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From: gordon@cae780.UUCP (Brian Gordon)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.invest,net.misc
Subject: Stopping automatic payments (long)
Message-ID: <835@cae780.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-May-85 12:44:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: cae780.835
Posted: Thu May  9 12:44:18 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 10-May-85 11:59:40 EDT
Distribution: na
Organization: CAE Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 45
Xref: utcs net.consumers:2230 net.invest:613 net.misc:7653

It looks like I'm headed for a battle in small claims court, so I thought I'd
ask you netters if you think my position is reasonable ...

Several years ago, when I bought new life insurance, I signed an authorization
to allow the insurance company to deduct a monthly premium from my checking
account at my credit union.  This has gone smoothly.  Recently I decided to
change carriers, and the agent (who represented both carriers) told me to
issue a "stop payment" order on the monthly deduction to cancel the old policy.
This appears to be the most common way to do it, and indeed it is how I had
canceled the previous policy years ago, when the payments were being deducted
from my bank checking account.

I dropped in at the credit union one lunch time and ended up with a new teller
who did not know how to do it (stop payment on an automatic deduction).  He
asked the supervisor, who said that it could not be done -- I had to contact 
the insurance company and tell them to stop submitting them.  It didn't sound
right to me at the time, but three other people were waiting in the car in the
parking lot, so I didn't stay around to argue.

After thinking about it, I wrote to them that night, pointing out that there 
had to be a misunderstanding somewhere, since they were telling me, in effect,
that they were going to give somebody money out of my account even after I had
informed them that such a withdrawl was no longer authorized.  Three weeks 
later, I received my letter back from them with a handwritten notice that, 
since I had authorized the deduction through the insurance company, I had to
stop it through them, too.

I wrote to ask for a written statement from an officer to the effect that, even
though I had canceled the authorization to give my money to this insurance
company, they intended to continue doing so against my wishes.  I have not yet
received an answer, but they did deduct last month's payment, after having
received my letter telling them not to do so.

Am I right to believe that I can now go to small claims court and get the
amount they "stole" from my account?  Am I missing something significant that
makes their position reasonable?  I have notified them, in writing, that the
amount shown as a deduction on my most recent statement is an error, and asking
them to restore it to my account.  Hopefully, their answer to that request or
my earlier request for a written statement of their intent to ignore my
cancellation of the automatic deduction authorization would be all the evidence
I need, wouldn't it?

FROM:   Brian G. Gordon, CAE Systems
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