home insurance renewal problem

fussypot1

I'm looking for some advice, we had our home insurance with ensure and we decided to look around and settled on the aa. I just cancelled to annual direct debit with ensure and didn't contact them cause didn't want to go through sales stuff. They are now claiming that they automatically renewed, even though they received no payment, and we now owe them a months insurance payment! I checked policy online and it only says you 'should' tell them you are not renewing. Also I didn't think that you were allowed to hold more than 1 policy as you could claim twice and that's fraud??
So question is should I tell them where to go, or pay the money as don't want credit rating affected as that's what they have threatened?

huckster

Read your Esure renewal documents. Does it mention automatic renewal and that you need to contact them, if you no longer wanted the policy ? If so then it is not Esures fault. They are allowed to include an automatic renewal clause in the policy.

Suggest that you write to Esure with a photocopy of the AA policy schedule, just stating that you had arranged Insurance elsewhere and apologise if they had not received confirmation of the cancellation from renewal.

inoutnotsure

Unfortunatley, if you have purchased another policy after the renewal date, they have provided you with some days cover and therefore the insurer are entitled for this cover.

Having 2 insurance policies means you just have dual insurance and fraud does not really apply unless you try to claim on both insurers for the same amount. There are differences in the cover each policy offers so you could make 2 claims on 2 insures for 2 different events.

ihateyes

fussypot1 wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice, we had our home insurance with ensure and we decided to look around and settled on the aa. I just cancelled to annual direct debit with ensure and didn't contact them cause didn't want to go through sales stuff. They are now claiming that they automatically renewed, even though they received no payment, and we now owe them a months insurance payment! I checked policy online and it only says you 'should' tell them you are not renewing. Also I didn't think that you were allowed to hold more than 1 policy as you could claim twice and that's fraud??
So question is should I tell them where to go, or pay the money as don't want credit rating affected as that's what they have threatened?

Your policy is with esure.... not the bank. cancelling a ddeb does not cancel the policy.

the letter wouldve stated if your happy to renew, you dont need to do anything.

a lesson learnt. but the above advice is spot on.

*Scarlett

They might waive the charge if you can offer proof that you have taken out a new policy.

Many companies will offer dates for collection of DD that may fall after the policy has started and I'm sure if you were going to renew with them you would expect to be covered for a claim if it had fallen between these dates.

It's not enough just to cancel the DD - you need to tell the insurer to lapse the policy. Your renewal docs should have told you that it would auto renew.