Home Insurance Cancellation after Auto Renewal

juno-eclipse

Hey guys,

I took out home insurance with Tesco in November 2008 and they sent a letter out in November 2009 to say what the renewal price was and that i didnt need to do anything and it would automaticaly be renewed, but at the time i was busy dealing with family problems and forgot about it, but dont actualy need or want it, i sent them a letter in December asking them to cancel it without any penalties as i didnt want it renewed. I've had one letter saying it is being investigated and will let me know in 10 days, and Yesterday i've had another saying that its taking longer than expected and they will have a reply within 2 weeks, But in the meantime i have had a letter telling me i am in default and i need to pay immediately.

Can anyone offer any advice, and will it affect my credit rating?

Thanks
J

Astaroth

Wont affect credit rating unless it goes to court and unless things have changed Tesco Insurance dont go that far but they do sell details to debt collectors who will hound you until it is paid.

Why not just phone them? You know you have to pay cancellation fees as nothing they did was wrong and so you are basically asking for a guesture of goodwill in them waiving or reducing the fees for cancelling it.

juno-eclipse

Unfortuantly i cant use the telephone, i dont feel i have to pay cancelation fees as i did not want home insurance after the first year surely there must be a clause about this rule.

J

TINKERBELL1_2

Unfortunatley without proof of dual insurance you will be expected to pay the premium from the renewal date to the date you asked them to cancel the policy, unless you can prove you asked them to cancel your insurance policy from renewal.

lisyloo

Unfortuantly i cant use the telephone

Thta's very unusual.
Can you explain why because we may be able to help
e.g. explain the procedure and data protection issues for someone else phoning on your behalf.

But if it's out of the question then send them a letter saying you want to cancel and send it by recorded delivery for 75p and keep the receipt.
You have complicated things and possibly delayed the cancellation.

i did not want home insurance after the first year surely there must be a clause about this rule

A lot of policies auto-renew these days.
They state this in the policy document up front and also send you a renewal where WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NEXT is normally in bold in a very short A4 letter (what I'm saying is that it isn't sneaked away in small print).
It's unfortunate that you (or no-one else) was able to deal with this at the time and I sympathise but it IS your responsibility to deal with it.

You didn't tell them you didn't want cover so it renewed as both parties agreed to this up front.
If you now want to cancel then you will have to pay for the cover you've had and for the admin fees which can be up to £50.
I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to work for free and I'm sorry you didn't have time, but to write a letter would have been 10 miunes, so you need to MAKE time to deal with your responsibilities (or pay the consequences).

The alternaitve is to get a local broker to help you.
If you don't have a phone perhaps you could pop in and that might suit you better.

You will find life a lot easier if you get a phone, so why don't you get a PAYG mobile?

If you don't pay then they will sell the debt onto a debt collection company who will harrass you many times a day.
If you have a very busy family life this will drive you nuts.
If they do go as far as getting a county court judgment against you then they may send balliffs around to seize goods and the CCJ will go on your credit record making it very difficult for you to get credit of any kind for a long period.

juno-eclipse

No I do have a telephone (for broadband) but unfortunately due to my disability I cannot use the telephone, so had to resort to sending a letter, but unfortunately it was 3 weeks after the renewal date and had a relationship breakdown so was unable to send a letter sooner as I had no one to post it recorded delivery for me. I will just have to hope they will reply soon and cancel without any penalties and of course I am responsible enough to pay them if this should happen, I just don’t agree I should have to when I was unable to have it sorted sooner.

J

eschaton

juno-eclipse wrote: »

No I do have a telephone (for broadband) but unfortunately due to my disability I cannot use the telephone, so had to resort to sending a letter, but unfortunately it was 3 weeks after the renewal date and had a relationship breakdown so was unable to send a letter sooner as I had no one to post it recorded delivery for me. I will just have to hope they will reply soon and cancel without any penalties and of course I am responsible enough to pay them if this should happen, I just don’t agree I should have to when I was unable to have it sorted sooner.

J

As much as I can sympathise with your issues, it isn't Tesco's fault that you did nothing when they sent you a renewal letter telling you what would happen.

I don't like Tesco but they aren't psychic.

McKneff

You had the chance to cancel the auto renewal when you got your letter and in your own words forgot about it.

I wouldnt imagine you can cancel it without penalty, admin work has gone into your renewal policy, you have to pay for this, its not just a case of pushing a few buttons to cancel, people have worked on it. The costs of insurance policies are to pay for admin, premises, heating, electric, salaries even down to
the pen the clerk uses. So i dont think youre going to get out of paying,

if you had insurance last year, why dont you 'want or need it' this year.

Sorry, maybe not what you were hoping to hear but hey, thats life.

glider3560

Have you thought about getting a textphone?
http://www.rnid.org.uk/information_resources/factsheets/equipment/factsheets_leaflets/text_communications.htm

juno-eclipse

McKneff wrote: »

You had the chance to cancel the auto renewal when you got your letter and in your own words forgot about it.

Because I had no one who could post the letter for me, i understand the need for charging when cancelling, but dont want it to be the rest of the years worth otherwise id rather carry on paying it so im not getting a huge amount to pay.

I dont need it this year as im trying to get as many of my bills cancelled so i can eventualy move back in with my mother.

J