According to Tesco, and a quick Google search, having insurance cancelled by the provider makes it very expensive and hard to obtain insurance in the future.

Hi all, I'm not sure if this is in the right section or whether it should be in the motoring section. I had a car insurance policy with Tesco Bank but my vehicle had to be scrapped in June due to being uneconomical to repair following a breakdown. I wrote to Tesco on 14th June to cancel my policy and I cancelled my direct debit on 16th June. The first I heard back from Tesco was a letter from them dated 28th June in which they informed me that there was a problem with my direct debit and they said I needed to pay the outstanding balance or my policy would be affected. I wrote to them again on 3rd July and informed them that I had written to them on 14th June to cancel my policy and that I then cancelled my direct debit on 16th June. I received a reply dated 24th July once again saying that there is a problem with my direct debit but this time the letter stated that if I did not clear the outstanding balance, then they would cancel my insurance which would then make it hard for me to obtain car insurance in the future. I yet again wrote to them on 25th July but this time sent my letter recorded delivery. Surprise, surprise this time they finally acknowledged that they had received my letter but they deny that I have written to them previously. They also say that they have now cancelled my insurance policy and that this will now make it difficult for me to obtain insurance in the future. How can they cancel a policy that I cancelled myself 2 months ago?! To add insult to injury, they now want over £90 to cover the period between June and August for which they claim my cover was still active because they supposedly didn't receive my two previous letters! This has left me fuming! They have completely ruined the chance of me ever being able to get a car again due their incompetence! I have been biking it to work whilst it is warm and trying to look for another car but now, because they have cancelled my insurance, I won't be able to obtain cover in the future which means I am not going to be able to get to work and back through winter! Apologies for the long post but I wanted to put in as much detail as possible. Is there anything I can do about this?

Thanks for this. I will do as you suggest and ring the local office again and ask for clarification from a manager. They've even used my old married name on the letter. I haven't had that name for 2 years and I changed it with the DWP immediately when I got divorced. I'm starting to believe that this might be an automatic letter based on an out-of-date record, maybe. The exact wording is: "Do I need to come to the interview? Yes, you must take part in the interview, unless you have a good reason not to. If you don't take part in the interview, your benefit could be affected." Wanton, that is shocking! I hope you managed to sort things in the end.

Double post, sorry.

I will do that now. Thanks very much for your help, as always.

I sent your letter off and I have not heard a thing back from DW. I have however had an email from Arc yesterday telling me to contact them ASAP and now today I have had a letter from Major & Co solicitors telling me they have prepared a county court claim and if I don't contact Arc in 2 weeks to make payment they will be issuing the claim. I'm fuming with DW over this and don't know what to do next. Any ideas? The thing I don't get is the solicitors letter tells me I need to contact Arc...surely if it is now with the solicitors then it should be them I correspond with? Is this just a bluff to get me to pay up?

Hi Slick, Sorry for the delay, I have been trying to get all of the information together that you requested. 1) My DD was normally taken on or after 22nd of each month 2) I initially spoke to the gym staff at the beginning of December and I was told I was not allowed to cancel my membership and I had to upgrade it in order to switch gyms 3) My letter was dated 30th December 2013 and it was signed for as received on 31st December 2013. The gym have acknowledged on numerous occasions that they received the letter on this date. I sent the letter by RM recorded and have proof that it was received. What is it you need a copy of? My original letter cancelling my membership or the gym manager's reply to me? Thanks for all of your help. In appreciation, I will be making a donation to the site when I am able to do so at the end of the week.

I sent the letter recorded delivery and it was signed for as delivered. I have today received a long and rambling email from the club manager saying: 1) In order to cancel my membership, I should have hand delivered my letter. As I sent my request to cancel my membership by recorded mail then they do not acknowledge receipt of the letter and do not accept my request to cancel my membership. 2) The terms and conditions on their website are irrelevant as only the terms on the contract matter. She then went on to quote the terms and conditions on their website, which is rather contradictory. 3) The gym will charge a fee of £25 to cancel my membership, which hasn't been paid. This is after her saying they have refused my request to cancel my membership, so why are they chasing me for a £25 admin fee to cancel my membership if they are refusing to cancel my membership? Further, ARC Europe are claiming that the admin fee is £15. 4) She ended by saying that I should only correspond with ARC and they will continue contacting me until I pay what I owe I'm even more confused now. ARC were chasing me for one month plus a £15 admin fee. DW are now saying they never accepted my request to cancel my membership so why are ARC telling me that they did accept my request to cancel my membership? Not sure where to go from here.

Hi, No, I have not received any reply from DW whatsoever and Arc says that I cannot contact DW any more as they now have full authorisation to deal with this matter. According to them, I have 9 more days to pay or they will initiate legal proceedings. In their last email to me they also say that "any reply to this email will not be read and will be deleted". So basically they just want paying and will not talk to me any more on this matter. One interesting thing I did notice whilst reading the DW's terms and conditions is that they say for you to cancel due to a house move, all you have to do is provide notice "at any time". No mention is made of what length any notice period that needs to be given has to be and no mention is made of having to pay a months membership fees.

Hi Slick, I am very sorry for my late reply, I did not receive any email notification like I normally do. Things have moved forward now and I am being pursued by ARC Europe Ltd for 'outstanding payments'. I have emailed them and told them that this account is being disputed with DW and asked them to pass the account back to them as I was corresponding with them on this matter. I also stated that no outstanding money is owed but they have simply replied saying that DW has said I owe the money therefore no dispute is acknowledged and if I don't pay within 10 days then they will be issuing legal proceedings. Can you advise where I go from here?

I took your advice and read the terms of my contract fully and they stated that I could indeed cancel my membership if I move house to a distance of more than 10 miles of a DW gym that I am able to use. As I am moving 80 miles and my membership is restricted to the DW gym here in Mansfield, I wrote to DW cancelling my membership under this section of the contract. They completely ignored my letter but they are now sending me several text messages a day threatening me with 'Further action' if I do not settle my account with them. I telephoned them and was unfortunate enough to speak to some snotty woman who said I can't cancel my membership under any circumstances and that I am now liable for the entire 10 months remaining on my contract which works out at £240! I informed her of the section of the terms and conditions on their own website which states that I can cancel my contract 'At any time' due to the above circumstances but she just threatened me with debt collectors and hung up. Any further advice about what my next move should be? They are phoning me, texting me and emailing me constantly threatening me with further action and no matter what I say it just seems to fall on deaf ears.

Thanks for the reply. I did telephone them and they were extremely snotty and said it was my own fault for going over my limit. I explained that my spending ended at £491 and that it was their interest that took me over the limit but he just said it was tough, basically.

Just a quick question: I have a Cap One card with a spending limit of £500. I have never, ever missed a monthly payment and I have never gone over my limit before. With Christmas shopping my balance on the card had reached £491 which I then planned to pay off throughout the year. Unfortunately, Cap One then added their monthly interest charge and this took my limit to £503. Because they said I had now gone over my limit they then charged me a further £12. Surely they can't charge me for THEIR monthly interest taking me over my limit, can they?

Thank you both for your comments and advice I will write to DW and do as you suggest. I think I will definitely be shopping about more for a gym once I have moved. The DW is the only half decent gym around here so I was limited in choice, unfortunately. I will dig out the contract, also, and have a good read of that. Thanks again both of you for your help, I will let you know how I get on.

I wondered if anyone can offer me a bit of advice regarding my membership of my local DW gym. I am moving 80 miles across the country in the next few weeks and I enquired at my current gym about transferring my membership to a DW gym in the town I am moving to. The girl behind the counter said that as my membership is the lower £24 per month subscription, it only entitles me to membership at one gym and in order to transfer my membership to another DW gym I would have to upgrade to their £28 per month contract. I know it is only £4 per month but I begrudge having to pay extra every month just to transfer to another gym owned by the same company! I asked if once I had upgraded my subscription to the higher one and then transferred to the other gym could I then reduce the subscription back to the £24 level. She said no as memberships can only be modified upwards and not downwards. Surely a contract that can only ever be modified in favour of one party is an unfair contract? She said if I didn't upgrade then I would have to pay the remaining 10 months on the contract anyway in addition to any charges should I try to cancel the contract. Is there anything I can do about this or am I going to have to just suck it up and pay the extra? Thanks in advance guys