Auto renewel nightmare

rayrox

Hi There,

Have done a quick search but I couldn't find any posts that were quite what I was looking for, so your help would be greatly appreciated.

Basically I didn't cancel the auto renew - Used an "online only" insurance company and I didn't get an email warning me - please dont give me the "it's you own fault" story. The policy was renewed at what I believe to be an extortionate increase. Its risen from £480 (which is round-abouts the same figure they have been charging me for the past 5 years) to £894! I have made no claims in the 5 years I have been with them and the car has remained the same a 1.4l Peugeot 206.

My questions are twofold 1) What are the legalities of emailed notification from insurers - as I clearly would never have allowed this to happen had I known! 2) How can they justify such a steep increase to £894 especially as I have just used a comparison site to be quoted £494 from the same company. Surely this an extremely dodgy practice?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what can I do? Cannot sleep as I'm fret with worry over trying to meet the monthly payments.

Thanks in advance

dacouch

Did you take out cover with a different Insurer to run concurrently?

dunstonh

1) What are the legalities of emailed notification from insurers - as I clearly would never have allowed this to happen had I known!

They have to notify of the renewal in advance of the due date. They also have to state what you should do next if you do or do not wish to renew.

2) How can they justify such a steep increase to £894 especially as I have just used a comparison site to be quoted £494 from the same company. Surely this an extremely dodgy practice?

Year one discounting where they offer the insurance at a loss is common with some providers. It create the problem that when the initial discount is removed (which can either be year 2 or phased over a few years) that the premium can appear to jump up. Whereas in reality, it is just returning to the range it would have been had you not got year one discount. Not unlawful and smart people can take advantage of it by shopping around each year. personally, I think it is a flawed pricing method but all retail businesses retail certain products as loss leaders or to generate profits in other areas.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what can I do?

You complain that you didnt receive the notification of renewal. You provide them your evidence that you were covered elsewhere.

The only problem you will have is if you didnt buy insurance elsewhere.

mikey72

The op's in year 6, so that's a brilliant year 1 discount pricing. It's more likely they just hoped inertia was winning, and they hiked the price on the offchance. But if no advance information was given, the policy should be cancelled and a pro rata patment for days on cover, with no other fees would be the correct way to go, as the op clearly expected to let it renew for a fair price, and wasn't advised otherwise.

rayrox

Thanks for your replies.

I have another car that's also insured with them, when the policy lapsed on my 206 I stopped using it and switched to the other car (golf). So I cannot argue that I had alternative insurance.

The problem with email notifications is that clearly there is a higher chance people might not get them over regular posted letters. As what has happened in my case. How am I supposed to prove I didn't get any emails?

I don't mind the renewal price going up, what I object to is the disproportionate amount it has increased, especially if you factor in the other I car I have with them is a larger 1.6 Golf and that's only costing me £400 a year.

The whole thing stinks to me. Considering I have been a loyal customer for 5 years and have even brought a second car over to them. With this hike I need to try and find an extra £60 a month to cover it - not easy when you are scraping by as it is.

dauphin

Sorry, what you say doesn't seem to add up.
You claim that you stopped using the 206 as from the renewal date. So you knew the policy was running out?
You say you don't mind the renewal price going up - but why would you pay even £500 or so to renew a policy on a car which you'd stopped using?
When was the renewal anyway - did you take the 206 off the public road and make a SORN notification to DVLA at that time and get any remaining road tax refunded?
I don't see what the problem is with email notifications, especially as it will have been made clear at the outset that communication would be by email. What happened at previous renewals, did you get those emails OK?
Don't agree there is a higher chance of not receiving emails. OK it may be hard to prove you didn't receive an email, but surely no harder than proving you didn't receive a letter.
Maybe you are getting a discount on the Golf for insuring a 2nd car with the same company. If it's now your only vehicle you should probably let the insurance company know.
If you don't require the insurance have you approached the insurer to find out their terms for cancellation and to find out if this would affect their terms for insuring the Golf?