Life Paid insurance for 7 years on previous home

Hi,

Ok this is a bit of a silly one. My wife and i took out insurance and mortgage with a well known bank on our old house about 12 years ago.
We sold the house seven years ago and wrote to everyone to cancel direct debits (cannot proove this, god knows where documents are).

Now the other day i found a letter from the insurer saying that she owed 8euro and her account was empty and they could not draw down and that they where going to notify our current bank whom we have our new mortgage.

My wife sprung it on me that she had got a call from the bank/insurer saying that she was due to pay this amount, however she then told me that this was money for life insurance on our old property which we sold 7 years ago. The bank/insurer told her it was her fault because she did not cancel the direct debit and anywas they would of paid out.

My problem with this is she also was paying 15euro to the same bank/insurer for our new home, so i doubt they would of paid out on the double.

My wife feels really silly about this and i should of copped it earlier, however i can't stop feeling the bank/insurer where a little dubious here. If they notify each other about 8euro not been paid surely they would of known we sold our house. I think they could of stopped the transfer, on the phone they did not say they knew about the house been sold but that it was her fault for not stopping the transfer.

what do people think.

Kindest Regards
Fred.

Unfortunately they are right. You should have cancelled the old policy if you no longer wanted it.

In the event of a claim they actually would have paid out. Unlike house insurance where the claim would not have been paid twice, you can have multiple life assurance policies. If there was a claim, the insurance company would have been the worst in the world had they cancelled the policy without you telling them.

Even if you had cancelled the direct debit, because life assurance policies are sometimes assigned to lenders, the bank sometimes will not cancel the direct debit if there is another interested party in the policy, in my opinion however they should have told your wife this and advise her to ask the lender to release their assignment.

Without proof that you cancelled the direct debit, there is little you can do to get the money back from the bank. As the insurance company stated, if there had of being a claim they would have paid so you did pay for a service whether you realised it or not.

If it was only a month or two's payment, the life company may have written it off and given you a refund but the fact it went for years, they would argue why you didnt realise it when you got your bank statements.

There isnt a lot you can do except write it down to experience and vow to check your bank statements going forward. Sorry I cant give you advice to the contrary but I dont see you have any choice here but to accept that the money is gone.




www.CheaperLifeAssurance.ie

If both policies were taken out through the same institution and they received commision on both, you should write to the insurance department of the bank and make a case. I have seen many refunds issued in this way over the years.