Need your humble opinion and advise...... Urgent

[storminous]

hi guys..... really need your advise on this.

I received a letter dated 7 May from a well known Motor Insurance stating that i have an outstanding premium for my previous car insurance which i sold off in 2008.

Today I received a lawyer letter from them demanding that I must pay them the outstanding amount within 3 days or legal actions will be taken against me.

I immediately called up the customer service to verify the claim and she claimed that the system showed the same amount billed to me.

My question is, upon canceling my policy in 2008, whatever outstanding amount that I am required to pay should be on the spot and only then I can terminate the policy right? I mean how and I terminate a policy without paying whatever i owe them ( especially with financial associated firms).

Secondly, why only after 2 years then they sent me a letter?? giving me lame excuses that the company is trying to clear the back dated outstandings from their customers.

Please advise.

[Waterbottle]

I thought our insurance policy is u pay yearly n need the policy to renew the rdtax? When we sell car, insurance co will pay us the balance bck to us right?
Why u sell car still need to pay insurance? An insurance co will not insure us unless we pay them first right?

[storminous]

i actually paid the insurance + road tax via giro. I renewed the insurance on somewhere in mar 2008 for that year till mar 2009. Not to forget that i also made 2 months advance payment.

I change to my CL7 in sept 2008. Therefore made a termination on the insurance policy for my previous ride. i was informed that the full giro deduction was also made on sept 08. If I have any outstanding payment, I believe that the company should contact me by any means within that year. And also, what happened to my 2 months advance?

What the customer service lady told me in our conversation earlier, she told me that she also could not understand how the company accumulate to the amount. And shoe only told me i qoute, ".... only in 2009 that the company set up a team to collect back the outstanding amount from our customers who paid via giro."

I mean WTF, almost after 2 years, u should at least sent out a letter with full details and explaining but instead, a sudden O$P$ letter.

[coldspark]

bro, how on earth will "outstanding bill for insurance" happen?
insurance is paid in advance, usually for next year. no insurance, no road tax, thats the way. there will only be cases of encashment when we sell car within the coverage period, and no way to owe them $

[storminous]

precisely bro, i myself are unable to figure out.

fyi, I did call up the legal firm that sent out the letter on the insurance company behalf.

All they can say is that they were instructed to sent out the letter and will take actions against those not willing to pay. I ask them to clarify or at least provide me with details on how this outstanding surface., I'm sure if they are acting on behalf .....they should not be blindly sent out letters to customers without having the full details.

He also 'advise' me that if I dont pay by today, they will take actions, and the fees will be higher to settled. I ask him that if the Insurance Company negligence or poor maintenance of customers policy that resulted in this mess, can I sue them. The best part is, he said, " This is **** Insurance."

I was like , so what if there are owned by government bodies. people makes mistakes and systems have glitches. and they got the cheat to tell me that I owe them certain amount after 2 years.

I will be going down the the main office to seek clarifications today. I will see what they've got to say to me. I think i'm not the only ones facing this problems.

[oyjsyc]

Bro, this is unfortunate. There is no way you can owe the insurance companies any outstanding. If not, the insurance will not take effect in the very first place.

Hope everything goes well for you. No choice then maybe you make payment first, then go to CASE or the LTA (escalate to their investigation team) because it relates to transfer of the vehicle.

I am also trying to resolve some issues with the dealer who bought my car. Been more than 1 month still have not resolved. Madness...

Good luck bro! Cheers!

[Waterbottle]

Call up case n post to straits times n stomp.com to highlight the matter.

Or could it be u sell away yr old car to the car dealer n he somehow maintains the insurance but divert payment to u? Not sure if there is this loop hole.

[storminous]

thanks guys for your feedback and advise.

anyway, just got back from the Co. and here's their explanations.

I paid my road tax and insurance via giro (instalment plan).

Premium charge = $1362.29
Road tax = $763
Admin fee on Road tax = $45.78
Total= $2171.07

In total I've paid for 8 months = $1447.28
So the balance less premium= $513.94 + $209.85 (outstanding amount they claimed I owed them which is equal to the balance from the above total.

They claimed that the amount is due to for the road tax which they paid full to LTA on my behalf. Ok fair enough.

They also printed out the last letter which was issued to me and I qoute, "Dear Policyholder,

We confirm and endorse that this Policy is cancelled with effect from **/09/2008 00:00hr.

The refund due to you is $513.94(inclusive of GST)

This amount will be adjusted against your instalment premium payment.

If you have any queries........ blah...blah blah" and thats it.

No statement or indication stating that i have outstanding amount or they will sent me another letter for any outstanding.


But my questions to them which till now they could not answer is.....

1) Why after almost 2 years only then you sent me a letter of outstanding payment? (could not answer and push to finance side and they will get back to me)

2) They claimed they sent me a letter but could not prove. When ask why the staff did not bother to contact or sent a registered letter from a credit debt collector co. then (like they are doing now and also no answer and will refer to finance.)

3) How can they sent an endorse cancellation of my policy letter before I officially cleared any outstanding payment or refund? (also could not get and answer)

4) If really all this hassle is due to their staff incompetency or negligence, is it right for me to pay the amount + the charge for the credit co. reminder?
Still answer with ....er....er...er..... you still have to pay no matter what.

all these questions could not be answered and wasted my 2.5hrs waiting.

I had enough with this co. and they way they treat their customer... I think they fit thier slogan making a difference......

[ckz]

I believe that when you sold your car, LTA will send you an official letter stating that your car is de-registered to your name or transferred to someone else if you sold to a dealer or someone. You should have that copy with you but in your case if is a 2 year old case you may have thrown it away. Try to attain the letter back from LTA proving you de-registered the car. That is the first you should do, then you should find the insurance agent who do the de-registering for you give him a good slap. This are cases when corporate giant ringing wake up call internally to get back all outstanding debts. Do not wait till the representing lawyer send you a writ of summon, then it will be more paperwork and $$$ lost. Legal firm now also act as debt collectors and in my own opinion they are worst then "AH LONG". Try to establish a case but also in another hand stop any writ of summon at all cost. This is my personal experience because when a writ of summon is filed is very difficult to reverse it until you pay the outstanding payment and some bull shit legal fees. Just my 2 cents worth of advise. Good luck.