Littlewoods Extra Care Advantage

[fighter]

Hi everyone...

 

Just need a little help with a dilema against Littlewoods and their EXTRACARE Advantage Insurance.

 

I took out my account with Littlewoods in 2001 and to this date have not signed an agreement of any form. I am not in any arrears but for the last few months I have noticed that I have been paying this extracare thingy...I have since checked back further only to notice that it has been on my account since 2002 (duh).

 

I have never ordered anthing more than clothes....so I know I wouldn't need this. I have called this evening to make sure they cancel it and also to ask why they had added in the first place. The guy on the phone told me that this had been placed on my account after a sales call...this I know never happened. He stated that a policy was then sent out to me. I have never received this suprise suprise. He said that they didn't need a signed agreement for this as they are regulated by the fsa. He agreed that he would terminate it with immediate effect and he would refund the last 3 months worth 19.00 approx.

 

Ok sorry to bore you......if I sent in request asking for cca should it show my signature and if not does this mean that they should not have been able to apply XTRA insurance? Can i reclaim all extra care charges added since 2002?

[SCOTTY1871]

Hi

 

I am in the same boat as you.

 

I always assumed that this was a compulsory charge as part of the account agreement.

 

I rang Littlewoods and they told me that it wasn't compulsory and they cancelled it and refunded £70.

 

To be honest i never really noticed it unti recently when it shot up to about £70 a month when i bought a fridge freezer and a 42" LCD TV.

 

I am going to write to the legal department at littlewoods requesting a full refund......i went through all my statements from the past 4 years and i have paid over £1000 on this extra care advantage.

 

I am pretty sure i have been mis-sold this as i never recall signing anything and as a rule i never sign up to payment protection schemes etc when signing credit agreements.

 

If you want to write to them the address is as follows

 

1st Floor

Speke House

Speke

Liverpool

L70 1AB

[surprise]

You don't sign up for this extra care. Apparently they ring you and you agree to this verbally. Claim it back. If they haven't got anything signed challenge it.

Not easy but good luck.

[SCOTTY1871]

Any more advice.....anyone????......Please!!!! :)

[smutley]

Really peed off with Littlewoods at mo - had 3 late payment charges @ £12 a time due to the fact that when paying via internet banking its taking upto 5 days to get to them (mm debatable). But looking at my statements I noticed the Extra Care Advantage, I only have statements going back to March 07 but already adds up to £70. Is there a standard letter anywhere with legal jargon in...... ???

[surprise]

You just need to write a letter challenging this. My aguement would be please provide me with a document where I agreed for you to charge this to my account. If you cannot provide such a document please remove the total amount of £. They may write back and say it was a verbal agreement. In which case your response would be I neither signed for nor did I agree to this insurance and you have 14 days in which to refund in total otherwise you will be obliged to take the matter further to recover the monies.

 

Littlewoods and Studio are very difficult to deal with and I am sure this will go on for what seems forever.

 

good luck

[smutley]

thanks surprise, I sent off a letter this afternoon to the address posted by scotty - more or less said what you suggested - will let you know when I get a reply!

[miss muppet]

I'm in the same boat Smutley, I also rang and cancelled it as the charge is now around £5. per month, the lady wanted to try and talk me around as I said it wouldn't cover me anyhow as I'm self-employed. She disagreed and said that I had had it since 2001 so I said "yes, I know and I shall be doing something about that shortly". My question is would it be better to SAR Littlewoods?

[surprise]

If you need your statements then yes do a SAR. If you have your statements then you can work out your charges from them. Its not easy though with Littlewoods. Also when you SAR Littlewoods they are slow they exceed the 40 days so you need to keep on top of them and remind them of their obligation.

[miss muppet]

Thanks Surprise, got some statements but not all, so will go that route and keep after them!

[mrsc]

Hi all,

I am in the same position regarding the extra care insurance,did any of you receive the policy documents? Mine started in 2005 and ended Jan 2007 (fell behind with payments and was paying NDR until last month when they didn't comply with my CCA I stopped paying them) I only received the policy documents in June 2007 this is what got me thinking why send them now I didn't even know I had this insurance.( I know I should have checked my statements) so I asked them for the proof that I asked for this insurance and just got the reply that I should have read the documents that was sent to me and I could of cancelled it within 30 days if not required.I am in the process of writing to them again I will let you know how I get on.

[miss muppet]

Hi MrsC, did you sign anything when you got the policy documents in June, if not, they'd have a job enforceing that one, and also most of these catalogues don't have CCA's. give em stick:evil:

[cw36]

Hi Everyone, I know that there do not seem to have been any posts on this for awhile but am wondering if anyone has had any luck with Littlewoods - I have just received a letter from them confirming that they have now cancelled the insurance but that they are not offering anything in reimbursement for those payments I have already made. I joined Littlewoods in 1999, they tell me that the insurance was offered over the phone and I have then upgraded on no less than 2 occasions!! I do not recall this at all. They also say that the documents were sent out to me with confirmation that I could cancel within 30 days. Finally they are saying that I can not refer them to the FOS because the policy was sold before 22/12/03 as they were not a member of the Dispute Resolution Service until that date.

any advice? Thankyou!

[surprise]

Littlewoods always try and pull this one with the FOS. Your complaint is current not when they sold the policy. Write and tell them that you will be referring the matter to the FOS for which they will be charged £450.00 and therefore you feel it in their best interest to refund the monies paid by you. Tell them that if they have not responded within 14 days you will be referring the matter to the FOS. Make sure you tell them that the complaint is current and not when the policy was sold.

[cw36]

Many thanks, will try that & post how I get on!

[cw36]

I have had another letter back from Littlewoods basically saying that I agreed/accepted upgrades in the extra care insurance when I placed orders - I am not sure how this was accepted - apparently when I placed a further order in 04/05 I agreed then to upgrade to Extra Advantage +.

They are saying that their advisors follow a sales script and the advisor would have checked through the eligibility for cover, and within my doecuments that were sent out I would have 30 days to cancel. Again they are referring to the fact that the policy was sold before 22/12/03 and as they were not regulated the FOS is unlikely to deal with my complaint. Is this just another fob off??? Any further advice or should I just write to them again and refer complaint to the FOS in any event stating that the complaint is current? Thank you in advance!

[surprise]

Write back and say that as you evidently haven't any signed policy document from me agreeing to this Extra Advantage it is my intention to make a formal complaint to the FOS, don't say this if you don't mean it, and I can confirm that this has been done today.

 

You need to go online on the FOS site, there is a complaint form, you can fill it in on line then print it off. You need to sign it and post it to them with all the correspondence.

 

There is a section when did you become aware of the problem, or something like that, put the date that you first contacted Littlewoods in. Also when explaining the reason for the complaint you need to emphasise that you didn't sign anything for this cover and you didn't verbally agree to it either and as such you want all your money refunded and quote the amount you are claiming.

[lady60]

hi folks,

am in the same boat littlewoods extra care advantage i wrote to them in october saying i wasnt best pleased as they have had £1,469 over 2 years and ive never made a claim.this is disgusting ive not signed anything nor agreed to it over the phone but onty became aware of it last april when i cancelled but didnt know i could claim it back.got letter 14 /november/08 saying i was offered extra care 500 it over the phone in may/2000. plus further update on 23/8/03 to extra care advantage .plus they say was sent a certificate of insurance of which ive never had.

[lady60]

hi folks ,

its me again av just posted letter to foc hope they can help me get my money back.is there anyone out there got there money back from littlewoods extra care advantage insurance ? im interested to know how you got on and how long it took.

[roboticboy]

Is ther any updates on this - I'm due to start mine.

[roboticboy]

Bump....

[sitonloon]

I phoned up Littlewoods Insurance dept and logged a formal complaint, about three consecutive payments of approx £22.00 that they had charged me for extra care insurance. I also sent a couple of follow-up emails complaining bitterly about being wrongly charged the insurance, when I never requested it.

I got a letter about three weeks later, stating that the insurance had been applied correctly, and I was liable for the payments (apparrently).

However, they offered me, as a goodwill gesture to re-imburse the three payments, which totalled approx £66.00. They have now also cancelled the insurance.

Keep pestering them and you will hopefully egt the result you want !!

[roboticboy]

Thanks - got all my ex's info back now:

 

S.A.R for Littlewoods, Great Universal, Empire Stores, Capitol One and Little Personal Fianance credit card.

 

Some came with a copy of the signed agreement.

 

LPF and Empire are fine - nothing on there. Capitol one just has late charges.

 

Great Universal and Littlewoods have loads of PPI and charges. We cancelled the Great Universal PPI and they stopped taking from the next statement. THe same day we cancelled the Littlewoods PPI and the lst 2 statement she has still been charged it. I told her not to re-cancel just yet as it gives more evidence to Littlewoods wrongly applying the PPI to accounts.

 

Total PPI since 2004 of LW and GU - £1600.

Total charges (late) since 2004 of CO, LW and GU - £300.

[Annis]

Wrong place!

Edited January 29, 2011 by Annis
Wrong place

[P123]

Hi I am also in the same situation, as I have been paying for Extra Care Advantage insurance since 2006 and have only just found out.....So as you can imagine, I am not a happy bunny, I rang Littlewoods to complain as I have NEVER agreed to any insurance!!! She said I had added the insurance onto my account in 2006 via phone call???!!! I don't recall any phone call or agreeing to purchase this insurance, as I work full time and wouldn't be interested in it!! The amount I have been paying varies from £4 a month to £25.00 a month, and it adds up to over £616 since the start!!! I have cancelled the insurance off my account and the lady helping with my enquires confirmed that the insurance had been removed off my account and the payments will be stopped. I asked about compensation and back-pay and she replied that she didn't deal with that side of the company and explained that I will now have to wait to get a form to fill out and send back to them before they can look at re-paying me MY money!! I am really not happy about this and WILL be taking it further if I don't receive my money back and an apology!!! I don't understand why they think that they can just go charging people for insurance they never purchased!! The cheek of it. Can I please have any feed back with any luck/bad luck you had while dealing with your complaints, it would be very much appreciated, Thanks.