auto renewals

tunni99

why do I have to opt out of auto renewing insurance,now tv home insurance when ive only bought eg twelve months insurance or one months programmes and wats my rights

wealdroam

tunni99 wrote: »

why do I have to opt out of auto renewing insurance,now tv home insurance when ive only bought eg twelve months insurance or one months programmes and wats my rights

Your rights are to opt out, or not.

You have the choice.

InsideInsurance

wealdroam wrote: »

Your rights are to opt out, or not.

You have the choice.

Not all give you that choice and so sometimes the choice is simply to buy with auto renewal or dont buy.

You have to opt out because auto renewal massively increases the retention rate of services with a very low acquisition cost for the merchant. Subject to the product/ service and its market place this can lead to lower prices to you or it can mean just more profit for the company (or more commonly a mixture of the two)

photome

I have found many of my insurances are now auto renew.

Its not consumer friendly

InsideInsurance

photome wrote: »

I have found many of my insurances are now auto renew.

Its not consumer friendly

The ombudsman disagrees with you.

On the basis of how many people post that they forgot their insurance was due for renewal and they are now annoyed being locked in at a high rate for another year it would suggest that those people would equally have forgotten that their insurance was due for renewal had they not been on auto renewal but instead would have been driving around without insurance.

stugib

Auto-renewing to prevent non-insurance: consumer-friendly...possibly even a social good.

Taking advantage of that inertia to maximise profit on the premium: not consumer-friendly...though a reality of the current market, as you've mentioned on your reply to another thread.

Paully232000

Auto-renew on my, to expire on 15/11, car insurance policy. They sent a reminder a few weeks ago and not too much of a hassle to call them to cancel as was near twice the price of a policy i found on a comparison website.

Cyberman60

I never auto renew although I got caught out this year as I could not get through on the phone to the insurer (was on phone 22 mins with no reply, just recorded message from RAC) to cancel and was flying the next day.

So I secure-texted online my bank to cancel the credit card payment, who then crazily made the payment to RAC three weeks later !!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up with two car insurance policies as I thought the RAC one had been cancelled, and RAC billed me a cancellation fee when I cancelled via their email complaints system.

I went to the financial ombudsman and RAC backed down after they had threatened me for months... RESULT !!

Auto-renews are a pain !! I check for the best deal every year via online comparison with a cashback site. This year my car insurance was 140 quid (net of cashback) !!!

stugib

Cyberman60 wrote: »

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up with two car insurance policies as I thought the RAC one had been cancelled, and RAC billed me a cancellation fee when I cancelled via their email complaints system.

I went to the financial ombudsman and RAC backed down after they had threatened me for months... RESULT !!

Did you offer to show them you were dual-insured? That should be enough to get a refund in most cases.

InsideInsurance

Cyberman60 wrote: »

I never auto renew although I got caught out this year as I could not get through on the phone to the insurer (was on phone 22 mins with no reply, just recorded message from RAC) to cancel and was flying the next day.

So I secure-texted online my bank to cancel the credit card payment, who then crazily made the payment to RAC three weeks later !!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up with two car insurance policies as I thought the RAC one had been cancelled, and RAC billed me a cancellation fee when I cancelled via their email complaints system.

I went to the financial ombudsman and RAC backed down after they had threatened me for months... RESULT !!

Auto-renews are a pain !! I check for the best deal every year via online comparison with a cashback site. This year my car insurance was 140 quid (net of cashback) !!!

Cancelling payment is not how to cancel a policy. Just the same as your employer refusing to pay you isnt a legitimate way to tell you that you were sacked last month. Best case it results in your insurance being void for non-payment and you then have to declare that for life. Worst case they treat it as no intent to pay and load a fraud indicator to CIFAS


Given insurers write to you 2-3 weeks before your renewal date why did YOU leave it until the last minute to bother to try and contact them if you knew your holiday was coming up? What if you'd had the same issue buying your new insurance and getting through to the insurer? You'd have just left your vehicle uninsured and broken the law?

OlliesDad

photome wrote: »

I have found many of my insurances are now auto renew.

Its not consumer friendly

Although it's not obvious, quite often it is better for the consumer. In the industry I work in we are able to offer lower pricing because auto-renew generates greater retention rates and therefore the fixed costs can be spread across a higher amount of units.

In addition, many customers prefer to just forget about renewing (as long as the price is reasonable). This ensures constant continuation of the service.