Feb
15
2

Check your Bank Statements

Hi guys and girls,

today I read an article which states that us South Africans should check our bank statements as you never know what debit orders are going through twice or if you have missed a payments. The article is taken from iol.co.za and was written by Wendy Knowler.

I guess everyone should check their bank statements as this could happen in any country and to anyone.

Check your bank statements

If there’s one thing this job has taught me it’s the importance of getting into the habit of checking your bank statement every month.

You’d be amazed how often you’ll discover rogue debit orders or unjustified bank charges in there.

Check your Bank StatementsJohn Lemmon of Pretoria routinely checks his bank account, and he’s got a pretty good idea of what his debit orders add up to every month.

Last week, there was an extra R59 deduction and Lemmon realised his funeral policy premium had been deducted twice.

He originally took out his policy with Rentmeester, which was taken over by Channel Life, a member of the Sanlam group of companies.

“At the time of the take-over, my monthly premium went up by 60 percent which I accepted, but I wasn’t about to accept the double debit.”

When he complained to Channel Life, he was told that he had missed a payment in 2007.

“They said they had so many arrear payments and they now had to collect outstanding payments.”

I asked Lemmon if he’d asked Channel Life to prove that he’d skipped a payment. He had. “I was told to find my own banking history.”

So naturally I queried the alleged arrears debits issue with Channel Life. Lucas Geyer responded by apologising for the “double deductions in respect of certain Rentmeester policies”, which were done in error, he said.

“It is our policy to request a double deduction of premiums only after we have discussed the issue with the policyholder and received his consent for the additional premium deduction,” Geyer said.

“However, due to a system error, the premium deductions between February 2 and 5 included double deductions. We have noted the error and already made the necessary changes to our system.”

Of course, in such situations, apart from blaming the computers, company spokespersons generally say as little as possible.

Check your Bank StatementsSo I had to ask. How many people were affected, and did many people complain?

That’s when Geyer told me. 4 511 Channel Life funeral policy holders were double debited last week. That’s four thousand, five hundred and eleven people.

And how many complained? “About 25.”

So either the remaining 4 486 people didn’t check their bank statements last week, or they didn’t bother to query the extra deduction.

Geyer told me on Friday that all those double premiums would be refunded “within the next day”, but most of those affected probably wouldn’t have noticed the credit either.

So where does that leave the status of their policies?

If a funeral policy holder misses a payment, the insurance company usually uses this as a reason to repudiate a claim.

So where does that leave all those thousands of former Rentmeester policy holders who are allegedly in arrears?

“It is Channel’s policy to lapse a policy after the non-receipt of three consecutive premiums,” Geyer said.

“We also contact policy holders to inform them of a possible lapse.

Any outstanding premiums will be deducted at claim stage. Therefore the families’ claims would not automatically be repudiated due to the missing payment.”

So have you checked your bank statement this week yet?

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Article by George Serradinho

I am the proud owner of Serradinho.com and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress and the internet in general. I also love meeting and helping others and learning new techniques.

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  • Published Date: 15 February 2009
  • Post Time Span: 568 days ago
  • Word Count: 595
  • Author Post Count: 757
  • Categories: South Africa
  • Comments: 2
  • Trackbacks: 0
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This blog is using the Thesis theme & WordPress blogging platform. Customizations on this blog have been done by myself.

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{ 2 comments }

1 Sherry March 3, 2009 at 5:55 am

Follow on Twitter Follow @sherrygo on Twitter.



about bank statement that day went back wait a long queue. take hours to check! oh my ec detail http://entrecard.com/details/77743

2 gengen March 12, 2009 at 4:59 pm

Once in a while i do check my bank account specially if i want to withdraw something. Visiting….

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