Kwik fit auto renew issue

jacquewallace

hi all, help and advice needed please. I had car insurance with kwik fit online, 12 months up to March 2017.
I didn't like their renewal quote so shopped around and switched to Santander from April.
Cancelled my d/d after the March payment was made to Kf.They put a debt collection company onto me almost immediately. I contacted Kf, they said I didn't cancel so owe them 2 months payment £42. I said no, I've paid my new insurers for April, May, can't afford to pay you too.
They said send proof so I did. No reply until today.
Letter from Arc Europe Ltd. Saying I have 14 days to pay them on behalf of Kf or they will involve the solicitor.
Also had a text from them in the last hour.
Do I HAVE to pay to shut them up?
Can I argue my way out of this?
Help please.
Thanks
:eek:

[Deleted User]

Did you contact Kwikfit to cancel the auto renewal or did you just cancel the DD?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

There are two sides to this to consider. Find your KwickFit insurance documents from last year and see what they say about renewal. If they CLEARLY highlight that you have to cancel then they may have an enforceable contract.

The other side is that you clearly did not understand that you needed to cancel. Fortunately, if KwikFit have tried to pull a fast one and done a tick box renewal scam, you should be able to argue that you were not aware that you had agreed to a renewal the following year.

The main thing you have to rely on is that consumer law is biased to the individual and anything that is ambiguous or unclear is either struck out or interpreted in favour of the consumer, so the first point is to try and work out what you clearly agreed to. At this point, look to the confirmation letter, don't worry too much about hidden away details in the policy, it is harder for Kwikfit to rely on that.

wongataa

jacquewallace wrote: »

hi all, help and advice needed please. I had car insurance with kwik fit online, 12 months up to March 2017.
I didn't like their renewal quote so shopped around and switched to Santander from April.
Cancelled my d/d after the March payment was made to Kf.They put a debt collection company onto me almost immediately. I contacted Kf, they said I didn't cancel so owe them 2 months payment £42. I said no, I've paid my new insurers for April, May, can't afford to pay you too.
They said send proof so I did. No reply until today.
Letter from Arc Europe Ltd. Saying I have 14 days to pay them on behalf of Kf or they will involve the solicitor.
Also had a text from them in the last hour.
Do I HAVE to pay to shut them up?
Can I argue my way out of this?
Help please.
Thanks
:eek:

Your Kwik Fit renewal letter will have stated that you need to phone them if you do not wish to renew. This is standard. What you should do is call Kwik Fit and say that you have purchased insurance from another company for this year and that you are very sorry for not making it clear to them that you wished to cancel the Kwik Fit policy. Hopefully, they will accept that you didn't mean to cause this situation and sort things out.

Remember, cancelling the payment option does not cancel the policy. Read your renewal letters carefully and follow the instructions on them.

jacquewallace

I just cancelled the d/d. I didn't realise there was an auto renewal.

jacquewallace

I have done this and sent current insurance details for the same period. Still they have a debt collection agency hassling me. Can I object to any one?
Ombudsman e.t.c.

debtdebt

The terms and conditions of the earlier policy would have mentioned auto renewal if you checked. You had a duty to cancel that auto renew if you didn't want a new policy to continue. The Ombudsman etc won't help you.

ryan121

All car insurance policies auto renew so you aren't without cover. You need to pay as you are in the wrong. Never just cancel a direct debit, not worth it.

sheslookinhot

Always cancel auto renewal immediately on taking out any new policy, car or anything else.

Lucky_Duck_2

ryan121 wrote: »

All car insurance policies auto renew so you aren't without cover. You need to pay as you are in the wrong. Never just cancel a direct debit, not worth it.

I don't think this is correct, with one exception I have just let the policy lapse if changing insurer

barnaclebill

I had Kwickfit insurance about 3 years ago, the renewal quote was almost double so I found a new insurer, just remembered I had not told Kwickfit I was not accepting their quote 2 days before the renewal date and phoned them, the guy I spoke to was not professional in how he spoke to me, why had I not let them know sooner, this would cost them money ect, I was surprised how annoyed he was.
As to auto renewal if you pay in full on a debit card they cannot auto renew because they can't get the money, this happened to me when working abroad so if direct debit was cancelled how can they renew with no money, I bet if you had an accident in that period they would not have paid out using non payment as an excuse.