House insurance premium refund farce with BOI

  • Thread starter fatherdougalmaguire
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fatherdougalmaguire

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Well well well.

We got the renewal thing in the post during January and switched from BOI to Glennon Insurance (saving about €180 in the process). I guess BOI assumed that we'd be sticking with them as they still went in a nabbed the next premium. No great problem, they said they'd send us out a refundcheque by way of a cheque.

We got the cheque this morning and it's made out to the two of us and crossed (A/C payee only). My wife presented the cheque to our BOI branch this morning as an express lodgement. The express lodger just rang to say that she can only lodge it to a joint account - which we don't have. So I thought I'd ring BOI Insurance (a completely separate entity as far as lodger was concerned) and ask them to re-issue the cheque under my name. No dice. They make it out to whoever's name/names is/are on the policy (i.e. the two of us) and there was no way that they could simply reverse the direct debit. She suggested that my wife signs the back of it and there should be no problem. Back on to the BOI branch to run that one by her. Still no dice. It's crossed and that's that. It will only get lodged into a joint account which means we've to open a new account. I asked if we'd be hit with charges for opening, lodging, transferring and closing the account. She wasn't sure. She said I could just add my wife's name to my account which involves pretty much the same paper-work as opening a new account.

Anybody got any tips aside from moving my business away from BOI?
 
Move to another bank

You seem to have no joy from BOI
If they push you to opening a new account then open it elsewhere and close your account with them.
Make this known to them before you move and see what happens
 
Re: Move to another bank

That's the thing. The lodger didn't explicitly say that I would have to open another account. She just said that it could only be lodged to a joint account in both our names. She also casually said something like it's a lot of hassle to go through for such a small about of money. I told her that that was a relative statement. I should have asked her to give me the €45 out of her own pocket since she felt it was such a small amount of money.
 
Re: Move to another bank

Thats a farce. Why cannot they just accomodate their customers (ex-customers!) and reissue the cheque in the sole name on the joint written instruction of both parties? I used to work for an insurance company, this was quite a common problem, they would just reissue in sole name only on written advices of both parties involved and return of original cheque. Maybe you should shout some more.
 
Re: Move to another bank

Thanks ISBN. I'll try BOI Insurance again tomorrow as my truck is really with them. I guess the branch drone is just doing her job.
 
Re: Move to another bank

If she's telling you that there's "no way that they could simply reverse the direct debit" then she's not just doing her job (unless she's been instructed by her manager to tell big pork pies...)

Yes, shout about it some more, preferably in writing. Both to BoI Insurance and to BoI Customer services (with a CC to your branch).

I don't know what the sum involved is - presumably quite small(?) But ask yourself what BoI would charge you if you went overdrawn by this amount, or missed clearing a credit card payment because of a similar funds shortfall.

[Yes, I do 'hate' BoI. And yes, I do still have accounts with them. And yes, they do treat you with more respect when you kick up a stink over this kind of thing... :D ]
 
Re: Move to another bank

Thanks Dr. M. It was the lady in BOI Insurance who said that it would have to go through head office to reverse the DD or get a cheque re-issued. I can't imagine why it would be any great inconvenience to them. It must be a common enough request. I'll at least put something in writing to the customer services/insurance people that they might consider giving the customer the option but I guess I'll just get a computer-generated automatic response saying that they're just abiding by some law somewhere.
 
Re: Move to another bank

Did you cancel the original BoI Insurance direct debit? If so, I reckon you've a gripe with the BoI as well. Don't banks have a code of practice that if they make a mistake with direct debits they'll (BoI) sort it out? Afterall, BoI let someone take money out of your account without authorisation.

In any event, it's a bit cheeky for BoI insurance to send you a cheque with is a more expensive transaction than a direct debit. I know it's only cents but it all adds up!
 
Re: Move to another bank

I had received a renewal notice from BOI Ins. and went around getting quotes. I then settled for another company and proceeded to switch to them. In the process (before my year was up with BOI Ins) BOI went and took the next premium out even though I had gone with someone else. I hadn't cancelled the DD but now that you mention it, it's something I should do.
 
Re: Move to another bank

another gripe about BOI ins, I have a rental property insured with them since Nov and am still waiting for the policy to be issued, I have phoned 8 times they tell me it is going out in post but never arrives, they admit they received my cheque and house is insured but I would be happier to have documents to read, any ideas of my next move- I got the quote and application form no problems
 
Re: Move to another bank

Ring them up & tell them you're staying on the line until the policy starts coming out of your fax machine.
 
Re: Move to another bank

Well we jumped up and down, we stamped our feet. I even got wifey on to them. BOI Insurance say that there's absolutely no way they will issue the cheque in such a way that it can be lodged to either my wife's or my account and they wouldn't cover any fees for opening/closing a joint account for the purposes of lodging the cheque. It seems that BOI Insurance just don't give a rat's ass about their customers. I'm glad we switched.

Next step is to write to our local bank manager and inform him of the situation so that he might accomodate us somehow. If he isn't forthcoming with any solution we'll be at least moving our day to day banking from BOI and may consider doing the same with our other business.
 
Re: Move to another bank

Thats incredible, I still cannot believe that they cannot reissue the cheque in one name and cancel previous cheque.... As you mentioned, they obviously don't care about looking after their customers
 
Re: Move to another bank

Together with their response when we had a quote from another provider makes me think the same.

There has been a development though. Wifey was just on and said that she had been contacted by BOI Insurance to say that they have consulted with their legal department and they can facilitate our request. How nice of them.
 
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