Admiral + Elephant car insurance totally fuming

karel35

Hi

To cut a long story short I went with Admiral for my car last year and when it was due for renewal I had a quote for £616 which I threw in the bin as I always get it cheaper by comparioson sites.

I then went with Elephant.co.uk who have not sent me any documents online or through the post. I then looked on the reviews and found they have terrible reviews for all kinds of things and that they are the same company as Admiral. Well lone behold after paying elephant £414 for this years insurance I checked my bank today and Admiral have taken £616 out of my bank, the same bloody company!

I have heard about auto renewal after searching and as it has never happened to me before I did not think about it, no one has ever come back the year after and took the money out. The other point is I never pay by DD and thought if you paid yearly on your card then they did not have your bank details to do such a thing. (Clearly they do)

They only took the money out yesterday by the way and the insurance ran out over a week ago, can I not just say I am taking advantage of the 14 day cooling off period as i know they will blame me and try and add fees etc even though I am insured with the same company twice.

Before I ring and try and sort this out can anyone advise so as to help me on my next step. I have rung my bank who say they can't reverse the payment only put in a dispute if I get nowhere with them

Thanks Paul

InsideInsurance

Main advice, next time read your renewal letter as it will clearly state if you need to call to renew or if by doing nothing they will automatically renew you.

Phone Admiral, have your elephant policy documents to hand. Given you have stayed within the group I suspect there will be little issue cancelling it. Personally I would take the "I was an idiot" approach and go for sympathy rather than ranting/ fuming "I know my rights" approach which is more likely to get peoples back up and less likely to get a guesture of goodwill (which is what you are asking for)

karel35

I have not of yet had any documents from Elephant and have emailed them 4 times without reply. I phoned them this morning as I thought I may need them and their online process to view them did not work and they said they would send them out to me in 5 working days although we will see. I do though have the policy number

I will try and keep calm, but don't want to look as a soft touch and if I play the idiot card and they say well then its your fault I have little come back. Even staying calm I would rather have some ammo like 'I am using my legal right to 14 days cooling off period' or if they try and charge me etc, let them know that I will open a dispute on the payment instead. In my experience when you ring you usually get someone from a call centre who has little clue to how to resolve these things anyway.

As much as I hate this practice and think it is immoral, they surely hold some responsibilty for insuring me twice and wont have a leg to stand on if they get funny.

Thanks for your reply

InsideInsurance

Cooling off period really only impacts the optional extras which typically are non-refundable after the period ends. Administration fees can apply inside and outside of the cooling off period and there is no motor insurance policy that cannot be cancelled (it would breach one of the major tenants of treating customers fairly).

Just because you accept you made a mistake doesnt make you a soft touch but shows you are human and a reasonable person. It also doesnt stop you subsequently taking a harder line if you dont get what you want.

karel35

I will ring them and see what happens

Thanks

mikey72

Admiral should give you a full refund, if you have insurance elsewhere.

karel35

I hope so it is just if they start trying to charge me for it or think I am stupid and start saying its my fault

I would never put anything past these people

david39

I would never put anything past these people

Before you start pre-judging what they are going to say, or how they are going to treat you, and then ranting off about it on here, why not give them a ring and find out exactly what they are prepared to do.

If, then, you don't think you have been treated fairly, that is the time to express your true feelings.

Incidentally, up to press, neither company has acted any differently to the way in which all insurance companies trade.

karel35

Before you start pre-judging what they are going to say, or how they are going to treat you, and then ranting off about it on here, why not give them a ring and find out exactly what they are prepared to do.

I will say whatever I wish on an open forum thank you very much, so go on your crusade to flex your forum muscles elsewhere and do notice the word 'IF' in my sentence "If they start....... and understand this is not pre judging, it means I don't know if they will or they wont

And for your information what I say is not not only past experiences, but also on numerous other threads on different forums about their so called practices. I detest this policy of auto renewal which we all know why it is there, it is not for our benefit and has caused many people grief so do forgive me for not loving these people

Now do have a good day

rev_henry

Just ring them, I think they'll just refund the renewal once you explain, considering you're still with them. For future reference, when you get your renewal letter from Admiral, if you call and say elephant's cheaper they will match it - no messing around changing companies.

InsideInsurance

karel35 wrote: »

I detest this policy of auto renewal which we all know why it is there, it is not for our benefit and has caused many people grief so do forgive me for not loving these people

We are all entitled to our own opinions, and yes unsurprisingly insurers do see a benefit from having auto renewal in place, but given the majority of people do renew with the same insurer each year it does cater to the masses that only the minority that wish to switch that need to make a call.

On top of the basics of getting the smallest population to be the ones that need to take action I have seen a large number of complaints where people have accidents or stopped by the police post lapsing of their policy and they claim they forgot or never received any of the 6 or so letters that had been sent. Of cause those are the ones that are actually logged and I'd imagine the majority accept they were in the wrong for forgetting to renew and deal with the matters themselves.