health top up

[johnycarper]

we have cancelled our top up with axa due to the cost and moved to another company.i sent the required letter and have recieved the confirmation that they have recievd it.What i want to know is will axa confirm that we have cancelled and do i need to go to bank and cancll the standing order.

[tinabee]

I would cancel the standing order. I did the same recently with Axa for car insurance but still received the demand for this year's payment. Fortunately it was not on standing order so I went into the Axa branch and asked why they had sent the demand - the broker had a copy of my cancellation letter on his desk, so knew full well I had cancelled in time. I think they were just hoping I'd pay up!  [:@]

[jogreen68]

It is always worth being proactive and cancelling the standing order yourself, it doesn't matter what insurance it is care, health insurance, life insurance to be you aren't double paying you need to cancel it yourself.

[Will]

The banking system in France is different from the British system. Even if you cancel a prélèvement the company can still take money it considers is owing, and the mere setting in motion of the process to take the money can do serious harm to your credit status in France. I know that a lot of people will disagree, but I would advise only cancelling an order as a last resort.

If you do decide that you have to cancel a regular payment you have to be careful to do so correctly, and use the correct wording, e.g. 'revocation' is usually preferred to 'résiliation'. The correct form varies according to the type of organisation with which you took out the prélèvement and, in the case of insurance, the type of contract you had. This page gives a very large number of different model letters to use for cancellations.

This thread from a French forum might help, even if only to show that the French are equally confused about the subject. A Google search will throw up numerous similar discussions and examples of money being taken after an order was cancelled.

[5-element]

Phew, Will, what a minefield this is. How interesting, the discussion on the French forum. If anything, it comforts me in my decision to fight for the right NOT to pay anything by direct debit/prélèvement automatique!