Car insurance: Forgot to stop the renewal AND got a new one

andre_xs

Dear all,
My car insurance (Admiral) was due for renewal on 16/09 and as usual they increased the price quite a bit. Thus, I got a new insurance (Churchill) on 24/08.

However, I forgot to cancel the Admiral / let them know that I don't want to renew. Around 16/09 I haven't gotten another renewal reminder or confirmation.

Would Admiral be informed about the new insurance and automatically not renew?

If I have two insurances now, any tips of getting out of this as cheap as possible? Clearly my fault, but may be there are rules/regulations which are helpful to know when I contact the insurers.

andre_xs

Just in case somebody has the same problem and is looking for a solution here:
- Indeed I had two insurances on the same car (and paid for both the full annual price)
- Within 2 weeks of the renewal, cancellation fees were £25 with Admiral (old insurer who had renewed) and £0 with Churchill (new insurer, cooling off period).
- After 2 weeks, cancellation with Admiral is £50 and with Churchill £55. Plus the pro-rata payment of the insurance (which was in my case just £9 for 2 weeks with Churchill)

- I first called Admiral, and they virtually matched the price of Churchill, so I quit Churchill. In the end, the whole thing cost me only £14 (and 30 min on the phone in total)

- What I wasn't aware of: Although I did the contract with Churchill mid-August (and already received paperwork, etc), the cover only started on 16th Sept. They said the cooling off period would be two weeks from the start of cover (16/09) and not of when I did the contract / got the paperwork. Maybe it's the norm, but I was happily surprised.

And also just to note, both customer services were very friendly and helpful. Didn't wait more than 5-10 min in the phone line.