And for that bit of advice I get a groan? Isn't that abusing the system? Bringing it down to a low level of grunts and groans instead of informed opinion? Please do not make this worse, and quietly remove it. I will agree to delete this post. Did you notice that while you were groaning like a pig, someone else was handing out a thank you?

Wow, aren't we sensitive...you do this, i do that, because somebody gave you a thanks, we all got to jump in the same boat ?

What i said i believe you will find is correct. Insurance salesmen are not infalable and quite often sell double coverage, intentionaly or not.

The fact remains you can pay for 2 policies legally but can only claim one repayment legally.

Maybe Jenny will confirm this.

Have another one then !

Did we ever get a definitive answer to this question? I have just run into the same problem.

I "applied" for insurance with Sanagate (via comparis.ch), but they kept corresponding with me through German, which I don't understand. After about the 5th "Herr Suilleabhain" - I asked them to change it to french an equal number of times - I went with another insurer. The other insurer did warn me to check if I had signed a contract with Sanagate. My mum looked into it and they said I hadn't (I got nothing in writing from them at the time to confirm this)... but a few months later - when the first bill showed up - it turns out that I had. They've just sent me the aforementioned signed "application"... which is a contract.

It would appear that the onus is on the applicant to confirm that they are not previously insured. I hope I am wrong on this...

Anyone?

If there is a case whereby there are 2 insurers for the LAMal, then it is the one which was signed first or started first which you have to remain insured with unless you cancelled with the first company in the official way (registered letter, etc. etc.)

Yes, I am 100% sure about this - I've been working in this industry for 6 years now!

I imagine that this primarily to stop dodgy salesmen & women making money where it isn't due...

Jenny, thanks for your reply.

I don't care which one I stay with so long as I don't have to pay both bills. On the basis of your advice (I don't mean it to sound as if I'm going to sue you at the end of all this), I am going to do the following:

Go to the "second" insurer. Ask them to "cancel" my contract because they should never have given it to me. Ask them to refund the first month's billing.

Am I correct in saying that it is the insurer's responsibility to check that I wasn't insured with another company and not mine?

(Notwithstanding the fact that I obviously I shouldn't have signed two contracts...).

Thanks again.

Possibly but also to stop people signing up with 20 different companies, never paying the premiums and claiming bills back (it has happened in the past which is why the law is constantly changing and becoming more and more strict)

No, they have no way of checking this.
And if you were insured elsewhere, they would have assumed that you'd cancelled the first contract etc.

When you ask company number 2 to cancel your contract with them, they will probably ask for some proof that you were already insured with company number 1 when you signed up with them.
You may have to get in touch with both companies and each company may have to send attestations and letters and all sorts to one another.

I had the case recently whereby one of my clients was visited by a broker early last year and he told her that he could get a cheaper insurance for both her and her husband, that there would be no issues with cancellation etc. etc.
She signed everything he put in front of her but asked that he hold on to the application forms etc. as she wanted to think about it and would confirm with him later on.
After he left, she changed her mind and asked him to destroy everything she'd signed etc. and that she'd like to stay put where she was.

Unfortunately, she didn't tell me at the time that someone had been to visit her. (She didn't have to! I'm just saying that I could have offered some advice at that time!).

Anyhow, 6 months later, she receives policy documents for 2012 for both her original company AND the company this guy works with.
She then contacted me and explained what had happened.

I had to get copies of the original signed application forms and send them to company number 2. Company number 1 had to provide official attestations that she and her husband were both insured with them.
The guy had also sent cancellation letters in. I had to get company number 1 to "cancel the cancellations" so to speak.

It took around 2 months to get it all sorted but we managed it.

I even lodged an official complaint to company number 2 about their broker who obviously didn't listen to his client and also had told them things that weren't true.

Your situation sounds a little different but just be prepared for some to-ing and fro-ing from both companies.

Good luck