Problems with car insurance !!

kellyd

In need of some advice please peeps ...

We have very busy life with 4 kids and 2 cars with different insurance company's we recently moved house. After checking our bank a few weeks ago I noticed our insurance payment had changed from £70 to £120 a month ! After digging out the insurance papers I realised the policy had expired 2 weeks before and we had forgot to change our address with them when we moved (we had changed the other car) .. I got straight on the phone to them, they said they had wrote to us and as we hadn't been In touch they automatically renewed the policy and it had gone up £500 ! They then wanted £300 for us to cancel the policy ! I explained they did have other ways of contacting me they had my mobile number and email address on file. I cancelled the policy and got car issuance for less than half they had quoted. Now the company have instucted a debt recovery company to collect the £300 from us, my questions are do we have to pay and was the company allowed to change the direct debit amount from my bank without my concent ???

Thanks in advance !!

Quentin

kellyd wrote: »

.... my questions are do we have to pay and was the company allowed to change the direct debit amount from my bank without my concent ???

Yes.

You will have agreed to this auto renewal when first taking out the policy.

InsideInsurance

The DD you signed up to will also have been a variable DD and so they can change the amount as long as they tell you before hand, they dont need your explicit consent.

The whole point, officially, of auto renewals is such that you dont need to make contact to renew your insurance. Written letters are considered the most reliable form of communication and so when they did that and got no response they are under no obligation to then try use another less reliable medium of comms

The fees are payable and you probably want to pay them before you also get a CCJ

vaio

Cancellation fees are subject to oversight by the FOS, pro rata for time on cover plus an admin fee of £50 has been deemed reasonable, if yours is significantly more than that then stick a complaint in

luci

If the company hadn't auto renewed your policy you would have been driving uninsured and that could have been even more expensive!

bouncydog1

vaio wrote: »

Cancellation fees are subject to oversight by the FOS, pro rata for time on cover plus an admin fee of £50 has been deemed reasonable, if yours is significantly more than that then stick a complaint in

Suggest that before you go down the complaint route, you ask for a full breakdown of the charge as some elements of a policy are purchased for a whole year and are not cancellable e.g. breakdown cover and other add ons.

vaio

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Suggest that before you go down the complaint route, you ask for a full breakdown of the charge as some elements of a policy are purchased for a whole year and are not cancellable e.g. breakdown cover and other add ons.

Good point, but that's something else that's maybe overdue for an FOS referral

mikey72

vaio wrote: »

Good point, but that's something else that's maybe overdue for an FOS referral

Especially as there seems to be a trend to include these in auto renewals, when they weren't there the year before.

MrRog

I have the same situation. I did not agree to an autorenewal as it was only ever mentioned on my 1st policy (3 years ago which was a different car and therfore never auto-renewed) following policies never mentioned auto-renewal at all (As I thought they had to) I was also charged several hundred pounds which they just took from my account, as this is a new contract (contracts are only yearly) I would imagine that law would state that they could renew my policy, but that I would have to sign to agree, non the less.

I have currently been charged over £300 for insurance I didnt need as the car wasn't in use.

To make matter worse I wrote and told them that I was contacting an ombudsman and they passed the debt on and charged me another £25.

In the old days my insurance would just ask if I wanted another year, and even give me a few days to sort out the paperwork.

Sorry to hijack, but as my situation is exactly the same I was hoping to make some progress.

Regards
Nick

vaio

Probably best to delete that and start your own thread, that way there is no confusion about who is answering what post etc