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Started By
Message
I need some advice concerning a billing I believe to be improper...
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:08 pm
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:08 pm
My wife has been using a certain car insurance company for a few years. We got married this year and switched everything over to a joint checking account. We also went ahead and switched the auto-draft for her car insurance to this account. We verified the numbers 2 or 3 times and I'm 100% positive they had the right account numbers. I watch our bank account like a hawk so I quickly discovered the payments for her insurance weren't being drafted from my account. After making this discovery we went by their office to clear it up and make sure they had the right information. They took our information again but assured us everything was running correctly and not to worry. We went ahead and switched our payment from auto-draft to credit card anyway because I thought this was highly suspicious. They thought that was strange and said we weren't behind in our payments and everything was running correctly. From that point forward I had been manually paying her car insurance through their website.
Last week we decided to switch my wife onto my insurance. We had been in talks with both insurance companies to see which one would give us the better deal and discovered that mine had cheaper and better coverage. My wife informed her agent that she would be cancelling her coverage last Thursday or Friday. On Saturday we received a "Cancellation Invoice" stating my wife is seriously past due on her account and they would be cancelling her policy (I thought we just told them WE were cancelling the policy). After finally talking to someone today it seems they are claiming we owe for 2 past months of insurance they previously told us we paid. Not only had we gone by their office but we have also gotten monthly billing statements showing a $0 balance for the prior months. This really seems like a strong-arm tactic to keep us with them.
I handle most of the collection calls and vendor discrepancies at work and I've never run across a situation like this. Typically I call vendors about situations such as these and they then realize their error and issue a credit for the invoice. This is not the case in this instance. I have called their national and local offices and it seems they're not budging.
I'm hoping someone on this board will be able to explain to me how I need to proceed. It's not a large amount they're claiming she owes but I don't feel obligated to pay for their error at this late stage after having tried to rectify this issue months ago. I don't want these charges to affect my wife's credit but I also don't feel like these are legitimate charges we should pay since they told us multiple times everything was paid up and we had nothing to worry about. Is there anything I can do? Has anyone else been in such a situation?
Last week we decided to switch my wife onto my insurance. We had been in talks with both insurance companies to see which one would give us the better deal and discovered that mine had cheaper and better coverage. My wife informed her agent that she would be cancelling her coverage last Thursday or Friday. On Saturday we received a "Cancellation Invoice" stating my wife is seriously past due on her account and they would be cancelling her policy (I thought we just told them WE were cancelling the policy). After finally talking to someone today it seems they are claiming we owe for 2 past months of insurance they previously told us we paid. Not only had we gone by their office but we have also gotten monthly billing statements showing a $0 balance for the prior months. This really seems like a strong-arm tactic to keep us with them.
I handle most of the collection calls and vendor discrepancies at work and I've never run across a situation like this. Typically I call vendors about situations such as these and they then realize their error and issue a credit for the invoice. This is not the case in this instance. I have called their national and local offices and it seems they're not budging.
I'm hoping someone on this board will be able to explain to me how I need to proceed. It's not a large amount they're claiming she owes but I don't feel obligated to pay for their error at this late stage after having tried to rectify this issue months ago. I don't want these charges to affect my wife's credit but I also don't feel like these are legitimate charges we should pay since they told us multiple times everything was paid up and we had nothing to worry about. Is there anything I can do? Has anyone else been in such a situation?
This post was edited on 7/29/13 at 1:10 pm
1
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:16 pm to imjustafatkid
quote:
After finally talking to someone today it seems they are claiming we owe for 2 past months of insurance they previously told us we paid
Does your or your wife's bank account (or credit card) reflect the insurance company drafted or charged your account?
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:26 pm to LSURussian
quote:
Does your or your wife's bank account (or credit card) reflect the insurance company drafted or charged your account?
We no longer have access to her old bank account so I'm not sure what it shows. They never drafted anything from our joint account but when we went by to ask them about that they told us everything was current and not to worry about it. I do show the credit card payments since we turned off the auto-drafts and I also have the billing statements showing a $0 balance for each of the months in question.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:35 pm to imjustafatkid
To help me understand:
1) You have statements from your insurance company showing zero balance due for the two months they now say you didn't pay?
2) And you have a credit card statement showing the insurance company charged a payment(s) against your CC?
3) You have no way of getting a statement of your wife's old bank account from her bank but you know they didn't charge that account anyway so that is not relevant?
1) You have statements from your insurance company showing zero balance due for the two months they now say you didn't pay?
2) And you have a credit card statement showing the insurance company charged a payment(s) against your CC?
3) You have no way of getting a statement of your wife's old bank account from her bank but you know they didn't charge that account anyway so that is not relevant?
This post was edited on 7/29/13 at 1:41 pm
Posted on 7/29/13 at 1:50 pm to LSURussian
quote:
1) You have statements from your insurance company showing zero balance due for the two months they now say you didn't pay?
Yes.
quote:
2) And you have a credit card statement showing the insurance company charged a payment(s) against your CC?
Yes, but not for the months they claim weren't paid. The charge on my card is in May for May coverage and they are claiming March and April weren't paid even though I have statements showing $0 balances for those months. It doesn't make sense to me.
quote:
3) You have no way of getting a statement of your wife's old bank account from her bank but you know they didn't charge that account anyway so that is not relevant?
There should have been no reason for them to charge her old bank account. The account was closed before the period of time in question. I'll try to get a statement from them.
**edited to change "during" to "before" in the last paragraph
This post was edited on 7/29/13 at 2:02 pm
Posted on 7/29/13 at 2:16 pm to imjustafatkid
If they are billing you now for March and April and if you know you didn't pay for March and April and you can't produce a bank statement showing it was drafted for those months or you can't produce a credit card statement showing they charged you for those months, then it doesn't matter what they "told" you, you owe for those months.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 2:17 pm to LSURussian
Maybe so. I just think it's odd they decide to realize I was right that they weren't charging now that we've decided to cancel. I guess I'll just make it a point not to use them again.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 2:22 pm to imjustafatkid
quote:Your cancellation notice to them probably triggered a review of your account to see if there were any outstanding claims or payments due and they discovered the past due balance.
I just think it's odd they decide to realize I was right that they weren't charging now that we've decided to cancel.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 4:27 pm to LSURussian
Right. It seems like he owes them to me and just because they said he was good, he thinks that's a get out of jail free card.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 4:35 pm to Broke
quote:
Right. It seems like he owes them to me and just because they said he was good, he thinks that's a get out of jail free card.
That's not it. I just think they should have looked into it further when we first brought it up. Ignoring what I told them didn't make it my fault.
This post was edited on 7/29/13 at 4:49 pm
Posted on 7/29/13 at 4:36 pm to imjustafatkid
Our office would have written off the low amount they're asking for because $300 isn't worth definitely losing future business.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 5:31 pm to imjustafatkid
quote:There is no one saying it is your fault. It simply comes down to did you pay or not?
Ignoring what I told them didn't make it my fault.
If not, you owe. If you did pay, you don't owe the money.
It sounds like you know you had not paid but they thought you had, until now. They made a mistake....that they are now correcting. They probably would have caught it and sent you a past due notice even if you were not firing them. It may have taken a few more months, but they would likely have billed you for the past due months at some point anyway.
Just because they verbally communicated that you didn't owe anything doesn't absolve you of your payment obligation.
Like you said, just let them know you are gone forever since they can't keep their billing straight. As the Cajuns say, you can get some 'satisfy' from that......
This post was edited on 7/29/13 at 5:49 pm
Posted on 7/29/13 at 5:42 pm to LSURussian
quote:
LSURussian
You convinced me to pay it so I did. Still doesn't feel right but it is what it is.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 6:03 pm to imjustafatkid
I know it's annoying but you did the right thing. If you hadn't paid they would have put it on your record and since you're in the business, you know what that would have meant for years to come.
Posted on 7/29/13 at 9:35 pm to LSURussian
You can definitely get old acct statements from the bank. I have done it before and it takes some time on their part, but you can certainly get them.
You might have to pay a small administrative fee ($5-10 for each statements) from what I remember.
You might have to pay a small administrative fee ($5-10 for each statements) from what I remember.
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