Privilege have renewed my car insurance without my permission!!!

debbie97531

So I've just hung up the phone after an hour and four minutes listening to Frank Sinatra :mad: ...it seems to me as if there are a lot of problems with privilege which is the reason they cannot answer the phone.

Today I received a letter saying 'thank you for renewing your car insurance'. I first thought this must be a mistake but Privilege have actually renewed my insurance and helped themselves to the money without any warning. They haven't even confirmed if anything has changes since taking out the insurance last April. I'm absolutely amazed that they have done this and as I cannot get through to them on the phone I wondered if anyone had any other contact details so I can try and get my money back.

Wait....there's more!

Because I received the letter today 03.04.2009 and the insurance officially started on 01.04.2009 I will have to pay a canellation fee of £26.25. :eek:

I can't believe what they have done, any help is much appreciated.

anna42hmr

you are probably on an automatic renewal did you not get any renewal quote? as usually if they are they send one that states that if you dont want to renew to call them on x number before that date. tbh if you got that and didnt act on it, theres nothing that you can do but learn a lesson from it

auto renewal is quite common across insurance lately and would have been somewhere in writing, either in the initial insurance docs or lettters, the policy book or the renewal notice.

olly300

The fact your policy auto-renews will be in the key facts part of your insurance document.

If you didn't read even this part then you only have yourself to blame for getting caught out.

If it's not in the Key Facts part (which is not likely now due to the FSA stance on auto-renew insurance policies) then you need to put a formal complaint in writing to the complaints address of Privilege.

dacouch

The should send you the renewal invitation 21 days before the renewal date

dunstonh

Privilege have actually renewed my insurance and helped themselves to the money without any warning.

They did warn you. It was in your renewal letter.

They haven't even confirmed if anything has changes since taking out the insurance last April.

They dont have to. That is your responsibility.

I'm absolutely amazed that they have done this and as I cannot get through to them on the phone I wondered if anyone had any other contact details so I can try and get my money back.

I suggest you read the renewal letter and in particular the instructions it gives you on what to do next if you do or dont want to renew.

I can't believe what they have done, any help is much appreciated.

You are not going to get a lot of support on here I'm afraid. The problem is that you didnt read the letter. That is not the fault of the insurer so they are within their rights to charge the cancellation fee (which is well below the limit that the FOS consider acceptable for this sort of thing).

dacouch

Did you arrange alternative cover with a different Insurer from the renewal date?

debbie97531

Thanks for the responses, maybe I should explain more...

I always make sure I tick the correct boxes so insurance companies and such like do not hold any card details of mine, nor are they allowed to share my details with other companies.

I did not receive any renewal quote or letter suggesting they were automatically renewing my insurance. The renewal is definately not detailed in my insurance documents from last year.

I have already organised my insurance for the year with another company.

I surely can't be the only person this has happened to??

dacouch

Ring Privalege up ask to speak to a superviser and politely explain you arranged alternative cover to run concurrently with the renewal date. Most companies will then refund you the money without any charges etc.

Browntoa

it is quite prominent on the renewal letter that you need to ring up if you don't want to renew

anna42hmr

debbie97531 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses, maybe I should explain more...

I always make sure I tick the correct boxes so insurance companies and such like do not hold any card details of mine, nor are they allowed to share my details with other companies.

I did not receive any renewal quote or letter suggesting they were automatically renewing my insurance. The renewal is definately not detailed in my insurance documents from last year.

I have already organised my insurance for the year with another company.

I surely can't be the only person this has happened to??

priv insurance policy book has a section on auto renewals and states if you do not want to renew the policy then to call them before the renewal date, you should also have received a renewal notice, i would assume its been lost in the post if you didnt get it.

tuggy12

debbie97531 wrote: »

I have already organised my insurance for the year with another company.

So when you took out insurance with another Company you didn't have any no-claims bonus?

If you did, you would need a copy of the renewal notice from Privilege to get the benefit of the NCB with your new insurer.