Should car insurers be banned from auto-renewing?

Former_MSE_Debs

Poll started 3 Sep 2012

Some car insurers automatically renew your policy each year, unless you get in touch to say “STOP!”. The advantage of this is you can be fined for not having insurance if you’ve a car even if you’re not driving. The disadvantage is it can lock you into their overpriced policy.

Which of the options in this week's poll do you think is right?

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Why did you pick that option? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click this

Lifes_Grand_Plan

I hate auto renewals... at first was going to vote "no way should they be allowed" but then thought that some people might prefer them... and whilst doing so will cost them lots of money in the long run by not getting them to shop around... its their choice.

So I voted to allow them but ONLY when people opt in.

saintalan

"Allow auto renewing only if premium not interested" ? I guess it should read "Allow auto renewing only if premium not increased" ?

pete_v

Surprised at so many people saying "ban auto renewals". I want an auto renewal, what business is it of yours to stop me?

If I'm away, or busy, or for whatever reason fail to renew my insurance myself, I would much rather pay a bit more by being auto-renewed onto a less than ideal policy, than be prosecuted for driving without insurance. If auto-renewal had to be opt-in by law, then I would opt-in.

Frankly I'd also prefer that people too disorganised to sort out their insurance every year (there's plenty out there) were insured through auto-renewal when they hit me. So I'd rather that auto-renewal were opt-out, so that the disorganised were included by default.

You get a month's notice before your insurance gets renewed, that's plenty of time to find a better deal. You could put a note in your calendar if you need longer, it's completely predictable. Having auto-renewal doesn't mean you have to take their offer, just that it's there as a backstop if you fail to do anything.

Pete

DrZoops

Autorenewal is convenient and can prevent people accidentally driving without cover. When my partner forgot to renew our car insurance I was quite upset as I thought we had been driving without cover for several weeks; I was relieved to discover that the cover had auto-renewed. The premium increase was pretty small (less than £10), so I don't feel we were being ripped off.

As long as you get one month's notice and a clear indication of the new premium, I think it is useful. It would be ideal if the renewal notice also stated the premium you paid for the previous year's cover, so you can easily see the increase.

Jennifer_Jane

Wouldn't mind either 'Opt IN' or 'Opt OUT' buttons, but hate the auto-renewal.

NevGeorge

Every time I try and select a poll on this website it comes back and says I have already voted when I haven't...so a bit pointless really.

The_Kids_PA

According to Karen at Aviva it's my own stupid fault that I hadn't realised that I had signed up for Annually paid car insurance rather than Annual! I was horrified when I logged onto my Aviva account to cancel it, having shopped around and found a better deal, only to be greeted with a message thanking me for renewing my insurance with them. I have no idea at what stage of the buying process I signed up for automatic renewal - I am fastidious when buying insurance that I don't signup for automatic renewal having been caught out by Elephant previously. The car insurance saga doesn't end there! Having just renewed I was then emailed with my insurance confirmation from echoice plus their requirements to allow me to have £270 worth of insurance with them - photo copies of of NCB certificate, all 4 sides of the car's log book, photo and paper copies of each of the 3 insured driving licenses! When I rang to find out why all this paperwork was necessary and to point out that the cost in printer ink to provide all the items was nearly going to match the insurance premium, I was told that I had been randomly selected (!) - to which I responded that if it's not a requirement please randomly deselect me! No. I then cancelled my insurance and to their credit they didn't charge the £25 admin fee they could had every right to. With 4 cars in the family to insure the experience is unbearable every time and you just come away feeling either fleeced or scammed!

dalesrider

The only people who complain about auto renewall. Are the silly people who fail to read the letter that says...

Please contact us if you want to cancel the policy.

Many people are to daft to shop around each year for best price and are happy to be fleeced by inflated renewalls.

End of the day. people have to take responsibilty for their actions. Or inaction...

madkingsoup

Really hate the idea of banning it altogether as that removes your right to agree to an autorenewal if you want to.

kennyjosiah

HATE auto renewal and seems to be a recent thing as in previous years I never had auto renewal, I just looked at the front page of my renewal quote letter which was way too high so just ignored few weeks later had a letter to say they had tried to get the payment but LUCKILY my credit card had refused (this was only becuase that particular credit card no longer existed)

It is just an extra job each year ringing round cancelling insurance renewals, aa breakdown and any other mugging company that wants to take my money (in the hope we havent noticed! and then charge us cancellation fees because we havent read the pages of small print as it is never actually pointed out to us) :mad: