No insurance renewal notice

DevilsAdvocate1

I usually take my policies out over the phone and when I pay by credit card they ask if its okay to automatically renew and I ALWAYS say no. As I shop around, I don't want any of my policies to automatically renew.

My Green Flag which was based on my car and not on me automatically renewed and I did not receive any prior paperwork. The first I knew was when the credit card bill arrived and was over £100 more than I was expecting. I rang Green Flag straight away and like the OP they wanted to charge an admin fee of £65.

I had never agreed to the automatic renewal and as I pointed out, I could never have claimed on the policy as I didn't own the car anymore and it was based on the car registration. I did eventually get my money back but had to escalate it up the management team.

Maybe the best way is not to use a credit card. I don't believe that automatic renewals are to help customers at all. I think they rely on people forgetting to cancel and so they get the business through inertia. But maybe I'm cynical.

D.

lisyloo

Maybe the best way is not to use a credit card.

I think autorenew works the same with debit cards, but there are certainly companies about that don't do anuto-renew.
I was with Sheilas wheels in 2008/2009 and paid up front and they didn't renew my policy.

I don't believe that automatic renewals are to help customers at all. I think they rely on people forgetting to cancel

If people really can't remember a date, then the problem is they might go uninsured which could be quite a big deal.

I don't see what the issue is.
OK a small number might get lost in the post, but most people get a letter with "WHAT TO DO NEXT" written in bold.

olly300

lisyloo wrote: »

I agree. The only thing I sympathise on is that it's actually not always that hard to find.
I've tried to find it in my own polcies before and quite often the bookelt says the policy MAY renew (it often depends on method of payment). So I've been unable to find it when specifically looking and had to ring them up and find out.
Because I know about it, I made sure I found out about it, but I don't think it's always that clear in some policies (no idea about Budget).

If the policy doesn't state it clearly auto-renews in the key facts then the policy is likely to be unfair and once you have raised a stink to get your money back forward a copy of all correspondence to the FSA.

Forwarding stuff to the FSA is the final consumer revenge as they look for things that you wouldn't have picked up and make the company change the wording so no-one else suffers.

DCFC79

You shouldnt expect the insurer to send the renewal to you, you should be getting new quotes and seeing if they are better than your renewal, you just make a note when its for renewal

sindygirl58

this happned to me last week with budget car ins! they must have retained last years debit card details, as although they new anual payment hadnt yet been taken, they are taking the admin fee due for me cancelling.
with auto renw, can anyone clarify the cooling off period and if it appliies?

olly300

DCFC79 wrote: »

You shouldnt expect the insurer to send the renewal to you, you should be getting new quotes and seeing if they are better than your renewal, you just make a note when its for renewal

The FSA requires that financial companies including insurance companies treat customers fairly.

For an insurance company that offers auto-renew to treat customers fairly they need to:
1. State that the policy auto-renews in the key facts
2. State somewhere in the policy that they will send out a letter before the auto-renewal date with amount.
3. They should also state somewhere what to do if you don't want to auto-renewal

I reported Bell Insurance to the FSA because in their policy wording they stated they "may" send out such a letter and other random conditions about cancelling auto-renewal. ( Although they Bell Insurance sorted out my issue due to the way they did it I reported them. )

The FSA then went through the policy document I sent to them with a fine tooth comb and made them change other things that they were thought unfair to consumers.

Bell agreed very quickly to change their policy wording to make it clearer, got rid of their stupid auto-renewal cancellation conditions and agreed to send letters out to every policy holder.

olly300

sindygirl58 wrote: »

this happned to me last week with budget car ins! they must have retained last years debit card details, as although they new anual payment hadnt yet been taken, they are taking the admin fee due for me cancelling.
with auto renw, can anyone clarify the cooling off period and if it appliies?

There is no cooling off period so unfortunately you have to pay it.

In future:
1. Read your policy document as soon as you get it looking for the word "auto-renewal"
2. If it has those words and you don't want auto-renew write a letter asap sending it by recorded delivery to the insurance company stating you don't want the policy to auto-renew
3. Keep the record delivery slip and a copy of the letter somewhere i.e. with your other insurance stuff

While people say you can phone to do this others have reported that some insurers have conveniently "forgot" their phone call. If they do this with a letter you can very easily go public.

foggytown

So many in here are forever ready to beat posters with the "you should have known better" stick. Then they come over all preachy about what a tough existence insurers have to suffer because of their moronic/deceitful/felonious customers.

DevilsAdvocate1 is right. Auto renewal is an inertia-oriented, sometimes legal little scam. (I say "sometimes legal" because I have seen two instances recently where insurers tried to introduce this feature on renewal. Obviously, if the provision wasn't present in the expiring contract, it can't be used to auto-renew the subsequent policy. But they try. Lord, how they try!)

Telling customers that auto-renewal has been introduced to provide more protection to customers is a lovely line . . . which some people actually seem to believe. What it mainly does is:

1) remove the onus on the insurer to inform the insured of the renewal (useful at a time when insurers are so profit-driven that resorting to more unreliable second class post for important documents is now SOP)
2) increase the number of unintended renewals

And the OP says that they used a broker! What kind of broker would allow a policy to apparently lapse without maiking one phone call prior to expiry? A bad one, that's what kind.

dunstonh

So many in here are forever ready to beat posters with the "you should have known better" stick. Then they come over all preachy about what a tough existence insurers have to suffer because of their moronic/deceitful/felonious customers.

There in plenty to bash insurance companies with but this is not one of them. The failure of people to read a simple renewal letter telling them what happens next is not the fault of the insurance company.

DevilsAdvocate1 is right. Auto renewal is an inertia-oriented, sometimes legal little scam. (I say "sometimes legal" because I have seen two instances recently where insurers tried to introduce this feature on renewal. Obviously, if the provision wasn't present in the expiring contract, it can't be used to auto-renew the subsequent policy. But they try. Lord, how they try!)

Telling customers that auto-renewal has been introduced to provide more protection to customers is a lovely line . . . which some people actually seem to believe. What it mainly does is:

1) remove the onus on the insurer to inform the insured of the renewal (useful at a time when insurers are so profit-driven that resorting to more unreliable second class post for important documents is now SOP)
2) increase the number of unintended renewals

Over 70% of people renew with the same company. So, it benefits the majority. It has also protected people from not renewing. However, it is true that it also makes sense from a business point of view. That doesnt make it a bad thing though.

Heather25

dunstonh wrote: »

The failure of people to read a simple renewal letter telling them what happens next is not the fault of the insurance company.

But we didn't receive a renewal notice letter just a letter saying our insurance had been renewed. We phoned immediately and told them we didn't want the insurance renewed and hadn't received any notice.