Auto renewals on car insurance

hansi

Do they all operate this "dodgy" practice now. I don't like it one bit. Apart from the fact that they store your credit card details, if you forget when your cover expires, it precludes you from checking out the market upon renewal, or ar are they duty bound to send you a reminder?

mikey72

Duty bound by FA rules to send you details of renewal within a reasonable time before renewal date.
Two to four weeks normally.

However, it's surprising the number that go missing in the post, and the insurer insist that as they sent it, they have fufilled their obligation.
It doesn't seem to work the other way though.
Out of the again surprisingly large number of refusals customers send back that go missing, the insurer insist it only count if they receive them.

I usually phone, take the call centre operators name, and request they confirm in writing, if they don't I write to them as well, and send it sd.

dunstonh

if you forget when your cover expires, it precludes you from checking out the market upon renewal

It also stops you getting 6 points and a possible prosecution.

DCFC79

Is it a dodgy practice ? no

The insurers ive dealt with have the auto renewal but im not bothered by it asi just deal with it. Its easy to put up with it, just mark on a calender when its due and mark on there a date when you start to look for insurance simples. Id rather be covered than find i have no insurance and i get 6 points and a possible prosecution but it would be an expensive lesson learnt and i would learn from it.

mikey72

I'd rather get the letters I used to get, inviting me to contact them if I wished to renew, rather than having to mark a calender so I could make sure it didn't autorenew as a grossly inflated price without me knowing when the insurer didn't send anything.
As far as I'm aware, there wasn't a great deal of 6 points and prosecutions all round under the previous system, in fact I never got any in the last 30 years by missing insurance renewals.

King_Of_Bling

mikey72 wrote: »

However, it's surprising the number that go missing in the post, and the insurer insist that as they sent it

Just like the a55holes at the AA breakdown service, claimed they had sent me a letter 4 weeks before the auto-renewal, the first i realised they had my money was when i saw it on my credit card statement. They did refund it after a few weeks though.

mikey72

King_Of_Bling wrote: »

Just like the a55holes at the AA breakdown service, claimed they had sent me a letter 4 weeks before the auto-renewal, the first i realised they had my money was when i saw it on my credit card statement. They did refund it after a few weeks though.

They appear to be doing that a lot lately.
You can also normally about halve the price if you don't just let it auto renew, even ringing them brings it down to new customer prices, so you can save nearly £100.
(Good reward for loyalty there, and good use of the autorenew system by them. Shame for the customer though.)

lisyloo

I'd rather get the letters I used to get, inviting me to contact them if I wished to renew, rather than having to mark a calender so I could make sure it didn't autorenew as a grossly inflated price without me knowing when the insurer didn't send anything.

Why aren't you with an insurer that doesn't auto renew then?
Is it really that hard to mark a calendar once a year? Surely you do it for the dentist, MOTs, birthdays, anniversaries etc.

in fact I never got any in the last 30 years by missing insurance renewals

Yes but you aren't the sort of person that thinks it's ok to forget to renew your insurance.
There are lots of people that don't appear to think it's that important unfortunately.

If the OP is the type of person that might "forget" (which I think is completely unacceptable) then I'm really glad that auto renewal is becoming common place.
It reduces the chance of innocent people having to claim off a fund of last resort (which the rest of us have to pay for and it's a lot more than £500).

But ultimately if you don't like the product then don't buy it.
I seem to have no problem purchasing insurance without auto-renewal every year (I still mark my calendar to shop around which isn't a big deal at all in fact I like keeping on top of things).

NotSoWise

I got an email about insurance renewal from Swiftcover but there was no way other than phoning on premium number to stop it. Which I resented hugely.

Thank you Noto0870 and other such websites! :T

ihateyes

dunstonh wrote: »

It also stops you getting 6 points and a possible prosecution.

i second that.... we all live a busy life, people often forget things....

6pts, a fine, car seized as well......

Insurance companies give you a few weeks notice, plus a simple note on the calender solves the auto renewal.

InsideInsurance

The reality is there is what? 50,000,000+ in force policies in the uk? It is fairly predictable that sending that number of letters out you are going to get some that don't turn up. Even if you take it to be 0.001% you've got 50,000 getting lost in the post, that doesnt then take into account the more significant proportion of people who throw the letter away unopened thinking its junk mail.

Is it better that 50,000 people a year dont get their renewal notice and so their policy lapses and their home/ car/ pet etc is now uninsured or is it better that it auto renews and so despite the error by Royal Mail the people dont get the IN10 offence.

Either way you need to mark your calendar to say the renewal is due. Of cause the vast majority of us receive our documents and can make the decision to renew or not irrespective if we are on auto renewal or not.