Insurance renewal

Comp2

wesleyad wrote: »

I would say if you push this with them they will bring out the tape of your original telephone call with something along the lines of:

Operator: Thanks for purchasing your insurance with us today, can I help you with anything else?
Comp2: No thanks thats all
Operator: OK well I have to ask you to stay on the line and listen to a pre recorded message regarding your terms and conditions
Comp2 OK no problem
Recorded message: Thank you for purch.....
*Comp2 hangs up*

Yes, you had 14 days to cancel after renewing, but you didn't? So cover continued until cancelled by the insurer, at which point there's a cancellation charge, a pro rata charge and a need for you to declare going forwards.

If it's a big insurer, there's basically no chance they didn't tell you at some point, else they would be inundated with complaints/court cases. They aren't stupid they know the way to maximize profit is to legally get you to auto renew onto a higher quote.

Yes, insurers push the fine line between good business and ethically grey areas, they hope people renew at higher and higher costs every year (and people do). But they haven't done anything wrong in the eyes of the law and so you are going to need to sort this out.

They seriously did not ask at any point about auto renewal. Neither did they play me a recorded message. I get that they probably are acting within the law, it was in the small print. I honestly thought that as I'd paid up front that was that and I would receive a renewal reminder but they would not be able to act on it without a deposit. Obviously that is not the case.

The insurance company said, in the email confirming they had renewed and would require payment of £347 that if they did not receive payment within 7 days my policy would be cancelled and I would not be insured blah blah blah. So they charged a cancellation fee (thought it was £50 but it was £86). Is that not excessive?

Also the email confirming the original 12 months insurance said they would send a reminder. They did not. They renewed without any reminder. I have checked thoroughly for all emails from this company. I found financial ombudsmen which said icompanies should send renewal reminder in good time (3 weeks is good practise). I've always received in the post before now, not by email.

So if I have to pay, then so be it but obviously if I have any rights to question the amount I am going to want to do it.

BTW it's not that I'm so disorganised that I don't know what email I gave the insurance company. The point was I did not know this was standard practice so didn't expect to get email from them. I normally get things through the post anyway. I know when my insurance is up on my car. I sorned it and sold it.
This is a broker btw not the actual insurer.