Automatic renewal of subscriptions

Blancsanglier

Can anyone tell me please if it's legal to automatically renew a subscription I took out last year without informing me first? This happened to me with my Ancestry.com acount but they did refund me and now it's happened again! I took out an ID PROTECTION cover with CPP last year - they said they would let me know of any discrepencies /wrong doing with my accounts. I didn't hear from them all year and forgot about them untill today I had a letter from Asda about a 'purchase' costing £83.99 I allegedly made on the 8th September for ID Protection but using my old credit card (the one originally covered last year) Asda said it looks genuine so they have transferred it to my current card. I know absolutely nothing about this and on phoning was told that I "had a letter in July saying they were going to renew and if they didn't hear from me they would automatically renew the subscription as it was an automatic renewal evry year" Of course I have had no letter and this one from Asda is the first I knew about it. My point is; 1) I don't think they send letters, therefore they renew 'because they haven't heard otherwise' 2) They should be made to send an email/letter a few days before saying your last sub is up in a few days and reminding you they are going to renew 3) Should Asda have transferred this balance to my new card with out asking first as I am hardly likely to pay for something with an old expired card?
I am really angry about this as it is such a sneaky way of conning you out of money - when I phoned he said I should remember to cancel it next year!! Excuse me but I have much more important things to remember than this!! They should email you to remind you..... not send letters that probably don't exist.

4743hudsonj

It's very legal and common. You would think that being stung by this before you would have learnt to read contracts! Usually letters are not required and are just sent out of courtesy but for once read the terms and conditions just to check they didn't say one would be sent just in case.....

mynameisdave

Blancsanglier wrote: »

They should email you to remind you..... not send letters that probably don't exist.

But emails would be filtered to the Spam folder and you would never see them either

garth549

yeh you need to be careful with these long term renewals, a lot of companies rely on you completely forgetting about them. They know full well that the majority will cancel if they send out reminders. Its a good idea to cancel a few days after you sign up if you dont intend to keep it for longer than the term you've paid for.