Automatic car insurance renewal- what are my rights (card expired on renewal payment)

glfalconer

Hi

Looking for advice on an automatic renewal of car insurance- I didn’t cancel policy as my credit card they held on file had expired Jan 18.

However credit card company took the payment in April 18 regardless of the fact the card had expired. Car insurance company ignoring me, credit card company telling me I’m liable for the payment despite the fact the card expired over 2 months ago.

Looking to find out legally whether I’m liable for this payment or not.

Hopefully someone can help.

Thanks

Gill

Quentin

Attempting to cancel a contract by simply (trying to) change the method of payment doesn't work as you have found out


The way to cancel automatic renewal (which you will have agreed to when taking out the policy) will have been set out in the agreement and the renewal notice


If you don't want the policy then cancel it now.


Then see if they will agree to refund you in full as you took out a new policy elsewhere (assuming that's what you did)

glfalconer

Thanks, already tried emailing car insurers who took payment, but no response. I’ll try calling them, but to be honest, don’t think they did anything wrong. As far as I can see, it is my credit card company that are at fault, in that they authorised a payment on a card that had expired. Had I tried to use that card for payment in any other circumstances, it would have been rejected as the card had expired. Just annoyed, as I have had other payments rejected in the same circumstances, which was the reason I didn’t cancel the car insurance payment in the first place - never thought it would go through.

Think I’m just going to have to chalk this one up to experience- on the bright side, if I crash my car, I get double the payout as I’m now insured twice!!

BoGoF

Your credit card company is not at fault....you are for not cancelling. You authorised a Continuous Payment Authority on your card and that is what happened.

shortcrust

BoGoF wrote: »

Your credit card company is not at fault....you are for not cancelling. You authorised a Continuous Payment Authority on your card and that is what happened.

Spot on. You agreed to it when you took out the policy. The credit card company and the insurer were both simply acting on your instructions.

I imagine you’ll get most if not all of the money back from the insurance company. Good luck!

Quentin

glfalconer wrote: »

Think I’m just going to have to chalk this one up to experience- on the bright side, if I crash my car, I get double the payout as I’m now insured twice!!

As you have been advised the only one to blame is you!

But you don't chalk it up to experience!

Follow the advice in #2 and cancel tomorrow.

Writing your car off won't get you a double payment.

They would each pay half!!

[Deleted User]

You agreed to it when you signed the paperwork and setup the CPA.

Also you would have had notification of the renewal and you chose not to cancel the policy based on the card expiring.

They're not at fault here

boo_star

glfalconer wrote: »

Thanks, already tried emailing car insurers who took payment, but no response. I’ll try calling them

That’s a pretty good idea.

Email isn’t a secure medium and most financial services companies rightly won’t use it in situations where sensitive information is being discussed.

They probably should have emailed you back to say “You need to call us about this” rather than blank you but that’s not a huge detail.

cajef

glfalconer wrote: »

As far as I can see, it is my credit card company that are at fault, in that they authorised a payment on a card that had expired.

You should have cancelled.

While contracts vary, consumers authorize access to their credit card accounts, not to a specific number or expiration date tied to that account. That means authorized recurring charges can go on regardless of whether a card has expired or been replaced.

[Deleted User]

glfalconer wrote: »

on the bright side, if I crash my car, I get double the payout as I'm now insured twice!!

No you won't get double the payout.

Where there is more than one policy in force, each company will only pay out for their share of the claim.

Indeed, you would be worse off, because each company would deduct their excess.

System

Ask for a full refund (in writing) saying that you have moved elsewhere and the cover was therefore no longer needed.

They may refund the full amount as gesture of goodwill.