Admiral Insurance Auto Renewal - Advice Needed

h2oh2o

Hi there,

Auto Renewal question here - I never received an auto renewal quote from admiral and they auto renewed me. When they couldn't take payment (as my card details had changed) they cancelled the insurance and this is where I learned about the fact my insurance auto renewed as they had text me to call them urgently!

Anyway, 16 months later and a few debt collection emails later I decided to pursue legal advice. I was advised to contact the insurance and ask them to provide me proof that hey had indeed posted the letter.

I called them and they said they could write to me saying they had posted the documents but could not provide any "proof" as such. They said all undelivered mail is returned to them but I politely told them that this was not proof that they had sent it.

I have no credit agreement with them as the original policy I had taken with them was paid upfront.

Any advice on how to deal with the debt collectors would be greatly appreciated.

antonic

By law, all post is deemed as being received 2 days after it was posted.

fatbelly

I take it you don't have the response from Admiral in writing. You need it so write to them, requesting they write this off and explaining what happened.

You can tell the dca that the matter is in dispute and they should cease collection activity (OFT guidance)

You can then (when you get the response) refer the matter to FOS.

In your case I am not sure what they are claiming - a full year's payment? Even though they did not provide insurance for any part of this? Compensation for breach of contract? Just a cancellation fee?

It would be good too have in writing exactly why they think they can claim the amount they are doing.

Watchdog notes some customers who had similar problems

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zkz1k/features/car-insurance-auto-renewal

Auto renewal is a bit of a pain and you do have to keep track of it. Your post just reminded me to cancel my mcafee auto renewal, which was about to charge me £54.99 for something I no longer use

Theone1_1

When you take our car insurance with Admiral and click that you agree to the terms and conditions you are agreeing that you are happy with their auto renewal procedure. When you had your Admiral policy did you register for their online documents? If so all of your renewal documents will be uploaded to the online portal in which you would have had an email renewal reminder asking you to log into your portal for your renewal quote / documents.... Anyhow, when your renewal date arrives your renewal payment would have been applied for it then can take 3-10 days to clear or reject ... Once it shows as rejected you would have been sent a letter asking you to call within 7 days to make alternative payment arrangements or your policy will be cancelled ....while all the time still being insured. Once the 8th day arrives the policy will cancel if no payment has been made. Did you change your address mid term? If so did you call Admiral the advise them of this? If not how do you expect yor documents to get to you? .....Did you take out alternative insurance from your renewal date? If so Admiral will have no problem in checking this for you and writing off and outstanding balance for the new term. If not then Admiral have done you a favour by keeping you insured for a few extra days so that you weren't driving around not insured as if you did gave a claim they would have still paid out...... The amount outstanding will not be the full years premium. It will either be £22.50 for cancellation within the first 14 days from renewal, or if past the first 14 days from renewal it will be a charge for the days used on cover from your renewal date plus a £47.50 cancellation fee.

h2oh2o

Thanks for your replies.

Online documents were not available at this time as it was over a year ago.

I did move house but this was after the policy had expired. I was only really aware of the renewal once they had text me saying to call them.

My car was off road and I was not driving hence not renewing. I was no aware of the rule that the car had to be declared SORN if it was parked on private property. Admiral informed me of this and I declared it SORN immediately.

I had offered admiral to pay for the period on cover (20 days) but they would not accept.

As things progressed it got passed to a debt collectors and now a year and a half later they are threatening legal action. I sought legal advice and was told to ask admiral for proof that they had sent the docs.

When I called admiral they said they could not provide this, but could merely write a letter stating that they had posted the renewal docs.

I again made my offer to pay for time on cover and after a while they accepted. I asked them to send this to me in writing by email which almost a week later still has not come. They said I would have to pay the debt collector and would also have to pay the collectors admin fee of £25 as it has already been passed on to them.