Health Insurance Payment Problems? Get Free Advice

Questioner

Hello, I paid my health insurance a little later than usual in November 2011. My insurance sent a first payment reminder and the day after I transferred the amount via internet banking with the payment code of the 'normal' payment slip of that month (so the payment slip before the first payment reminder). The receipt of my first payment reminder and the transfer of the premium of that month crossed each other. So I did nothing more with that payment reminder, because I assumed that my health insurance would see that the amount of that month had been received. I received a message from the collection in February and had to pay a considerable amount. I called my health insurance and they told me that it was the administration costs of the month of November that I had to pay, because they had sent a second payment reminder with administration costs at the end of December. I did not respond to this, because I was certain that I had completed all payments. They now argued that it was my fault, because I had not used the reference of the first payment reminder for the premium of November, which made them think that what I had transferred too late (I had transferred it at the beginning of December and one day after the payment reminder) was already the premium for the month of December. But my counterargument is that they could check that the payment reference of the month of December did not match the payment reference that I had used, namely of the month of November, and they could easily check this in their overview, right? Furthermore, I have always paid all months up to now. I did have to transfer the amount to the collection agency, because the costs would only increase. I hope that is a bit clear. My question now is whether it is really my fault that I have let these administration costs increase, because of a payment reference that I should have filled in for the first payment reminder, instead of the normal acceptance giro of that month. And if this is not the case, is there anything I can do??

Lawyer

There is probably nothing more that can be done about this, except to record this situation in the form of a complaint to the health insurer. What works against you is that you were late with payment and that you yourself did not deal with it more proactively.