Dial Direct have been taking installments for over 2 years on an insurance policy where they were aware that the policy holder was deceased. . I will never recommend anyone to ever deal with them on this.

I have been paying for my late father’s insurance on his Tata Indicia from the time he’s got the car. He was insured with Dial Direct for many years and had his premiums increase each year, even though he was retried and did not use the car for commercial use. In June 2017, my dad wanted his premiums reviewed and explained that he was almost 75 years old and that he should not be charged for this much of insurance. On the 27th August 2017, my dad tragically passed on, a day after his only sons wedding. This was a time of great distraught for everyone in the family, including my mum who re**** on my dad to drive her around (she does not have her license and cannot drive at all). On the 18th September 2017, I called in to cancel the insurance as my dad was deceased and we had received his death certificate and was trying to wind down his estate. The consultant at Dial Direct said that I could not do this, as only the insured person(who is now deceased) or his spouse could perform this closure. I was also informed that this could only occur after the estate was wound up. I called my mum and asked her to do this. As they were in the process of selling the car, she called in and in her traumatized state (being only 3 weeks since the passing of her spouse), asked about changing the policy to my brother and could they change the debit orders to her account. When the consultant gave my mum the amount, this was far too much and my mum said that she was not happy and did not want this option. In her mind, she thought that she meant that this would cancel the policy and didn’t think anything further of it as the estate was not yet wound up. There were a few issues and the estate was only wound up in September/October 2019. Aldo bear in mind that my mum and late dad reside in Durban and I am located in Johannesburg. I called Dial Direct as the person who's account is being debited and said, I need to cancel this policy as the estate has now been wound up. I was told that all that was needed was a death certificate and that all my payments from the time of death would be refunded to me by a lady named Asanda. I would just need to send in the death certificate which I did on the day. Follow on a few days and I call in to check on the refund (R567 pm adds up to a lot over the years) and was sent from person to person, until last week Friday when I was so upset that I insisted a speak to a manager. The consultant at the time (Donovan) put me on hold and came back to say that they could only refund me 12 months of premiums as we had done a review in the previous year (before my dad had passed) and therefore we would not be entitled to receive the full 25 months of premiums. After having a terrible conversation explanting that this did not make sense as the review was done before my dad passed on and he insisting it is, I was finally transferred to a manager (Rinolen Naiddo) would after a few arguments said that he would go look up the case and get back to me early this week as this was extenuating circumstances and the normal policy that they have of paying back 12 months of premiums would not be sufficient

I received a call from Mahommed from Dial Direct yesterday, saying that they had reviewed the policy and could only pay out the 12 months and as my mum(who is not really educated) had not said the word cancellation in her conversation, they did not cancel the policy and that I would not be refunded for the 25 months (August 2017 to September 2019). During this 2 years, there was a refund due to there being no claims on the policy for an extended period of time. Which there wasn’t and premiums were still being paid. Additionally, premiums were increased from R453.92 to R566.71 during this year, this was an increase of almost 25% on a deceased estate. Dial Direct being aware that the person on this account was deceased, saw fit to increase the premium regardless. I was told that they would refund me the full 25 months premium but yesterday, Mohammed told me that they could not do this because they paid out the no claim bonus and that they could only refund me 12 months of premiums as my elderly mum did not specifically say cancel on the phone call, but that they were ok with taking premiums for a deceased client.

Throughout this whole process, Dial Direct have acknowledged that they were aware that they were receiving premiums for a person that was deceased and they were aware that the person under which the insurance cover was allocated was deceased. This is ********** in any circumstances as they were aware that the person whom they were covering was deceased but did not cancel the insurance. In these 2 years, should there have been an incident with the vehicle in question, no claim could have been lodged as the insurance was under the name of a deceased party and in that incident, Dial Direct have admitted that they would have claimed that my mum/family member would have acted **********ly.

How is this even relatively fair trading or publicity by Dial Direct. I will never recommend anyone to ever deal with them on this.