Direct Line - how daft can you get?

[Ozzie Osmond]

Insurance renewal time - refuse to accept cheques - card payments only.

In the event of a claim the £250 excess is payable to the repairer ..... by cheque. Or 2.5% surcharge to pay by card.

Go figure!

[hornetrider]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Insurance renewal time - refuse to accept cheques - card payments only.

In the event of a claim the £250 excess is payable to the repairer ..... by cheque. Or 2.5% surcharge to pay by card.

Go figure!

Sounds crazy. Although - is that surcharge for a credit card? How about debit?

[Noger]

Why is cost reduction crazy ?

Direct Line are part of RBS, so have a "free" card payment system. Cheque processing costs a lot of extra admin staff. They are not the first insurer to refuse cheques.

The repairer probably has to pay merchant fees on credit card transactions, so they are reducing costs that way.

[roachcoach]

Cheques are on limited time anwyay.

[eybic]

Agreed, not many places accept cheques now. With the ease of paying with cards (debit and credit) I don't see a need for them now.

[HellDiver]

roachcoach said:

Cheques are on limited time anwyay.

Yep, got a letter from my bank (a subsiduary of RBS) last week to say the Cheque Garentee scheme is ceasing in July, and I really had to fight with them to get a cheque book at all.

[freakynessless]

When I started working for them back in 2003 they refused cheques as they are a paperless office.. However, on occassion customers would send in cheuqes and when they did they would always get banked against they're policy. That was a while ago now, I've not worked for them for nearly four years so the system might have changed.

[johnpeat]

Ozzie Osmond said:

In the event of a claim the £250 excess is payable to the repairer ..... by cheque. Or 2.5% surcharge to pay by card.

That's going to depend on the repairer surely?

I used to work for a bodyshop where the policy was not to release customers cars without cleared excess payments - which meant cards or cash. Bring us a cheque and you could have your car in 3-5 days...

Edited by johnpeat on Tuesday 7th June 13:31

[Ozzie Osmond]

"Aha", you say - "pay by card".

.....but only after 15 minutes being kept on hold listening to a fatuous recorded message!

[Fartgalen]

And they can take your money next year to auto-renew your policy with a CCard number.

[eybic]

Fartgalen said:

And they can take your money next year to auto-renew your policy with a CCard number.

Not unless you pay for your policy with the card too.