Stalked and threatened by car insurance compay "ADMIRAL"

Astaroth

Certainly the debt collectors tactics may be bad... if you do a google for it there is a UK association of debt collectors which requires its members to abide certain standards - it doesnt clear your debt if they dont but they will get find by the association for the breach (and I think may be asked to give compensation).... could be worth looking into.

MORPH3US

I think this "auto renewal" is a joke!!! I've never heard of it and have certainly never been a victim of it......

I would kick up a right fuss if this every happened to me, but since you have sorted it now then no need!!

M

p1an0player

I sympathise with Destination Anywhere and feel that Admiral's auto-renewal policy is wrong.

I also had a policy with Admiral and was annoyed to find they would auto-renew it. They sent me a new certificate of insurance, which I duly returned after calling them, but they didn't receive it and sent me another letter that I had to sign to say I didn't want the insurance. So it's not the cost of the 0870 but also the hassle of the paperwork (and having to post the letters).

I guess we just have to accept that this policy of theirs helped us to get a cheaper premium in the first place. However if anyone can suggest other companies that don't auto-renew, I'd be grateful to hear of them.

To anyone finding themselves in this position, I did read elsewhere that if someone has ignored the renewal letters, Admiral will be sympathetic if you phone up and speak to them meekly.

Incidentally, the 0870 number is only about 3p per min after 6pm weekdays and at weekends.

p1an0player

dunstonh wrote:

When you enter into a contract, not notifying the other party that you are cancelling does mean that not paying it will act as cancelling it for you.

Many people make this mistake when cancelling a direct debit. All that does is cancel the method of payment. It doesnt cancel the contract. In your case, the contract never got cancelled and it became voided due to non payment after 3 months but you are still liable for that 3 month period.

I read the first paragraph as meaning "if you don't pay, your contract is automatically cancelled".

And second paragraph as the opposite.

Is this correct?

Bamber19

no, the user Dunstonh isn't quite correct, the first paragraph suggests not paying will cancel the contract, it wont, it will just mean one party to the contract has not performed their part of the contract which is a breach of contract.

the second paragraph is also wrong as it uses the term voided to describe a contract that hasn't been cancelled but one party hasn't performed or contiunued to perform their part of the contract...in fact a void contract is one which has been deemed never to have existed, either due to a lack of consensus in idem or because of illegality

Davidboy

Can I just say in defence of Admiral, my daughter had an accident a few months ago (not her fault and no blame attributed) but I was not at home (away with work) so she had to phone Admiral all by herself (she is only 18!) they were most helpful and told her not to worry it would all be sorted, and sorted it was, she had nothing at all to do, the car was repaired and a hire car was supplied, a really first class service.

Not sure if all insurance companies are like this as I have never had to claim. But have to speak as I find.


D

richy12345

hi, sorry for reviving this thread after so long, but ive had a very similar experience and when i googled it, i found this

I actually informed admiral of my wish to no longer continue my policy, due to the fact that the renewals were stupidly high and constantly bad customer support.

So, i then recieved a letter a few weeks later explaining that they were proceeding to request the money from my credit card. I spent an hour on the phone yet was unable to get through, and i rang my credit card company who could also not help.

standard so far

then it occurred to me, my card expired only a few weeks ago, and they wouldnt have my new card details as i hadnt even took it out of the envelope

i checked the letter again, and sure enough, the card number was right, the expiry date was wrong.

What concerned me though was my card expired in the year 07 and they had this on file as they took a small payment from it in august when i changed my car, but now they have the expiry as 09 which was wrong.

What has clearly happened is they have realised it had expired when they have tried to apply for the money and have actually GUESSED my new expiry date in an attempt to get the money from me.

Are they legally allowed to do this?

Eydon

Afraid so. In the credit card industry it's called continuous authority. It can be used by certain merchants for cardholder not present transactions. If a merchant is set up for these types of payments then they don't need the expiry date of your card, because they enter a dummy one. The bank's backend systems recognise that the merchant has this facility and so don't do the normal expiry date processing.

Unlike direct debits which you can cancel directly with your bank, you cannot cancel a continous authority by contacting your credit card company - it must be cancelled with the company who has the authority (in this case Admiral).

V_Turner

HI, not sure if richy12345 got an apology or not? My story is same. I actually called Admiral and told them on the day that I did not want to renew with them as they were expensive. They said fine. Now after 3 months, they wrote to me giving me notice to collect the renewal from my credit card and in fact have now collected the funds. I have written to them and spoke to them on their 0870 and 0845 number. Was told that they will retrieve the recorded tel call of 3 months back and if I am right, cancel the cover.
My advice to all - AVOID ADMIRAL AT ALL COST. Let us all vote with our feet. Their incompetence is just mind blowing.