Automatic car insurance renewal - can I do anything?

mightymixty

Hi I have really been caught out by my car insurance and wondered if anyone could offer some advice. I took out what I understood was an annual policy with Admiral - but in the fine print it apparently states that it needs to be cancelled after a yer or they will automatically renew it (it didnt say this when I ordered online but I need to check my policy document carefully when I get home.) I no longer have any need for the car insurance. When Admiral was unable to take the full amount from my bank account they have cancelled the policy and charged me 130 pounds.
Is there any way I can get the money back? - I provided my card details for a one off payment, if I had paid by cheque for example they wouldn't have been able to do this!:mad:
Obviously I have learnt from my mistake but feel I have been misled when I took out the policy. It's the first time I have taken out an insurance policy but asked family who said they have never had to cancel a yearly policy. Has anyone had a similar experience or could offer some advice please?

System

There are loads of threads on this forum for this same topic...search and ye shall find

mightymixty

BAA1 wrote: »

There are loads of threads on this forum for this same topic...search and ye shall find

Oh yeah sorry i didn't think to search first - too angry/stressed lol!

I understand if the thread should be deleted.

cleggie

Didnt you get any reminders?
I always assume it will roll over to the following year unless i phone up and cancel- i think thats the norm isnt it?

lisyloo

You should have received a reminder letter which stated what you need to do if you wanted the policy to continue (nothing) or stop (cancel it).
If you don't want to take responsibility for the small print, then you could use an insurance broker.
A lot of people don't seem to realise that when they take out insurance themselves that they accept responsibility for what they sign up to in the terms and conditions.

InsideInsurance

To be honest the £130 is going to be the least of your problems as you now have to declare your cancelled insurance to all your insurers and will be limited only to those that are willing to take on sub prime risks (think the door step lenders of the insurance world) but unlike your credit file you can never remove that black mark

You will have received a renewal notice that would have stated it will automatically renew and you will also have received chasers about the payment. People can certainly be partially forgiven for not reading the initial T&Cs when buying or at least not remembering them a year later but to ignore a whole series of letters afterwards you cannot really then turn round and complain

mightymixty

Thanks for your replies. I received no reminders - they may have been sent to my previous address where I no longer live. I also didn't receive any e-mail notifications but I don't know how I would have been contacted. Just really gutted:(

cajef

mightymixty wrote: »

I received no reminders - they may have been sent to my previous address where I no longer live.

Which raises the question of did you bother to notify the insurance company of your change of address, if not then really there is only one person to blame.

mightymixty

cajef wrote: »

Which raises the question of did you bother to notify the insurance company of your change of address, if not then really there is only one person to blame.

As I believed the policy was finished there was no reason to.

olly300

The Admiral group don't have the fact they auto renewal in their small print anymore.

Like most insurers now if you actually read your policy documents when you recieved them it would state in the keyfacts that the policy auto renews or can auto renew.

rs65

When you say you no longer had need for insurance, what do you mean? Did you sell the car, scrap it etc..?

What I'm getting at is can you prove that there was nothing to insure after a certain date?