To be livid Admiral taking unauthorised payments from DD's bank account

[Fadingmemory]

(I know I'm not but need the traffic) DD is 20. She has no car. She has never contacted Admiral for any reason to enquire about or arrange any form of insurance. Two months ago the company removed $200 (pounds) from her bank account for no reason, completely unauthorised. With bank help the money was returned.

This morning another $200 has been removed by Admiral, unauthorised, from her account. She is again asking for help from the bank. What else can she do to ensure this does not happen again? I know she can complain direct to the Chairman and report the company to the FSA.

How does this happen? She did have driving lessons but failed her test. She was on my insurance but I do not and never have insured with Admiral.

A friend has had this happen to him. It turned out not to be Admiral Insurance, but another company fraudulently setting up a direct debit in their name.

Sounds more like fraud - she needs to call the bank ASAP.

Sounds like this isnt admiral but a company using the name. Get the bank to change the card and notify them of this fraud.

Her bank will sort it out, but they will have to investigate first. In the meantime, it would be worth her considering moving the majority of her balance to another account (or to you in an emergency) in case this is just a test run, and the next withdrawal empties it. Whilst the bank will sort it out quickly, it's pretty traumatic to suddenly have absolutely no money.

It's fraud. She needs to phone her bank right now.

Contact Admiral - if a phony Admiral company has been set up, they value their brand and will get it shut down.

If it is Admiral, contact them - and do it by way of 'complaint'. They then have prescribed timescales to reply and deal with the complaint.

If it is Admiral and not resolved, complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, not the FSA / FCA - as it's the Financial Ombudsman that deals with consumer complaints, not the FSA / FCA.

And, yes, do all the bank stuff other posters have suggested

Funnily enough, there is an article on direct debit fraud in the Evening Standard today -

www.standard.co.uk/news/banks-in-direct-debit-fraud-alert-6968348.html

This happened to my parents about a year ago and it was somebody who set themselves up as Admiral Italy. Their bank had the money back within 24 hours.

When you say 'taken out' are you talking direct debit or card payment?

DD can be recalled immediately (or an indemnity processed) and a block placed on the originator details.

If it's a card payment it's a bit more difficult to get it back as there are investigations to be made as they will check whether chip & PIN has been used etc. I would expect that as this has happened before though the bank would be pretty on the mark with refunding the money.

If it was a card payment, then it's likely the details were taken from a website or something like that. A cloned card looks different when the transactions are made. Has she signed up for anything like weight loss tablets, pay day loans?

Not saying this is her fault at all btw, it's just that a lot of companies will take money from an account as the person applying for has not read the T&C which state that x will be taken 2 weeks later.

A bank can cancel a continuous payment authority from a company , so in effect stop one particular company form taking payments from your account without cancelling down your card altogether.

That's assuming it is a card payment though? If it's a direct debit then they can do an indemnity to get the funds back.

The problem is when you willingly give your details to a company, and it does turn out to be a scam the bank can't really treat it as fraud, although they can raise it as a dispute to get the money back that way.

Hopefully you can get it sorted OP