Car insurance automatic renewal

ac1981

Hello everyone,

I forgot to contact my car insurer and tell them I will no longer be insuring with them. I received an email earlier saying, 'thanks for renewing with us blah blah....'

I know it's probably not an acceptable reason, but my mum passed away five weeks ago. I did nothing for around three weeks due to grief and only in the past couple of weeks I have been consumed in sorting Mum's affairs and forgetting about mine. My mum was named driver on that policy as well, and she'd need to be taken off anyway.

It's almost 5pm on Sunday and the insurer is closed.

I have check my account and the money from the insurer hasn't been taken yet. Should I contact the bank and ask them to stop any payments to the insurance company and call the insurance company first thing tomorrow?

I wouldn't be renewing with them as I tend to go through quidco with a new insurer who always comes up cheaper then my renewal quote.
Thanks

forgotmyname

When did it auto renew? If you stop the payment then you maybe causing more trouble with the risk of debt collectors.

Pay it and then make a complaint.

Did you have alternative insurance in place when the old policy expired?

stugib

Complaint about what?

dunstonh

I know it's probably not an acceptable reason, but my mum passed away five weeks ago.

actually, you will tend to find that the insurers are normally sympathetic in situations like this. If not, the FOS certainly are. However, there is a caveat to that.

That said, you could only try that if you arranged insurance elsewhere. However, they could then say that if you were in the right frame of mind to shop around then you would have been ok to cancel it too.

From your wording, it suggests you have not arranged an alternative. You are required to insurance your car. So, the auto-renewal has kept you legal.

If you cancel the direct debit, it does not cancel the contract and as monthly premiums are collected under a credit agreement, you could do more damage than good.

ac1981

Thanks everyone for your replies.

It's not monthly premiums, i always pay the annual premium off in one go. Does that still count as a credit agreement?

TODAY the 13th Sept is when my insurance is valid until. A note is actually in my diary that it expires today which I saw the other day and I had planned to call and cancel and search and start a new policy but it slipped my mind and I only realised when I saw the auto renewal email earlier.

In normal circumstances I would have cancelled by now and i would have started my insurance with my new insurer in the past seven days to kick off when my current insurance expires.

I did a quick comparison earlier and have found an insurer a lot cheaper then my renewal price.

Reading the letter from the insurer which I received a couple of weeks ago but to be honest didn't take much notice of due to my circumstances, it says "we will automatically renew your policy on 14th September."

If i was to send an email now and cancel... would that be count as an official cancellation?

forgotmyname

I wouldnt trust an email, it may end up in their spam folder.

ac1981

OK. But am i contracted?

Why would debt collectors come after me if I don't actually owe anything?


Next question... should I organise new insurance with a new company tonight to start tomorrow (from midnight tonight.) Or would I wait until I've spoken my current provider as I will be calling them first thing tomorrow to see if they are able to cancel and refund, and then get my new insurance.

I won't be driving the vehicle obviously until insured. So my car could go without insurance for around 9/10 hours.

ac1981

Oooh apparently i have cooling off period?

rs65

ac1981 wrote: »

Oooh apparently i have cooling off period?

Is it free?

ac1981

oh pooh, no £25 fee if i cancel within 14 days plus however many days cover.

I'm tempted to call the bank and cancel the payment and call and explain all to the insurer tomorrow.

forgotmyname

Do you have cover in place now? If not it will be uninsured after midnight?