Elephant charging me £95 for cancellation of car insurance I didn't have!

[contrabandvr]

Hi All,

 

Hope someone can give me a little advice!

 

Before I start my story, I should say that since September I have not been at my main residence due to a stay in hospital and recovery period at my parents. I have only just returned to my main residence and have discovered the following situation:

 

I used to have car insurance with elephant, which expired at the start of October. They then tried to bill my debit card, which had also expired, for another years insurance. Obviously the payment failed. They did send me 2 letters saying this, but I didn't get them as I was still in hospital. They then proceeded to cancel the insurance they tried to set up for me and bill me £75.94 for a cancellation fee, which has now been forwarded to direct legal & collections and raised to £95.94.

 

Can anyone give me some advice on where I stand on this? In my view, they are charging me for a cancellation for a contract that never existed! How can they charge me a cancellation fee for something that wasn't in existence?

 

I tried phoning elephant today, but their offices closed at 5pm. I will try again tomorrow but would like to know where I stand legally.

 

Thanks,

 

Andy

[unclebulgaria67]

Policy contained an auto renewal clause. The money is due from the renewal date up to the point of cancellation.

 

Suggest that you write to Elephant explaining the situation. They would probably ask that you provide evidence of alternative Insurance, as it is now a legal requirement to have Car Insurance, even if the car is not on the road. If you don't have Car Insurance, you have to SORN with DVLA. If you did the SORN, as you were in Hospital, then send this evidence to Elephant.

[Homer67]

Aside from the excellent information above do not pay a Debt Collecter anything - if you intend to pay and it looks like you have no choice, pay the original amount to Elephant, get a receipt and ignore all attempts by the debt collecter and just advise them to go back to the person who contracted them as you consider the matter resolved or in dispute and nothing to do with them - do some reading on the Debt collection forum to ensure you are armed with the knowledge you need when these parasites start adding endless amounts illegally to your disputed debt.

Edited January 3, 2013 by Homer67
typo