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

eco_warrior

If you took out a new policy elsewhere and are duel insured you!!!8217;ll get a refund for the policy if you tell the insurer, maybe just in part though.

In terms of disputing the transaction, insurers hardly ever challenge a chargeback but instead contact the customer to ask for the payment to be made again, or cancel the policy. However if your bank know you didn!!!8217;t cancel you can!!!8217;t really pretend you did. If you had 1st round they would have disputed it and you!!!8217;d have likely won.

PixelPound

Many insurances have cancellation fees, so they are likely to deduct a portion of the amount you paid to cover from the renewal day until the day you cancel and then take a cancellation fee off the remainder. So you will likely get a lot less than you think.

The bank has done nothing wrong with regards to CPA. Not sure I would bother trying a chargeback, whilst the bank could claw it back how will the insurer respond - ask you to pay for the used portion and what happens if you did not then pay

Superscrooge

I had a similar experience with automatic renewal several years ago. I shopped around at renewal time and found a cheaper policy which I took out, not realising my old policy was automatic renewal until they took the money!

However when I phoned my previous insurance company. All they needed was proof that I had taken out alternative insurance before my renewal date and they then cancelled the policy and gave me a full refund.

The customer service rep said that automatic renewals catch a lot of people out and I got the impression they had a set procedure for such circumstances.

I don't know whether all insurance companies will give a refund but it is definitely worth a phone call

CraigM93

I never understand why people assume that just due to the fact the credit card is expired that any CPAs will automatically stop, especially when a credit card is known as a guaranteed method of payment. It's not closed - only expired, and technically still running on the systems and as previously mentioned only one at fault is you unfortunately.

Lets hope the insurance company might do something as a goodwill, otherwise as also mentioned you'll be looking at a cancellation fee probably.

chattychappy

CraigM93 wrote: »

I never understand why people assume that just due to the fact the credit card is expired that any CPAs will automatically stop, especially when a credit card is known as a guaranteed method of payment.

Yep and more to the point, I don't understand why people think that cancelling a card or a card expiring also cancels the underlying contract so they don't owe the money.

The OP should realise that for some services, if the card expires and payment can't be taken then the money might still be owed and chased and ultimately a claim issued in a court. If you wish to cancel the contract. you should do so within the T+Cs that have been agreed.

Practically, though, most service providers (after a letter or two) would cancel the service rather than going legal.

jevoudrais

I insist during the telephone call to pay that continuous payments are not taken because i change insurers every year.

jevoudrais

chattychappy wrote: »

Yep and more to the point, I don't understand why people think that cancelling a card or a card expiring also cancels the underlying contract so they don't owe the money.

The OP should realise that for some services, if the card expires and payment can't be taken then the money might still be owed and chased and ultimately a claim issued in a court. If you wish to cancel the contract. you should do so within the T+Cs that have been agreed.

Practically, though, most service providers (after a letter or two) would cancel the service rather than going legal.

so its possible that the insurance company could take a continuous payment on a card that expired 363 days ago or maybe longer ?

eddddy

jevoudrais wrote: »

I insist during the telephone call to pay that continuous payments are not taken because i change insurers every year.

That's not quite right.

You should be telling the insurer that you don't want automatic renewal of the policy.


With insurers, it's especially important to ensure that a policy is cancelled (or allowed to lapse) correctly.

If you let it automatically renew, but fail to pay (e.g. because you cancel a credit card) your policy is likely to be flagged as 'Cancelled by Insurer due to non-payment'.

That could be a serious black-mark on your insurance record, which you may need to be declare to new insurers, and result in much higher premiums.

Fingerbobs

jevoudrais wrote: »

I insist during the telephone call to pay that continuous payments are not taken because i change insurers every year.

My car insurance company always ask me whether I want to set up auto renewal, and I always decline, (a) because I might want to use a different credit card next year, and (b) because I always phone up and query the renewal quote every year and get it reduced anyway, so no hardship to quote my card details to them again.

chattychappy

jevoudrais wrote: »

so its possible that the insurance company could take a continuous payment on a card that expired 363 days ago or maybe longer ?

In theory, yes. They are not taking payment "on a card". They are taking payment from your account. The card is a means of authentication at the time of setting up the continuous payment authority.

In practice, it depends on the card network and what agreement the merchant has. Certainly I've had situations where I've been asked to update card details manually when they've expired because a merchant can no longer take payment.