them the policy would be cancelled, oh and that last month’s instalment was outstanding. I called and was initially told by somebody I sadly couldn’t really understand because of his very strong accent that My wife needed to sign the Direct Debit. I apologised and asked to be put through to somebody with less of an accent and spoke to somebody in the UK. It was explained that their new policy is where a Direct Debit is on a Joint Bank Account they need a signature from all the joint account holders. We had a conversation about that, and the authorisations agreed with my bank, but it was cut short when the lady explained that if it was done by post with actual signatures, all account holders needed to sign, but she could do it with just me over the phone – Now that’s just plain ridiculous! I then asked how they knew my wife's name, the letter had her name on it and they’ve never dealt with her in the past, and also how they had been trying to contact her. The question about how they knew her name wasn’t answered, just ignored several times, but there was an admission that with no telephone number, email address, or actual address allocated to her name they couldn’t try to contact her except through myself. I’m not letting this go until I have an actual explanation as how they know my wife’s name, my belief being it can only have come from my bank, and I’m not sure if they should have told them. I should explain by the way that I have absolutely no problem with Lady Nasher knowing how much Insurance I pay on my various toys.
Just a guess, but if they've got the account number and sort code, they will see the account holders names when they set up the DD payment so then will see the names of both of you on your joint account. Sometimes there's a simple explanation for things......
also with the bank checks these days you need the account name to verify the correct sort code and account number
It will no doubt be a simple explanation, but I'd expect them to try and set up the DD and be told by my bank the info isn't correct. Please resubmit. For the above to be right the insurance guys have sent my details to the bank and the bank have got back to them saying - Sorry we can't set that up because you need to add the other account holder to the application. Oh and her name is - Lady Nasher. I just can't see that happening with GDPR etc. Any anyway, my bank would just accept it in just my name the same as everyone else, it's the insurance company that wants both names, not the bank.
