Warning - Admiral Motor Insurance? Are they Crooks

abigbill

My Admiral motor policy expired 6 weeeks ago. Paid in full at inception for the year. I allowed it to lapse and I went with another quote, yet Admiral auto-renewed and now send me a bill for the auto-renewal. It is nearly £70.00 for insurance I did not request. Thus I am insured 'twice over' for this period. They will not deem insurance lapsed after th first year.

I'm told its in the Admiral T & C. I must pay for insurance I did not renew. I asked why they limitedrenewal to a few weeks, rather than 'stick me on' for another year. Why not a decade and 'have done'? To this they had no answer. A yearly quote, if you adhere to their stealth Terms & Conditions, actully means you pay for insurance for 13 months minimum. Or more if they think they can swing it. But I wonder, had I claimed in that renewal period, would I have been insured? I susepect not, they'd have said I had not renewed. Cute.

Nasty. Leave them alone.

But they have my credit card number. How do I fight it? Any one know?

dunstonh

How do I fight it? Any one know?

Yes. You look at the contract you agreed and you look at the renewal letter.

if the contract doesnt say it will auto renew and the renewal letter didnt say what you should do if you dont want to renew then you complain and you will find the FOS will agree with you (if Admiral wont).
If the contract does say they use auto renewal and the renewal letter told you what to do if you did not wish to renew but you chose to ignore that then it is your fault and its unlikely that a complaint would be successful.

Auto renewal is allowed and is legal. As long as the renewal letter is quite clear on what you should do next then you would expect the FOS to go with Admiral. They have in the past gone with the policyholder when the auto renewal was not made clear but you would expect most renewal letters nowadays to be clear and simple. Typically you find the fault is with the policyholder for not reading the letter sent to them.

vusys1

Get them to check the original sales call as they have to tell you that the policy will auto renew or ask you permission to auto renew.

You would have had to also agreed to a card mandate (if paid by card) which also gives the insurer permission to debit the card when there is a renewal or debit/refund if there are any changes to the policy.

You should have received automated renewal invite

adamc260

Not to pick here but what I find so interesting is

Every day there's tons of posts about companies that 'Auto renew' and then they're labelled as crooks

Perhaps you should call them before renewal and say 'Look, I don't want to renew.... thanks very much!' then problem solved...

shelly

adamc260 wrote: »

Not to pick here but what I find so interesting is

Every day there's tons of posts about companies that 'Auto renew' and then they're labelled as crooks

Perhaps you should call them before renewal and say 'Look, I don't want to renew.... thanks very much!' then problem solved...

How dare you suggest that people take responsibility for themselves!!




:rotfl:

Purple_kitten

In short, I agree with abigbill - Admiral were / are useless I would reccommend people avoid them and go with proper research. Or I guess it's a lesson learned I certainly would never insure with them again, learning by mistakes.

diable

I find Admiral ok and with any policy I make sure auto renewal won't be part of the deal. As someone mentioned you need to take responsibility for your financial matters.