A bank assurance customer from Co Offaly is very unhappy with the way the company failed to carry out instructions to cancel three term life assurance policies.
Mr O'R's three life policies, which he took out a few years ago had been assigned to cover the mortgage protection insurance on his house loan, but two years ago he decided to replace them with cheaper policies from Norwich Union. He wrote to the bank assurer requesting they be cancelled. Although he did not realise it at the time, nothing happened and it was only last September (some 18 months later) that his broker discovered that the original policies were still in force. Again, Mr O'R wrote to the company in September and December requesting that the original policies be cancelled and the mortgage protection be reassigned. When still nothing happened, "I was forced to cancel all my direct debits on my current account to ensure termination of these policies and contacted the bank assurer requesting refund of direct debits taken from my account since March 1996 when I first requested that they should be cancelled.
"Two of my policies have since been cancelled and they are offering to refund the premiums paid from December 1997 on the last policy only."
The total amount involved since March 1996 is about £1,300.
Cancelling term life assurance policies is a simple process under usual circumstances a written instruction is received and the customer's bank is informed to stop collecting the premiums.
In this case, wires definitely crossed when the first instruction to cancel (a copy of which we possess) was sent without reference to the new Norwich policies which were to replace them and cover the mortgage protection insurance assignment.
After that, Mr O'R's instructions were fairly clear and the original assurer should have switched the assignment of the life plans over the new insurer, but this was not done.
Financial advisers we have spoken to believe that if Mr O'R is confident that his paperwork holds up, he should take his case for a full refund, first to original company's complaints department and if it isn't rectified there, to the Office of the Insurance Ombudsman, tel: (01) 6620899.
