Continuous payment authority ?

Pink_trainers

I recently discovered that two insurance companies have taken money from my account to renew a policy I didn't want : one I found quickly and am still waiting for them to decide if I can have my money back - the other I have discovered now took money a year ago and I have had an insurance policy with them I did not know about ! I had insured with another company - two policies for one risk ! I didn't think this was possible in our joined-up world - they are now considering my money back request. Anyone have any ideas ? Thank you.

dunstonh

I didn't think this was possible in our joined-up world

Quite normal. They write to you on renewal and tell you that they will continue for another year unless you tell them to stop. If you dont tell them to stop, they will continue the policy.

Anyone have any ideas ?

What you need to do is start reading the letters that are sent to you. If you dont read them and dont follow instructions then this will happen again.

Whilst many people dont like auto-renewal, others do benefit from it and it helps keep costs down for all. It's a bit marmite in how people feel about it but it is allowed and is very common.

InsideInsurance

Pink_trainers wrote: »

I didn't think this was possible in our joined-up world - they are now considering my money back request. Anyone have any ideas ? Thank you.

Best idea, read the letters that they send you and when it says "If you do nothing we will renew your policy" then you know you have to do something if you dont want them to renew.

How joined up are you talking about? An insurer seeing you have bought two policies? That two independent insurers should know what you hold with their competitors or not?

vaio

you should get refunds, if not then complain & refer to FOS if needed

Agree with comments re reading letters but if it's motor you'd have thought that MID would have flagged it up

InsideInsurance

But you can have more than one policy on a vehicle. MID isnt there for the purposes of protecting people from themselves.

rs65

InsideInsurance wrote: »

But you can have more than one policy on a vehicle. MID isnt there for the purposes of protecting people from themselves.

Presumably the later one just overwrites the earlier one.

InsideInsurance

rs65 wrote: »

Presumably the later one just overwrites the earlier one.

To the best of my knowledge it shows both of them rather than one overwriting the other

Buzby

As soon as an insurer advises my policy will be auto-renewed, I immediately advise that I do not wish this to happen, usually 11 months before the renewal falls due. You need to stay on top of the paperwork to prevent situations like these arising.

If you do not - the failure is yours, and nobody else.

vaio

InsideInsurance wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge it shows both of them rather than one overwriting the other

That's what I thought, so it should flag up dual cover to the insurer and the fair thing would be to query it

InsideInsurance

vaio wrote: »

That's what I thought, so it should flag up dual cover to the insurer and the fair thing would be to query it

That assumes that the MID actually checks

There are around 35 million vehicles so on average 96,000 new records being added every day and that doesnt include MTAs, TAVs, Cancellations etc.

So for a start theres a fair amount of checking to go on there to even detect duplications. Secondly, even if you were to detect it, then there is a host of genuine reasons for dual insurance such as learner insurance, temp cover plus insurers have 7 days and commercial fleet 14 days to notify any changes so you sell your car, your buyer insurers it. Your insurer pushes the 7 days to cancel it, theirs is quick and notify immediately so MID holds both temporarily.

Which insurer do you inform? The new one or the old one? Given the situation we are trying to fix here the new/old would simply be a timing issue as both have presumably got the same inception date. The amount of extra work for the insurers, both new and old, would be considerable and probably most are "correct"

vaio

fair point