Car Insurance Refund Can anyone help please?

[Flotsamflo]

Hi, My mum is owed a refund from her car insurance company. She has been chasing this money since the beginning of November. After numerous phone calls on her part and numerous 'fob offs' on their part she was told that the refund was paid into her account on 12 November. Mum checked with bank and no refund was paid. She rang the insurance company and asked for the account number that they refunded the money to - it was not my mums account no. They have mums correct account no. as they were quick to take her payment initially from this account. The account they have refunded the money to is not mums account.

The insurance company have basically washed their hands of the matter and told my mum she needs to sort it out with her bank.

My mum is in her 70 's and could do without the stress - I have told her to bring all the details to my house and I will try and sort it out for her.

Does anyone have any advice as to where we stand legally?

Thanks for reading.

Tell her she could issue a small claims against them. She could also make a complaint to the company, and if that fails to resolve it a complaint to (I think) the insurance Ombudsman.

Thank you Collaborate - Mum is checking the procedure with her bank today but I am sure that they will tell her to contact the insurance company. I will be phoning them on Monday but I would like to be armed with my legal rights.

Thank you again for replying.

Forget messing about with the bank. It's the insurance company's problem so ask them for a copy of their complaints procedure then follow it. If they don't resolve it to her satisfaction she'll end up at the insurance ombudsman. They have to have a complaints procedure as the FSA require it.

State clearly that you wish to make a complaint because of financial loss. This makes it a statutory complaint rather than a regular complaint, which means it will be handled within strict FSA (the regulator) guidelines and deadlines. When I worked in insurance statutory complaints handlers were specially trained whereas regular complaints were dealt with by regular staff.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint you can take it to the ombudsman. It's worth bearing in mind that doing this costs you nothing but the insurance company have to pay a fixed charge (used to be £500) regardless of whether there are grounds for complaint. Therefore they try to avoid it escalating to that point.