EHIC £49

[Ronald Davis]

I recently applied for renewal of the European Health Card. I have been charged £49. I thought the issue of the card was free. Can this be explained please.

Ronald Davis

[Tools]

Re: EHIC

It appears that you may have applied through an unofficial 3rd party "copycat" website. Do you have the details of where you applied for it?

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC

Could have been this https: // www. ehicuk .org/ - they charge £49.



REAL SITE - http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthc...-the-ehic.aspx

[Nibbler]

Re: EHIC £49

That's the one that came up for me straight away.

[Nibbler]

Re: EHIC £49

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC £49

That lot also seem to do driving licences... judging by site styling...



although contact details differ

Postal Address:
Dept: RA Link Solutions
DrivingLicences.org.uk
1650 Arlington Business Park
Theale
Reading RG7 4SA
Call us :
0843 116 9090
Monday to Friday 8am to 5.30 pm

Domain Reg:

Domain name:
drivinglicences.org.uk

Registrant:
R A LINK SOLUTIONS LTD

Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 6764869)

Registrant's address:
23A Lyttelton Road
Hampstead Garden Suburb
London
London
N2 0DN
United Kingdom

===================

EHICUK

By Post:
Vectra Web Solutions Limited
2885 Sanford Ave SW #30910
Grandville, MI 49418
USA

Call us:
0843 155 39 39
Monday to Friday 8 am to 5.30 pm

[California]

Re: EHIC £49

I have been also victim of the website: ehicuk.org. It looked official to me. I had to renew all the family EHIC cards and after 5 years I thought we had to pay for the service of the cards being issued. After two weeks I found out that the NHS does not charge for this service. I am trying now to get my money back. I am complaining to "Citizens Advice " and I will complaint to "The Advertising Standards Authority and Trading Standards". Any further information, please post it!. Is there any way to get the refund from this company? How can we stop this web for trading online?

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC £49

Did you pay by credit card ? If you had to upgrade more than 2 cards you will have paid over £100 and might be able to ask your bank to do a charge back.

You need to write to the company and tell them you were misled into using their site and you did not have any wish to have used a third party to obtain your EHIC cards. Also ask them to remove any of your personal data from their records.

Did you get all your cards okay btw?

[California]

Re: EHIC £49

Hello!,

Thanks very much for your response and advices!. I applied for 4 cards and the total amount paid was £49 because I did all in one go. I got my cards OK (this is my only comfort!). After reading few articles in the net, I found out that this web uses NHS Free system to apply for the EHIC on your behalf but in reality "ehicuk.org" does not really add any additional service to your application.

I will go to my bank and ask for the charge back, this is also what Citizens Advice told me to do over the phone. I will also send an email to BBB Serving Western Michigan. Apparently "ehicuk.org" is based in Michigan. In their T&C said that "ehicuk.org" Means the company "Vectra Web Solutions". I sent an email to: "info@ehic-uk.org" asking them to remove my data from their records but I have not received any responses from them yet. Through their web (https://www.ehicuk.org/ContactUs.aspx), they have a "ticket system" that only allows you to send one comment so it's very difficult to get in touch with them.

I am planning also to send a letter to Trading Standards to explain my case. I would not like anyone to be in the same situation than I. I hope Trading Standards can stop this kind of webs or at least establish a way to allow consumers to recuperate their money in case they use them by mistake.

I will post any positive result if I get to any!

Speak to you soon,

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC £49

ahh ok so a reclaim on the card under sec 75 is out then.

EHICUK is very similar to the Passport website we're fighting against at the moment, you fill in a form on their site, and all they do is complete a form on the official site or ring the official number, and charge you £49 for the privilege, when you could have just filled it in exactly the same directly on the official website or called the official number.

The Passport website even show you how they do it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJVSY6zlmZg - the info on skype is the form you fill in on their website.....


So yes this kind of practice needs stopping, they do nothing that you couldn't do yourself, for free, and there is no benefit to using them. Third Party sites need shutting down unless registered by the govt service ( eg like the post office check and send service ) - report to TS via Citizen Advice consumer line and to the ASA, I'd also send details to your MP.

[MegaBlock]

Re: EHIC £49

Hi California

I followed the crystal clear instructions given by that web site in question as follows : " NHS WEB SITE > " " APPLY NOW " and believed I had been placed in the official NHS web site. Assumed the NHS was now charging for this service. When I received their e-mail receipt I realised straight away I had been scammed. Like you, phones were not answered and e-mail sent back proudly states regulation 13 you have lost your right to cancellation. Since that time they have changed/ made amendments to that web site to hide their deceit. Suppose that is because a bunch of people have rumbled them so they have now put in place a plan to try and limit the damage to avoid fairness. They have given a false address so people can't take them to court. The British authorities can't join the dots to stop them. The banks take them at face value because the scam goes through what looks lick the legal loops. The people involved with this scam have spun a complicated web to avoid their identity being revealed and I know why ! Also their complicated web stops people from locating them to try and seek justice but I have worked it out and reported it all. California, have you have any luck with these scammers ?

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC £49

These people also have Driving Licence and Esta visa third party sites. They also have a spanish version of EHIC website.

Phone number is 08431553939 but is pretty useless.

[MegaBlock]

Re: EHIC £49

I already know about estavisaonline.com. Do you have the link to their driving license web site ? Also do you have the postal address to that driving licensing web site if it is different to Vectra Web solutions Limited address. Thank you.

[Amethyst]

Re: EHIC £49

Ah looking at it doesn't seem to be the same - just a copycat website of a copycat lol - http://driver-licence.co.uk/licence/ pretty sure there was one that was exactly the same that said DVLA where the EHIC is on ehic-uk.org.

I'm just going to do a post for the driving licences ones as trying to find the one I thought was the same as EHIC came up with a pile more.