Car Insurance Auto Renew

Effie

My car insurance is coming up for renewal and I've checked out the comparison sites, however I have discovered that when you purchase online most companies sign you up to auto renew and (a) don't tell you and (b) don't give you the option to opt out of this when buying online. When I phoned up a company to purchase the insurance because if I was going to phone them to opt out of auto renew I might as well do it all at the same time, they tried to charge me an extra £20 for trying to purchase the insurance over the phone. Is it legal to sign you up for something you haven't asked for?

dunstonh

Is it legal to sign you up for something you haven't asked for?

They offer their terms. You either accept them or you don't. There is nothing unlawful about auto-renewal.

You generally find most insurers will say they use auto-renewal in T&C.

BoGoF

They do tell in their t and c's......most don'y bother reading them going by the volume of posts on here.

rosierd

Auto-renewal is standard practice for any insurer. Say for example you were in hospital and couldn't renew your policy and your car was kept on the road. It would be uninsured and you would be liable for £1000 fine by the DVLA so it's also for your protection.

Aidanmc

I think with auto renewal the insurer should also send a renewal notice with the quotation before the payment is taken. Mine is due next month, and Hastings said they will send a renewal notice 28 days before renewal date.

penners324

All car insurance companies will email you with the new quote about 28 days prior.

[Deleted User]

Effie wrote: »

Is it legal to sign you up for something you haven't asked for?

Yes, as long as you agree to it, which you did, it's fine.

Marvel1

Aidanmc wrote: »

I think with auto renewal the insurer should also send a renewal notice with the quotation before the payment is taken. Mine is due next month, and Hastings said they will send a renewal notice 28 days before renewal date.

They do, had mine end of May, current expires 30th June.

daveyjp

If autorenewal is a pain imagine what it was like 30 years ago.

Get renewal then spend the next few weeks calling brokers or insurance companies to get quotes. It used to take hours answering the same questions over and over again to half a dozen or so companies.

My insurance expires soon. Reminder sent four weeks ago, less than last year. Comparison site details were stored from last year so they emailed me updated quotes, nothing cheaper.

I now do nothing more. Autorenewal kicks in and I am continually insured.

All I had to do was read two emails.

[Deleted User]

Just to clarify one point about auto-renewal: it's NOT done for your benefit, it's done for the benefit of the insurance company.


I'm not saying the technique is good, bad or indifferent (I currently have it in place for motor insurance), but don't think the company is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts to stop you being uninsured; they aren't. They don't care whether you're insured or not. They use auto-renewal as inertia selling to boost sales. That's all there is to it.

Peter999_2

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

Just to clarify one point about auto-renewal: it's NOT done for your benefit, it's done for the benefit of the insurance company.


I'm not saying the technique is good, bad or indifferent (I currently have it in place for motor insurance), but don't think the company is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts to stop you being uninsured; they aren't. They don't care whether you're insured or not. They use auto-renewal as inertia selling to boost sales. That's all there is to it.

I completely agree, 100%.