Auto renewal

petershare

I am becoming increasingly exasperated with the tendency for insurance companies to require default auto renewal when you buy a policy. It has a feeling of another miselling scandal to me. I bought a travel policy for my daughter from MSE researched Leisure Guard 12 months ago. The policy cost £24.66. This week they sent her(she is away at Uni) details of the auto renewal, priced at £36- a 46% increase! I know that these days they have to inform the client what the previous premium was,but they still rely heavily on peoples laziness,or forgetfulness,or whatever. How much do they make on the number of policies that ‘slip through’, I wonder?To rub salt in, I went through MSE as a new client, and the same policy is priced at £30.
MSE should research and weed out these outfits. It’s not good enough just to recommend to subscribers to ‘shop around’. MSE is a trusted and powerful advocate, and should use its influence to expose and challenge sharp practices like this as a condition of endorsing products.

beefturnmail

Whenever I purchase insurance, I always follow up with an e-mail stating that I do not wish the policy to auto-renew on expiry and I do not authorise any further payments to be taken from my card. (If bought over the phone, I also state this to the salesperson). This usually does the trick of turning off auto-renewal, and covers you if they do try to take further payments from the card.

I can however, see an argument for auto-renewal in the case of car insurance where it is a legal requirement (would rather my car wasn't pranged by a driver who had forgotten to renew!)

dunstonh

It has a feeling of another miselling scandal to me.

Please explain how that can possibly be a missale?

The policy cost £24.66. This week they sent her(she is away at Uni) details of the auto renewal, priced at £36- a 46% increase!

And the problem with that is what?
If you buy from a company that operates an early year discounting model then you expect the premiums to rise. If you wish to avoid early year discounting then dont by from a company using that model.

To rub salt in, I went through MSE as a new client, and the same policy is priced at £30.

How is that rubbing salt in the wound?

and should use its influence to expose and challenge sharp practices like this as a condition of endorsing products.

So, what you are saying is that you want to pay more because you wish to end early year discounting models. If so, then vote with your feet and use a company that doesnt use the early year discounting model.

Most of your post seems to be nothing about the subject but a vent on early year discounting.

Aretnap

Auto renewal can be mildly irritating at times, but on the whole it is a good thing. If you're organised enough to remember your renewal date then having to ring up your insurer to tell them that you don't want to renew is a fairly minor inconvenience if the grand scheme of things. But if you're not organised enough to remember your renewal date then it's much better to find that you're paying slightly over the odds for your insurance somewhere down the line than it is to end up uninsured. I certainly wished that my breakdown cover had auto renewwd the time I phoned them up from the roadside to find that it had lapsed a couple of weeks previously.

As above your complaint really seems to be about the fact that most insurers offer discounts to new customers. This is inevitable given the way most insurance is did these days. If you don't like it you could always pay more in year one to use an insurer which doesn't give
you a new customer discount. But most people won't do that because that insurer obviously won't be top of the list in the price comparison sure.

DCFC79

No way is it another misspelling scandal.

See I'm organised enough to change my insurer when it's due for renewal, tax my car, all because I get communication via 1 form telling me it's due.

AstroTurtle

petershare wrote: »

they still rely heavily on peoples laziness,or forgetfulness,or whatever. How much do they make on the number of policies that ‘slip through’, I wonder

In the same way every advert relies on peoples insecurities or desires.

As for auto renewal hundreds of companies do this including every subscription service.

NETFLIX ARE SCAMMERS

AMAZON PRIME ARE SCAMMERS

SKY TV ARE SCAMMERS

BT ARE SCAMMERS

It takes all of 5 minutes to turn off auto-renew on most services...

The worst possible defence you can have against a business is "thats not my fault i was lazy and forgetful"

Are we not accountable for our actions anymore? or are we fully in the com-pen-sayyy-shun age where companies have to hold our hands incase we cant cross the street alone.

petershare

So you think that offering an existing customer a price of £36 to renew, but a new one £30, is good practice? I don’t, so let’s agree to disagree and leave it there.

dunstonh

petershare wrote: »

So you think that offering an existing customer a price of £36 to renew, but a new one £30, is good practice? I don’t, so let’s agree to disagree and leave it there.

How do you manage with all the other retail areas that have early year discounting?

You havent explained how you think it could possibly be a missale.

bigisi

dunstonh wrote: »

You havent explained how you think it could possibly be a missale.

He won't because he can't.

OP is a typical "Disgusted of London" type. I can guarantee he'd be here screaming "why didn't the policy auto-renew - it's disgusting" if his lovely daughter needed to claim on a policy she didn't renew or replace because she thought it would carry on.

They're not happy unless they're moaning about something usually with a copy of the Daily Mail in their hand.

Leisure_Guard

Please see below policy wording in relation to an auto renewal when purchasing an AMT policy with Leisure Guard.

To make sure you have continuous cover under your policy, if you have purchased an Annual Multi-trip policy, we will aim to automatically renew (autorenew) your policy when it runs out, unless you tell us not to. Each year we will write to you 21 days before the renewal date of your policy, and tell you about any changes to the premium or the policy terms and conditions. If you do not want to auto renew your policy, just call us on the telephone number provided on your certificate of insurance or click on the link provided within the email sent 21 days ahead of the renewal date. Otherwise we will collect the renewal premiums from your credit card or debit card.

Summary:
As you can see an auto renew is in place to ensure customers are covered should they forget and potentially have a need to claim. We do not just auto renew, as above we email 21 days in advance to advise the auto renewal is going to occur, what the previous premium was last year and what the new premium will be (Premiums each year will vary for a number of reasons - claims, inflation, changes to policy wording or cover)

We give every customer the opportunity to opt out of their renewal which is clearly stated in the Policy Wording and in the 21 days advance notice.

trailingspouse

Seems simple enough to me.