Insurer threatening to cancel my policy

PollyAnd

Hi, I received an excessive renewal quote for my car. Doing a new search, the same company came up tops with a price £150 less. I didn't ring to renew my existing policy (I pay annually up front), but took out a new policy (slightly different terms; protected NCB this time) with the same company. They took my money and sent the documents.
Two weeks later I received a demand for £150, saying they "may have to" cancel my insurance if I don't pay within 7 days. I tried to ring to discuss but there was no option to speak to a human, only auotmated areas if I wanted to pay.
Now I have received a further letter demanding the £150, this time they say they will cancel my policy if this is not paid within 7 days, retrospectively back to the start of the policy.
Can they do this legally or are they trying to frighten me into paying?
Thanks for any advice.

rs65

PollyAnd wrote: »

Can they do this legally

Possibly. What reason have they given?

Rolandtheroadie

Spoke to an insurer earlier in the year about this.
As I had took out a new policy with them within 14 days of me not renewing with them at a higher price, they wanted to charge me the difference.
This was home insurance though, and they never did get/take the other payment.

marty2be2000

Whatever the situation you need to deal with this urgently, having to declare that an insurer has cancelled a policy forever going forward will lead to massively increased premiums, and that is if you can find someone to actually quote.

The question usually goes "Have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled or revoked?. and you'll have to answer yes for more than the next few years.

When you got the online quote it would have been better to call them on the number on the renewal and say you can get it cheaper from them online, I check each year and call my current insurer who usually match the online quote on the phone or even better it.

PollyAnd

rs65, they just say it's an 'outstanding balance'.

Carrot007

Are you saying you did not ring to cancel your old policy and it therfore autorenewed and they now want the balance?

(because you were ineligable for the other policy because you should have rung up and told them of the cheaper policy you found online to renew)

rs65

PollyAnd wrote: »

rs65, they just say it's an 'outstanding balance'.

That is inadequate. Tell them its disputed and make a complaint - your policy should say how to go about this.

PollyAnd

Thanks all, fully resolved now. Took heed of marty2be2000's advice to resolve quickly; looking again at the letters, I realised they had a different reference no to my car policy, so rang the company. It seems these chasing letters were referring to my house insurance policy (also due at the same time) which had been on auto-renew, but wouldn't have done so as I no longer had that debit card for them to take the money from.
(Carrot007, the original car renewal letter asked me to ring to renew my insurance, which I took to mean it wouldn't auto-renew unless I rang, which I hadn't done).
So company have confirmed that yes, both car and house are insured with them, and they're happy that I've paid the right amount, so I shall sleep sound tonight after all.

Thanks all for offering useful advice :beer:

PollyAnd