Car Insurance Issue

quirkygord69

Hey Guys. My car insurance was up for renewal a while back. As usual I got my auto-renewal documents through the post around 3 weeks before the renewal was due.

About a week before the renewal was due I contacted the insurer to check that everything was ok and to get a quote incase I wanted to change my car to a different car on the policy during the policy term. They quoted the increase if I changed the car on the policy (£17.50) and that everything else on the account was fine (went through all my details etc) and that was that.

Yesterday I received a letter stating that they had cancelled my insurance some 14 days ago and that I owed them £80! Upon contacting their customer care today I was informed that the card details for which I have paid my insurance premium with them for the past 3 years had expired and that they had sent a letter to me around 3 weeks ago explaining that I needed to contact them. As of yet I have received no such letter from them. They confirmed that they had 2 contact telephone numbers for me and an email and had used non in an attempt to contact me. They also stated that to reinstate my policy they would require me to pay the £80 quoted on the letter, a full new terms policy amount AND a fee for reinstating the policy.

Surely when I contacted them the week before it was due it would have been plainly obvious that the method of payment had expired (it expired some 8 months ago). I can pull recordings of all these conversations to the customer care team of the insurer as the were made from a contact centre where I work. Can insurance companies really do this? Surely they would be making a bomb from all their long standing customers who simply dont receive these suposed letters through the post!!! Any suggestions?

BoGoF

Surely the onus is on you to make sure you have a valid method of payment. The renewal quote would have told you the card it would be taken from?....why didn't you offer a valid method of payment.

And regards the pulling of telephone calls, do you mean you can obtain your phone calls from your contact centre.......sounds a bit dodgy to say the least

Weirdlittleman

Yes.

In future keep them aware of your correct payment details.

Its your fault and not theres. The contact a few weeks ago probably wouldnt even see your payment card details.

quirkygord69

Hey guys thanks for the advice. My renewal quote states:

Have your details changed? The details we have for you are:
Sort Code: xx-xx-xx
Account: ***xxxx
Acount name: My Name

Thus these details are correct. It is the card linked to the account that has updated, not the account itself.

BoGoF

So what was the method of payment, direct debit or debit card.

Any time I have auto-renewed all it has said is payment will be taken from card number xxxx xxxx xxxx 1234, no mention of bank a/c sort code or a/c no.

Weirdlittleman

Yes as above they couldnt just take a payment using a sort code and account number unless it was a direct debit.

Regardless I think the onus is on you to ensure payment is made.

lisyloo

Sadly you now have to declare you've had insurance refused for EVER and this might include home insurance as well and may give you increased premiums in future as well as make it difficult to get computerised quotations.

Personally I prefer to pay my debts up front when they are due and not use credit.

Insurers don't appear to be giving any lee way these days.

quirkygord69

Oh well fair enough. To be honest to pay the policy re-instement fee and a new terms premium it would be cheaper to just pay the £80 for the month or so I was 'covered' by them and take a new policy out with another company. lol. Does anyone else hate insurance companies?

BoGoF

You haven't answered whether it was d/d or debit card....could make a difference. If d/d did you have enough money to cover it?

quirkygord69

Hey sorry yes there was plenty of money in that account. I think what I am most annoyed about is they fact that for security reasons when I called them today, they confirmed two telephone numbers and an email address to me which were all valid and hadnt bothered to contact me. All this could have been resolved weeks back via a simple fone call . . . . but then why bothered to call ur customers if u can get three lots of money out of them??

quirkygord69

HUH?? Why would I have to say I've had insurance refused? I havent had my insurance refused, they told me over the phone that they'd quite happily reinstate my existing policy if I paid a reinstatement fee??