Pet Insurance Auto Renewed and we didnt want it to

SteveDrakey

Hello,

We knew that we were going to move house and we knew that our pet insurance was going to expire.

As we were moving too and from rented accommodation we were certain of the dates.

Rather than contact the pet insurance we thought we would let it lapse but they auto renewed it.

We have just noticed that we have been paying for it for over a year and we are wondering what we can do ?

yes, we should have noticed the direct debit

We have just spoken to them and they said we would have received a letter and to stop the auto renew we should have sent it back, as we moved house we got no letter.

Thanks

Steve

chris_m

Did you not set up a post redirection?
I've heard of instances where it's not always reliable but I have to say that it's worked perfectly since I moved a couple of months ago - when I went back to my flat last week to prepare it for selling, there wasn't a single item of post waiting instead of having been redirected.

dunstonh

Rather than contact the pet insurance we thought we would let it lapse but they auto renewed it.

Which means they wrote to you to let you know the renewal options and what would happen at renewal.

We have just noticed that we have been paying for it for over a year and we are wondering what we can do ?

If you no longer want it, then cancel it.

We have just spoken to them and they said we would have received a letter and to stop the auto renew we should have sent it back, as we moved house we got no letter.

Perhaps in future, take more care with your finances and let them know future address changes. Also, when moving house, it is always worth getting at least 6 months redirect on the mail.

pinkteapot

More and more insurance policies now come with auto-renew as standard. If you know you don't want a policy to renew, always phone them to confirm you don't want it, and to ask if it's on auto-renew. Make a note of the date and time you called so they can pull the recorded call if there's any dispute later.

Advice for the future as it's too late in this case.

GingerBob_3

A couple of points:


Mail Redirect - don't do it! Royal Mail require far too much personal data when setting this up (would you be happy providing them with the full names and dates of birth of your children, amongst other things?), and when they've harvested your data they sell it to the likes of Experian and others, and of course it's made available to any local or national government agency that asks for it.


Auto-renewal. We are told in the case of car insurance that it's for your own protection, so that you don't end up accidentally being uninsured, resulting in the Filth impounding your car. All well and good. But really this is just an excuse on the part of the insurance company. They are using inertia selling; a typical low-down trick one might expect from this pond-life industry. That said, I took my car insurance off auto-renewal last year, but of course that meant I did have to ring them up this time, and consequently put up with their total buffoonery on the phone - you know, 5 minutes of recorded threats before you even get to speak to a person, then you have to answer all their questions again! So, I'm back on auto-renewal. Now hopefully I won't need to even speak to the blighters again.


Pet insurance on auto-renewal. They are taking the p1ss, big time! Whoever they are - and let us know here - don't ever deal with them again.

pinkteapot

GingerBob wrote: »

Pet insurance on auto-renewal. They are taking the p1ss, big time!

No, they're not. It's hugely important with some types of pet insurance, namely lifetime policies, where any conditions the pet has are still covered in subsequent years. If a policy were to lapse by accident, those conditions would become pre-existing and you'd lose cover.

GingerBob_3

pinkteapot wrote: »

No, they're not. It's hugely important with some types of pet insurance, namely lifetime policies, where any conditions the pet has are still covered in subsequent years. If a policy were to lapse by accident, those conditions would become pre-existing and you'd lose cover.

So is that specifically why the benevolent pet insurance companies have implemented auto-renewal? I think it's more likely that they've got onto the inertia selling bandwagon.

callum9999

GingerBob wrote: »

So is that specifically why the benevolent pet insurance companies have implemented auto-renewal? I think it's more likely that they've got onto the inertia selling bandwagon.

Or you could stop looking for an evil conspiracy and recognise it's in the interests of both parties to be auto-renewing. It's not as if they hide that fact - they tell you when you sign up and they tell you before it renews. If you elected to move house and not tell them, I don't really think that's their fault!