Help..i have been a fool!!

swirlykat

Hi all,
I am new on here and as a last resort hoping someone can help!!?
I am pretty sure that there is nothing I can do but you never know... Only realised TODAY that for the past year my husbands car has been insured with 2 different insurers! Our previous insurer so it would seem insured automatically online, we recieved nothing in the post and no certificate etc. We found cheaper insurance with tesco so switched to them (or so we thought) Tesco have now sent us (in the post) the usual renewal paperwork etc. I have looked back through bank statements and realised that our old provider has been taking monthly payments for the last 11 months also.

Trailing through emails tonight from 2011 the previous insurer did send us one email to say that our renewal was due, and another to say that our renewal was done and we were now insured from 2011-2012, these emails were sent at a time when I was 8 months pregnant and we were having major works on our home which resulted us in moving out for 2 weeks! I am usually totally on the ball with this stuff but for the life of me CANNOT remember if we rang them to cancel the renewal or not, however we recieved nothing in the post to confirm or accept the new direct debit amount, it has all now been found in an email! My husband then logged into the online account and was told to open an attachment which low and behold had the certificate and DD mandate form on.
Just wondered, do I have a leg to stand on? I know its my own stupid fault for not even realising that the direct debit was still coming out of the bank but can they renew automaticallt ONLINE???
As it is now renewal time again My husband logged in the account again and there were 2 options 'RENEW NOW' or 'DONT RENEW' surely we would have had to click 'renew' last year..which we definatley did not do, why else would we get insurance from someone else if we thought we were insured!

Pleeaseee any help offered very much appreciated! So angry with myself right now!

Macca83_2

My car insurance have always emailed me to say that my renewal is available to view online and that if Im happy with the price i need not do anything to renew.
Unfortunately i don't really think you've got a leg to stand on. The direct debit came off your bank account monthly, any provider Will ask the obvious question of why haven't you noticed this before. You being a bit too busy to notice won't cut it. But i could imagine your frustration!

SevenOfNine

It isn't just car insurers who have lumped this auto renewal line in - virtually all mine have, whoever they are, whatever I'm insuring for and both on-line or phone! It irritates me as I'm perfectly capable of remembering when various insurance is due.

Does appear that they complied with the usual clause that might go with the auto renewal in that they did notify you beforehand. Look through the documentation, my new house insurance policy from Swinton has, at the end of the covering letter, a clear statement saying "If you are paying for your policy by Direct Debit, we may renew your policy automatically for your protection" - they don't even seem to have to let me know! Won't be a problem for me, I've already done what I always do, called to say "remove that" (noting date/time/who I've spoken to).

BUT, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'd say it's worth asking some questions about what the renew/don't renew policy was last year, but can't say I'm hopeful for you.

Don't beat yourself up about not noticing double payments - fierce (expensive) lesson learnt there. My son & DiL once managed to pay 2 lots of house insurance with Barclays every month for a year. Thankfully they did get 1 lot back but I was left wondering how I'd managed to produce such a dozy son!!!

Hope you get at least some of it back, good luck.

Wywth

swirlykat wrote: »

Hi all,
I am new on here and as a last resort hoping someone can help!!?
I am pretty sure that there is nothing I can do but you never know... Only realised TODAY that for the past year my husbands car has been insured with 2 different insurers! Our previous insurer so it would seem insured automatically online, we recieved nothing in the post and no certificate etc. We found cheaper insurance with tesco so switched to them (or so we thought) Tesco have now sent us (in the post) the usual renewal paperwork etc. I have looked back through bank statements and realised that our old provider has been taking monthly payments for the last 11 months also.

Trailing through emails tonight from 2011 the previous insurer did send us one email to say that our renewal was due, and another to say that our renewal was done and we were now insured from 2011-2012, these emails were sent at a time when I was 8 months pregnant and we were having major works on our home which resulted us in moving out for 2 weeks! I am usually totally on the ball with this stuff but for the life of me CANNOT remember if we rang them to cancel the renewal or not, however we recieved nothing in the post to confirm or accept the new direct debit amount, it has all now been found in an email! My husband then logged into the online account and was told to open an attachment which low and behold had the certificate and DD mandate form on.
Just wondered, do I have a leg to stand on? I know its my own stupid fault for not even realising that the direct debit was still coming out of the bank but can they renew automaticallt ONLINE???
As it is now renewal time again My husband logged in the account again and there were 2 options 'RENEW NOW' or 'DONT RENEW' surely we would have had to click 'renew' last year..which we definatley did not do, why else would we get insurance from someone else if we thought we were insured!

Pleeaseee any help offered very much appreciated! So angry with myself right now!

I would suggest 'DONT RENEW' if you can get the same cover for less from Tesco

Wywth

swirlykat wrote: »

Hi all,
I am new on here and as a last resort hoping someone can help!!?
I am pretty sure that there is nothing I can do but you never know... Only realised TODAY that for the past year my husbands car has been insured with 2 different insurers! Our previous insurer so it would seem insured automatically online, we recieved nothing in the post and no certificate etc. We found cheaper insurance with tesco so switched to them (or so we thought) Tesco have now sent us (in the post) the usual renewal paperwork etc. I have looked back through bank statements and realised that our old provider has been taking monthly payments for the last 11 months also.

Trailing through emails tonight from 2011 the previous insurer did send us one email to say that our renewal was due, and another to say that our renewal was done and we were now insured from 2011-2012, these emails were sent at a time when I was 8 months pregnant and we were having major works on our home which resulted us in moving out for 2 weeks! I am usually totally on the ball with this stuff but for the life of me CANNOT remember if we rang them to cancel the renewal or not, however we recieved nothing in the post to confirm or accept the new direct debit amount, it has all now been found in an email! My husband then logged into the online account and was told to open an attachment which low and behold had the certificate and DD mandate form on.
Just wondered, do I have a leg to stand on? I know its my own stupid fault for not even realising that the direct debit was still coming out of the bank but can they renew automaticallt ONLINE???
As it is now renewal time again My husband logged in the account again and there were 2 options 'RENEW NOW' or 'DONT RENEW' surely we would have had to click 'renew' last year..which we definatley did not do, why else would we get insurance from someone else if we thought we were insured!

Pleeaseee any help offered very much appreciated! So angry with myself right now!

How have you handled the NCD ??? :huh:

You can't use the same discount on two policies at the same time.

tescobabe69

As far as I know it is against the law to be insured twice, ring the company up and explain.

I had this with house insurance a couple of years back, a cheque came quite quickly.

rs65

tescobabe69 wrote: »

As far as I know it is against the law to be insured twice, ring the company up and explain.

I had this with house insurance a couple of years back, a cheque came quite quickly.

Its not illegal.

immoral_angeluk

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to the insurance board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

agrinnall

This has been moved to the wrong place really, it would be much better on the insurance board where this sort of thing has come up before.

As far as I remember it may be possible to get a refund of premiums (they may be able to charge an admin fee) from one of the insurers on the basis that the vehicle was insured elsewhere and therefore there was no risk to be covered by the second company. However, it's not my area of expertise so don't take my word for it.

Voyager2002

Did the amount taken each month change when the policy auto-renewed? If so, you can get them under the direct debit guarantee since they have to let you know about any change in the amount.

wealdroam

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Did the amount taken each month change when the policy auto-renewed? If so, you can get them under the direct debit guarantee since they have to let you know about any change in the amount.

But the OP did tell us...

swirlykat wrote: »

...we recieved nothing in the post to confirm or accept the new direct debit amount, it has all now been found in an email!