Health Insurance Opinions please on my policy being cancelled with VHI by someone else?

G

gsecoo

Registered User
Messages
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Hi All,

I received a letter in the post yesterday from VHI which was a surprise as I had signed up for paperless communication a couple of years ago. The letter was to confirm that my policy had been cancelled since the 04/12/2024. I called them immediately and they told me that I made a call on the 16/01/2025 to cancel my policy which wasn't the case as I had not contacted them since I received my renewal in November. They have refunded me my monthly premiums from December and January. The customer service agent called me back last evening to explain there was a mistake made that my policy was cancelled after a call on the 16/01 which was not from myself. They asked me to keep aside the refund of the December and January direct debit payments that have been made to me which total to nearly €300.

The customer service agent asked if my ex partner who hasn't been on my policy since 2020 may have cancelled the policy. This question made me a bit weary that somehow they were able to cancel my policy when maybe cancelling their own? I have asked for a transcript of the call from the 16/01 when the policy was cancelled. Is it likely they will share this?

I don't know if I am being a bit OTT with being annoyed about this. Tbh, I sometimes go weeks without checking the post at my apartment as I don't typically receive any post as most things these days are digital. My concern was that if I had booked in for a procedure or scan etc that I wouldn't have had active cover.

If they were able to cancel the policy dating back to 04/12/2024 and refunded two months of direct debit payments should I have to return this? If I just start a new policy now then I will be within the 13 week period of the last policy? And therefore shouldn't have any impact on waiting periods etc?

Thanks
 
VHI messed up.

It's all on them.

'We made a mistake but we still want you to pay for all the hassle we've caused."

It'll happen again to someone else unless they have to put their hand in their pocket to remedy it. Log a formal complaint of they start giving you the runaround.
 
GSheehy said:
VHI messed up.

It's all on them.

'We made a mistake but we still want you to pay for all the hassle we've caused."

It'll happen again to someone else unless they have to put their hand in their pocket to remedy it. Log a formal complaint of they start giving you the runaround.
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Thank you, I wasn't sure if I was being a bit dramatic but this is my line of thinking too!
 
Assuming they have the transcript, you could raise a data access request in which case they are legally obliged to hand over a copy of all records and data they have on you (there are some exceptions).
You're correct to raise the question on waiting periods

I'd also ask them for a copy of their customer complaints process and an address to formally complain to.
 
Hang on a second.

Everyone who has not made a mistake, please put your hand up now!

You have not lost out.
Your cover continues as you wanted it.
Pay them back the money they refunded you.

It is hard to do business in Ireland with all the regulation and people asking for expensive Data Access Requests to be done for the slightest thing.

Brendan
 
DannyBoyD said:
VHI accepted an instruction from a person who was not the policy holder or their appointed agent?
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That is what he said. Yes, VHI made a mistake and corrected it.

I have made mistakes and always tried to correct them when I realised it.

What do we want. The government to appoint a Tribunal of Enquiry?
 
If it was me I'd tell them, thanks, the policy was cancelled on 4th December 2024 so I'll keep the refund and take out a new policy starting next week. Since the break in cover was less than 13 weeks you won't have to serve any waiting periods again with them or any other insurer. You didn't have any medical emergency during the intervening period so that's moot and I would just forget about it.
 
But the point here is that if @gseco had a claim since 4 December he would have denied that he had cancelled the policy.
They would have looked back and they would have seen that they had made a mistake.
And they would have paid out.

So the policy was not validly cancelled.
He should pay the premium.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
VHI made a mistake and corrected it
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However, there's a bigger issue here in regards to process; it's doesn't just concern one person's policy.

It shouldn't be possible to have anyone change / update or issue instructions for a service / product that does not belong to you; that's the whole point of security questions etc.,

100% this needs to be escalated; there was a failure of process.
 
gsecoo said:
I made a call on the 16/01/2025 to cancel my policy which wasn't the case as I had not contacted them since I received my renewal in November.
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Just thinking about this and wondering in light of VHI's policy of not cancelling policies mid-year and certainly not allowing rebates how this scenario was possible at all? It was well outside the 14 day cooling off period also.

I used to deal with a group scheme in work and back then no cancellations were allowed mid-year unless someone was moving their policy to another group scheme or arranging a new non-group stand alone plan and that would appear to be much the same now.

Can I cancel my policy?​

You can cancel your policy at your renewal date, by calling us on 056 444 4444.
If you would like to cancel your cover outside of renewal time, you can call us on the number above to discuss.
12 month contract
All policies are 12 month contracts and contracts and we may seek to recover the losses and expenses incurred by us, if you breach your contract mid-year. This will not apply if you plan on travelling overseas for more than six months, cancel your Vhi healthcare plan and replace it with Vhi International.
 
I had a data protection issue with VHI in 2010. As a child I was included on my parents' policy. I then started a new policy for myself and a few years later I got a letter from them regarding treatments that one of my parents had received, these were applied to my policy.

I always had my policy at a different address to my parents. My parents never had details of my new policy and I had never been seen in the establishment where the treatment was claimed for so the error was fully on the part of the VHI.

VHI explained that they had to link the two policies in order to see my previous claims history and didn't think it worthwhile to transfer my history to my own policy and separate the policies. When the claim was received both policies were open and it was applied to the wrong person and policy. They apologised for the error but didn't really seem to think it was an issue or that they needed to take any steps to change their systems to prevent it from happening again. The Data Protection Commissioner supported them when I escalated the complaint.

So I'm not surprised to hear the OP's experience 15 years later.
 
The reverse happened to me with the VHI. I rang VHI in November 2023 to cancel my policy. You have to wade through a string of security questions in order to do so. I rang them about two weeks later to ensure that the policy was cancelled and they would not be taking payments from my salary in 2024. The operator confirmed that was the case.

At the start of 2024 I checked my payslip and VHI is being deducted. I ring them and they say that my policy isn't cancelled. So I ask for it to be cancelled and was told that it can take up to 8 weeks to cancel the deductions. Eight weeks. I rang the NSSO and they stopped the deductions straight away. VHI owed me about €100 so I contacted them again to see about the refund. They say that it can take weeks to issue the refund and it has to be by check. I ask them to send it electronically as they had taken the funds electronically but they refused to do so. Keep in mind that they already have my bank details for claims processing.

A few days later my elderly father rings me to say that he got a letter from VHI to say that his VHI is cancelled. I have to ring the VHI on his behalf to say that he didn't cancel the policy. They say that he called at the end of November 2023 to cancel. I then understand what has happened. Despite the fact that I had to pass all of the security questions i.e. enter my policy number, give my address, date of birth, name, etc. I still managed to cancel my father's policy. He lives on the other side of the country and doesn't have a similar name to me - his surname is in Irish and mine is in English and they are completely different.

I assume what is happening is that whichever operator receives the cancellation request has to email another division of VHI who actually does the cancelling. Instead of sending the policy number the receiving VHI division has to guess which policy is being cancelled.

Four months later I receive the check by post and I send it back to them and ask for the funds to be transferred electronically. Two months later I receive the funds electronically.

I didn't raise a complaint with the VHI as it would have served no purpose.
 
Sue Ellen said:
That was disgraceful service and if companies are not taken to task this type of stuff will continue. I would certainly let my feelings be known to them.
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In this case it continues even when they are taken to task. But I would agree with you.
 
The bit that really got to me was that they would continue to deduct fees from my salary for up to eight weeks after my renewal date. That just seems like anti-competitive behaviour.

This is the response I got from them by email at the time.

Thank you for contacting Vhi Healthcare.

I wish to advise that once a policy that was part of a salary deduction group scheme we would not have access to view deductions that have been taken from payroll. Due to this we would not have access to view any overpayment that would have been made since the policy has been cancelled.

Please note that once a policy has been cancelled it can take 6 to 8 weeks for deductions to cease. Once the payment is then received from the group scheme Vhi will then issue any overpayment made on the policy via cheque to the address held for you on file.

Unfortunately, we would not be able to issue any overpayment by bank transfer as our system will automatically issue any refund due by cheque. I do apologise for any inconvenience or frustration that may have been caused and we thank you for your continued patience at this time.
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So to recap - if you are in a group scheme and switch from VHI to a competitor you will probably be paying both health insurance companies for 8 weeks and have to wait months to get back the VHI fees.

There is obviously some overhead when part of a group scheme i.e. VHI must receive the funds after a delay so they are covering themselves.
 
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