Avoid at all costs... & believe me, it will cost you!

**READ THE SMALL PRINT** As this company is just interested in taking your money and looking for ways to add extortionate fees and penalties even when it is their fault.

I changed banks, updated my DD bank details 10 days before they were due to take their next payment and their system couldn't even deal with that much notice. They tried to take the payment from the old details and because it didn't go through they charged me a £27.50 penalty fee.

Now any normal and fair company that cares about its customers would accept the mistake and take off the penalty but instead, when I called up I got an adviser who initially was helpful and confirmed I had in fact done everything I should have and 10 days was plenty of time for the change to happen on their system. However, when I then asked for the penalty to be removed he just started reading from his script (when he wasn't talking over me), not actually listening to my explanation and just started repeating "Sorry, there is nothing I can do as we can't just let off everyone that calls up". He then told me it was my banks fault and I had to try and get the £27.50 back from them. Although confirmed that this fee was absolutely a Premium Credit penalty fee and nothing to do with the bank.

The difference is these people don't have to care about individual customers as their clients are the big companies we purchase from and so they don't have to listen to us or offer reasonable or fair customer service as it won't affect their business.

So, if your insurance company (Arch Insurance for me on this occasion) say they will be setting up your monthly payment plan using Premium Credit then walk away or ask them to use someone else as it will cost you a lot more than the DD quoted if they get half a chance to sting you. Put simply, you can wave goodbye to having a professional, customer-focused company on your side.