Help with car insurance

mikey72

Who else could get away with automatically renewing a contract with you, at a price that is totally unfair,and if for any reason they claim you haven't told them you don't want to renew, they then make a punitive charge against you.
If the letter doesn't arrive with you, they charge anyway, if you write to them and advise them you don't want to renew, if for any reason they don't recieve it, they charge anyway, if you phone them and they don't action it, they charge anyway.
Doesn't seem quite fair really.
And from the insurance point of view, from a phrase used in a different post, if no consideration has changed hands, how can a contract for insurance be in place anyway?

karenw

mikey72 wrote: »

if no consideration has changed hands, how can a contract for insurance be in place anyway?

Just what i thought!

Badger_Lady

mikey72 wrote: »

And from the insurance point of view, from a phrase used in a different post, if no consideration has changed hands, how can a contract for insurance be in place anyway?

I'm not 100% sure about this, and don't know the specific insurer here, but don't they normally ask you to automatically renew in your original contract? I believe if you scrutinise the terms and conditions that you signed, it will say something like, "the policy shall automatically renew each year unless you contact us to cancel".

Not all insurers do this... I actually get a little frustrated with CIS because they're the only ones to cover my non-standard risk home but if I don't act each year my policy runs dry!

karenw

I rang the company, the best deal the lady would do for me would to be reduce my monthly payments by £12 a month so i guess that's something! I have worked out my other quotes and considering the cancellation fee it looks like i'll be better off staying with my current insurance company.

Dangermac

mikey72 wrote: »

Who else could get away with automatically renewing a contract with you, at a price that is totally unfair,and if for any reason they claim you haven't told them you don't want to renew, they then make a punitive charge against you.
If the letter doesn't arrive with you, they charge anyway, if you write to them and advise them you don't want to renew, if for any reason they don't recieve it, they charge anyway, if you phone them and they don't action it, they charge anyway.
Doesn't seem quite fair really.
And from the insurance point of view, from a phrase used in a different post, if no consideration has changed hands, how can a contract for insurance be in place anyway?

A promise to pay (as per the wording of the auto renewal) is the same as consideration

Dangermac

karenw wrote: »

Just what i thought!

Presumably car has been off road, on the basis that you were certain that you were uninsured.

Was car SORN'd during that period?

mikey72

Dangermac wrote: »

A promise to pay (as per the wording of the auto renewal) is the same as consideration

Oddly enough in the post I read it wasn't considered the same, it was decided a deposit needed paying.

karenw

Dangermac wrote: »

Presumably car has been off road, on the basis that you were certain that you were uninsured.

Was car SORN'd during that period?

Not sure what that means

I haven't used my car for 2-3 weeks as i didn't want to add to my problems by getting in trouble with the police or having a crash. The lady said i was insured for the last 3 weeks so i could have used my car anyway.

This is all so confusing

Quentin

Dangermac wrote: »

Presumably car has been off road, on the basis that you were certain that you were uninsured.

Was car SORN'd during that period?

SORN is irrelevant to this insurance issue. (And SORN cars still may need insuring - they still burn and get stolen!)

karenw

Update on the situation, i paid the arrears last month and have since received a letter from the insurance company saying they have cancelled my policy :mad: I rang them up and they said the reason they have cancelled the policy is because when I paid the arrears i didn't set-up a direct debit. They are now saying they want £200 cancellation fee :eek:

This is getting silly I paid the arrears i forgot to set-up a direct debit they could have wrote to me and asked me to set it up, what do you guys suggest i do now