I saw red this morning!

[gavroche]

I cancelled a direct debit to Rias for my home insurance last may and got a letter this morning charging me £35 for the privilege. Needless to say, I got on the phone right away to argue my case but they won't budge and insist I have to pay it because I did not reply to their letter to confirm the cancellation.
As from now, I will never use Rias again, told them so and will write them a letter to this effect instructing them to never contact me again under the Data Protection Act. If they do so, I will charge them £35 administration fee.
I don't like big firms to think they can do what they want and charge what they like.

 

[cd365]

Don't pay the £35

 

[gavroche]

Don't pay the £35

If I don't pay it, they will pass it on to a debt recovery firm, which will affect my credit rating.

 

[Archie_tect]

I cancelled a direct debit to Rias for my home insurance last may and got a letter this morning charging me £35 for the privilege. Needless to say, I got on the phone right away to argue my case but they won't budge and insist I have to pay it because I did not reply to their letter to confirm the cancellation.

Did you actually receive the original letter, ie was it sent recorded delivery addressed personally to you, and did you sign for it? If not, I don't see how they can claim you'd seen it, and if that's the case write back to confirm that you are formally giving them notice that you cancelled your insurance by phone in May, which they obviously acknowledged as they have since written to you about it, and that you will as a consequence not be paying their charge. If they then still pass it on to a debt recovery company, write to the DR company as soon as they get in touch and explain the circumstances and make sure they record your complaint and challenge to the alleged debt, that will stop the recovery process while they check it out and you won't be charged interest.

 

[Bromptonaut]

If I don't pay it, they will pass it on to a debt recovery firm, which will affect my credit rating.

I'm not sure how much weight would be attached to a debt of this type, do you not have the right to enter a dissenting note on credit rating file?

 

[gavroche]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[cd365]

Call them back tell them you want to dispute the charge with the ombudsman and ask them to give you details of who to write to. If the ombudsman investigates they will charge the company hundreds so they won't want it to go that far for £35

 

[gavroche]

Call them back tell them you want to dispute the charge with the ombudsman and ask them to give you details of who to write to. If the ombudsman investigates they will charge the company hundreds so they won't want it to go that far for £35

 

[colly]

You could send them an invoice for any time spent dealing with this spurious charge. If they don't respond send them another charging them £35 for not responding, and so on.