Problem with Diamond - what to do?

Bossyboots

thegoon appears to have missed the point that you entered into a 12 month contract with them which you chose not to renew. There is nothing owing for the 10 days pro rata or otherwise because as far as you are concerned you were not insured with them from the day your policy ended.

You have not cancelled your policy, you have simply not renewed it. Cancellation is when you have contracted to something you then don't want. Try pointing this out to them, insisting that you did not cancel your policy because they were not asked to renew it from the date it ended with them.

Paul_Varjak

comicmankev wrote:

On a variant, if I did say to the 'I'll see you in court' would this effect our/her credit rating as an unpaid bill?

There will probably already be indications on at least one credit file that a debt remains unpaid. I do not know if, when an application to a court is made whether this would appear on a file - probably not though.

Of course, any judegment would probably be recorded on at least one credit file somewhere.

waterbaby

I have just had a look at my Diamond insurance certificate, and it doesn't mention any £45 fee.

But it does have a table showing you how much of a refund you can have depending on how many months into the year you are when you cancel.

(I do understand that you are not 'cancelling'; I am just quoting)

If you are one month in (or less) you pay 20% of the year's premium. Is the premium they are trying to charge £225? If so then £45 is 20%.

However, it also states that the percentage that they keep "reflects the considerable costs we bear when we set up your policy", so if this table is what they are talking about then they shouldn't be adding any £5 or whatever on top.

The only other things on the back of my certificate are a paragraph about a £14.50 fee for change of name etc, and a 'Several Liability Notice', which talks about insurers obligations being several not joint between themselves.

MarkyMarkD

Bossyboots wrote:

thegoon appears to have missed the point that you entered into a 12 month contract with them which you chose not to renew. There is nothing owing for the 10 days pro rata or otherwise because as far as you are concerned you were not insured with them from the day your policy ended.

You have not cancelled your policy, you have simply not renewed it. Cancellation is when you have contracted to something you then don't want. Try pointing this out to them, insisting that you did not cancel your policy because they were not asked to renew it from the date it ended with them.

I don't necessarily agree with you, bossyboots. Whilst you may have thought you were entering into a 12 month agreement, they will have sent the Ts & Cs (and the insurance certificate) to you at the start of the policy, and you are accepting those Ts & Cs by not cancelling straight away.

I agree that it's sharp practice to roll-over the policy from year to year, but I expect that they will argue it is for your own convenience and to avoid any risk of not being insured etc. etc.

Bossyboots

MarkyMarkD wrote:

I don't necessarily agree with you, bossyboots. Whilst you may have thought you were entering into a 12 month agreement, they will have sent the Ts & Cs (and the insurance certificate) to you at the start of the policy, and you are accepting those Ts & Cs by not cancelling straight away.

I agree that it's sharp practice to roll-over the policy from year to year, but I expect that they will argue it is for your own convenience and to avoid any risk of not being insured etc. etc.

Its all about semantics really but I have found from my job that if you turn words back against people they will normally back down. I did post earlier that the T&Cs do seem to expect you to notify them that you no longer require the policy and I must admit I didn't read that back.

I think contacting Watchdog on this one might be a good idea. I certainly think a warning to people is in order. I am sure they can't be the only company to operate this way. I am going to re-check my policy and recommend to everyone else I know that they do the same.

I am sure you are right that they will argue it is for the customer's own convenience and also they will no doubt claim they are doing their bit to ensure cars on the road are insured.

maclean2

I believe someone mentioned P28 of Diamond's policy.This part of their policy makes it clear that they will renew the policy automatically unless you contact them.It goes onto say they will refund any renewal premiums they charge provide you prove to them you have arranged insurance with another company.So what you need to do is :-

write to them by recorded delivery
enclose a copy of your new certificate of insurance
tell them the £45.00 cancellation fee cannot be justified as the policy does not mention it
you require any charges made to be refunded to your credit card as per P28
return the diamond certificate certificate of insurance to them

Best of luck

Bossyboots

It is actually none of their business whether you have insurance with someone else or not so I don't see why they think that are entitled to see any documentation relating to an agreement between you and another firm.

waterbaby

I suppose they want to see that you were not just trying it on to get a few days free insurance. But I agree, what grounds do they have for demanding to see it? Although it might be easier just to show them, if it'll mean less hassle for you and you aren't losing out.

MarkyMarkD

The problem with maclean's argument is that the OP DID actually leave their policy review until AFTER the renewal date - in other words, they actually were happy to have been uninsured for a few days between the renewal date and the date they took out the replacement policy.

In those circumstances, Diamond's putative argument that they are saving customers the risk of being uninsured, is absolutely correct - and similar, the idea they should refund someone who produces evidence that they took out another policy, but days after the renewal date, is somewhat dubious surely.

I am intrigued and have to ask - where was the car whilst it was uninsured, or would have been had Diamond not automatically renewed the policy? What would have happened if it had been stolen / burnt out / whatever? I don't think we'd be having this conversation about how immoral it was for Diamond to auto-renew, would we?

comicmankev

Just an update if anyone has any further advice. After not giving any details in writing we asked them on the phone for proof of the £45 admin charge. We this week received a lett with one sentence that stated 'take this letter as proof that you owe us £45 admin charge'!!!!! Is this legal?

And just too add, this £45 admin fee WAS NOT stated on the back of our original insurance certificate and this is the one that finished. We did not take into a new contract so the DTI details above do not apply, am I right?? We did not actually take out a new contract so how do we owe them anything??

Is'nt it down to us whether we get new insurance?