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I understand that in every business, a consumer must always receive a receipt for a service/product, or the purchase won't be considered complete.

I am currently insured by a big name company (who I'm starting to lose faith at) who deducts a certain amount of money from my bank account every Month. The problem is they take too long to send my receipts, and lately even doesn't send them anymore!

I.E. they deducted me last August 5. It's now September, they've deducted another amount from my bank last September 2. I still haven't received the receipt from both dates (as of today, September 5, 2014).

I tried contacting the company, and they sent me an electronic copy of the receipts over the mail. I don't feel satisfied because the receipts they send have these stamp marks on it. This one has, but it's scanned.

  1. Are electronic receipts sent over email legal? (argument: they could say it was photoshopped.. if things start to "hit the fan")
  2. Do I have the right to demand that they send the receipts immediately? Should I seek legal action?
  3. I do not want this to continue anymore. Every month I have to call them to remind them of my receipts. I've made dialogue with the Officer in charge, but all they keep doing is to apologize. I see no change. What can I do as a consumer to urge this not to happen again?

EDIT: The company is known worldwide, but the country my insurance is at Philippines.

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  • I am not a laywer but I will point out that many banks are storing/sending only electronic images of cancelled checks. In fact it's possible now to deposit a check entirely as an image, though you're expected to hold onto the original for a while in case it gets challenged. Your options may be to send hardcopy checks, to change businesses, or both. Or perhaps to reverse the process; my mortgage checks go out electronically but driven from my bank, not by the lender accessing my account.
    – keshlam
    Sep 5, 2014 at 4:02
  • yes, it is driven from my bank. Should I ask the bank to stop deducting it automatically if the business does not improve?
    – anon
    Sep 5, 2014 at 5:40
  • Have you looked on the insurance companies website for the information? What is your concern?
    – mhoran_psprep
    Sep 5, 2014 at 10:09
  • Questions referencing law should mention the country.
    – Chris W. Rea
    Sep 5, 2014 at 11:58
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    You can always seek legal help. Whether it will do you any good... You haven't "deposited" money, you've made payments for a service. As long as they acknowledge that and correctly report your current balance when you ask them, and send you written confirmation of that when you need it (eg for taxes or claims), I don't think there's any law requiring that they send you a paper receipt every time. The bank can also confirm the payments were made. Unless there's a specific contract point stating receipts be delivered for every payment, I don't see anything actionable. But I Am Not A Lawyer.
    – keshlam
    Sep 8, 2014 at 1:46

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You seem overly fixated on dead tree documentation of purchases. They are deducting this from your account monthly - the mere fact that the money was taken is enough to prove in court that they have you on their books and to hold them to paying out said insurance. The email copies is actually a better way to organize receipts in most cases (can't be destroyed as easily, etc.)

You can cancel the insurance - but don't just stop paying (you'd owe them money then). I foresee increasing difficulty navigating the 21st century for you unless you can get past this concern about physical receipts. I doubt other companies would do much better.

FWIW, I live in the continental US. I don't know how different the Philippines is with regard to moving everything to digital

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  • Your bank statement is evidence that a payment was made to the company. I can't vouch for your country, but hardcopy receipts for this kind of transaction are becoming less common, just as physical cancelled checks are no longer returned to the account holder. If acknowledgement of every payment is important to you, shop around for another carrier and ask them up front what the options are in that regard. Then, once you're sure you have a better option, talk to your current carrier about closing the account and getting a pro-rated refund... or switch over when renewal time comes.
    – keshlam
    Sep 10, 2014 at 2:05

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