www.iva.co.uk

We now no longer have credit cards (god it feels good saying that) and when we moved bank accounts we have now only got a Visa Electron Card.

So today, my good lady is trying to renew her car insurance. We have set up a DD to pay monthly and all we now need to do is pay the deposit. Problem. All the online insurance companies (esure, sheilas wheels etc etc) do not accept Electron. So how do we pay we ask. Dont know came the reply. So here we are, paying by Direct debit and we cant get insurance because non of the companies take electron.

Now, the difference between Visa Electron and a Visa Debit, is that you cannot do a transaction unless you have cleared funds in the originating bank account. You cannot go overdrawn and you cannot run up a credit bill. So whats the problem. In my more cynical mind I just think its all a conspiracy to make people run up credit and the insurance companies (who are banks anyway) get interest.

b'stards!

I wouldn't mind but we have the cash ready to send and we cant even give it away.

Sorry to hear your problems with electron. I've used this type of card for years and haven't encountered difficulties.

Maybe you could get a pre paid card - a lot of other posters use these.

I've not had too many problems with my Electron - the only places I've found that don't accept it have been online shops. When I switched to paying by monthly DD I was with Churchill and I didn't have to pay a deposit. I don't know if it was because I was already a customer, but they just took the first payment the day the insurance started.

She found one that took it in the end.

Esure and Shelia's would not accept it. Unbelievable.

However, to me, I cant see the difference between a pre paid credit card and an electron. You have to have the fund in place for the transaction to go through.

Its all a conspiracy I tells ya :p

I'm glad you got it sorted Flush