Complaint to Ombudsman re. Autorenewal = A Sharp Practice

Parking_Trouble

I agree the the OP should not be complaining to the FOS if they have already settled the dispute with the insurer.

If the OP has issues with renewals, presumably part of the contract with the insurer, then I suggest a complaint to the FSA about unfair terms in the contract.

olly300

DCFC79 wrote: »

Im pretty sure your told its an auto renew policy when you take it out or its in the T&C's.

In the case of a card not in the main policy holder's name they shouldn't be automatically auto-renewing.

Sally_A

Have just received daughter's renewal invite.

Enclosed were, the cert for next year, the schedule, renewal confirmation (proof of ncb), a renewal notice showing premium at £429.12, their keyfacts/TOBA - and a single sheet advising it will renew automatically - so not overly bombarded with loads of paper. Granted, the autorenew sheet doesn't actually mention that word, it just says "if nothing has changed, do nothing"

I still need to check with daughter that her debit card is still the same, spoke to Lucy in Cardiff, who agreed a pricematch with the Admiral quote on confused.com for £298.74, so there's £130 saved. I also wanted to check that daughters occupation was OK (she's moved from telesales/customer service to graphic design - same company, same office). Also let her know that despite overnight parking being declared as on our drive, she does spend the occasional night out in Bristol and parks at her mates house, not a problem so long as this is her main residence and the car is usually here.

Also tucked in there was a Renewals Service questionnaire, which I would happily complete, it does say to return in the envelope provided.......no envelope that I can see, but this may be in daughters room.

Other than that, as far as I can see, they don't hide the autorenew from you, unfortunately a lot of people just look at the paper with the priice on it and don't read or bother looking at the other enclosures.

olly300

Sally_A wrote: »

Other than that, as far as I can see, they don't hide the autorenew from you, unfortunately a lot of people just look at the paper with the priice on it and don't read or bother looking at the other enclosures.

The Admiral group of companies use to do until I raised a complaint with the FSA a few years ago.

One of the FSA's nice lawyers phoned them up and oddly they agreed to change the terms in their policies.


BTW I wasn't caught out by the auto-renewal I was just furious that they stuck it in the small print of the policy, and when I questioned them on it they decided not to answer my complaint letter.

mikey72

Sally_A wrote: »

Have just received daughter's renewal invite.

Enclosed were, the cert for next year, the schedule, renewal confirmation (proof of ncb), a renewal notice showing premium at £429.12, their keyfacts/TOBA - and a single sheet advising it will renew automatically - so not overly bombarded with loads of paper. Granted, the autorenew sheet doesn't actually mention that word, it just says "if nothing has changed, do nothing"

I still need to check with daughter that her debit card is still the same, spoke to Lucy in Cardiff, who agreed a pricematch with the Admiral quote on confused.com for £298.74, so there's £130 saved. I also wanted to check that daughters occupation was OK (she's moved from telesales/customer service to graphic design - same company, same office). Also let her know that despite overnight parking being declared as on our drive, she does spend the occasional night out in Bristol and parks at her mates house, not a problem so long as this is her main residence and the car is usually here.

Also tucked in there was a Renewals Service questionnaire, which I would happily complete, it does say to return in the envelope provided.......no envelope that I can see, but this may be in daughters room.

Other than that, as far as I can see, they don't hide the autorenew from you, unfortunately a lot of people just look at the paper with the priice on it and don't read or bother looking at the other enclosures.

So it didn't actually tell you if would auto renew, and was £130 dearer than your best quote. And they could happily afford to drop that much off the premium?

Sally_A

Olly - I don't recall seeing the "auto renew" pamphlet in last years renewal invite. The stationery code on this one is EL70 0811, so maybe they've only been doing it for 6 months.

Mikey - daughter is just going into her 5th year of insurance, aged 21. When she was 17, Elephant were cheapest, every year since then Admiral has been cheaper, I've even asked would it be easier to stick her in the Admiral pot, ie the correct placement for their underwriters - this year Admiral, Diamond and Bell were all cheaper than Elephant, but they agreed to pricematch the best of their own EUI quotes. Besides, I like an excuse to phone them prior to renewal, so I can clear up any possible material facts, as I mentioned above, without getting a £17.50 mid term admin fee .

olly300

Sally_A wrote: »

Olly - I don't recall seeing the "auto renew" pamphlet in last years renewal invite. The stationery code on this one is EL70 0811, so maybe they've only been doing it for 6 months.

Drag everything out that they sent your daughter including the policy booklet and see if it clearly mentions "auto-renewal".

If it doesn't first you need to complain to the company - unfortunately you do need to send the letter by recorded-signed for post as they will pretend they didn't see it, then if they don't reply appropriately take your complaint to the regulator. I complained to the FSA as I hadn't lost any money. (You need to google who to send it to as they are changing who regulates what slightly.)

There are lots of documents on the web stating clearly that the FSA didn't like auto-renewal, but as long a companies made it clear that their policies did that i.e. stating it clearly in the policy documents, they weren't going to do anything.

I'm with a different insurer now who clearly give me the choice between auto-renew when I take out my policy.

Sally_A

Apart from the leaflet that reads "Do nothing if there are no changes", page 1 of the keyfacts leaflet states "Unless you contact us we will automatically apply for your renewal premium from the card details we have on file, shortly after your renewal date. this is to make sure there is no interruption in your insurance cover."

However, even without all these Big Clues, the fact they've enclosed the 2012 - 2013 certificate with the renewal notice would make me take notice.

(Yes, I am from the old school when you had 15 days of grace after renewal at RTA cover to still give you a chance to renew, and where I work now, there is no automatic renewal system in place).

dransfield

dunstonh wrote: »

What you mean is that you are going to complain that the insurer did what they said they were going to do because you were too lazy or too stupid to read your post.



The inability to read and act on instructions does not mean a company stole the money.

I despair at the level of eduction in this country at times.

I'll reply to your message as it was the most obnoxious.

Your missing the point: It doesn't matter how lazy or stupid or badly educated I might be, I entered into an agreement with elephant to provide me with insurance for a year, not on an ongoing basis. There was no cancellation notice period, or any other contractual obligation beyond the expiry date.

Nor was there any obligation for me to "act on instructions", in the same way I'm not obliged to act on instructions of the company that a few years ago fitted my double glazing! I have little doubt that somewhere in the pack they sent me it will inform me of their intention. So what? Shall I write to my neighbour and tell him that I am fencing off the end of his garden on Feb 29th unless he expresses otherwise? If he ignores my letter does that make it okay to proceed? What if I had put my intention in the small print of some other past agreement, does that make it more ethical?

And who are elephant to debit a card just because they have retained the details?

Others respondents to my original post also miss the point when they say "Why complain when they've refunded?". Well I don't see this as being much different to general theft. If somebody stole from me, then I caught them red handed, then they returned my property, but they continued to steal from others (and attempt to steal again from myself in future), I would call the police.

It's the 'sharp practice' that I'm objecting to. I'm complaining because I believe that this practice is wrong and should be changed. Just because my bank balance has been restored is not the point.

It's very interesting how other don't see it this way.
Dransfield

dransfield

custardy wrote: »

the part in red
so you read the renewal letter? the part that said you didnt have to do anything if you wanted to continue?

Postie,
Hands up, no, I didn't read read the full pack. I simply don't have time to read every word of every document that gets sent to me. I get home from work at 9:30pm, and up for work at 6am, so attempt to filter out 'bumf' that is not pertinent.
In this case, my eyes went straight to ridiculous premium figure, and then I was laughing at that until after I had put the whole pack into recycling.
Dransfield