Poor practice from Insure and Go

LukeT

I received a renewal quote from Insure and Go for an annual, family insurance policy with winter cover. The policy was set to auto-renew.

As the premium was much higher than the year before, I switched to another policy, but not before I logged-in to Insure and Go and set the auto-renew option to off.

More than three weeks after I set the auto-renew to off, Insure and Go auto-renewed my policy and debited my bank account.

When I queried this, I was told that I changed the auto-renew too late to be actioned. They suggested I made the change 2 days before the renewal date, when it was actually more than three weeks.

I will receive a full refund. But I think this was very poor practice.

I won't be insuring with Insure and Go again.

jonesMUFCforever

For you not to have to pay for this year's policy you needed to cancel the old policy not just set the auto pay to off.
I think you have done well to get the full premium back without a charge.

Aretnap

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

For you not to have to pay for this year's policy you needed to cancel the old policy not just set the auto pay to off.

There is no need to cancel the old policy .(cancelling means terminating the policy before it is due to expire), just to inform the insurer that you do not wish to renew. Which the OP says he did.

I logged-in to Insure and Go and set the auto-renew option to off.

That said, the insurer evidently made a mistake, but if they have offered a full refund they have evidently put it right. So I'm not feeling especially outraged...

sal_III

Sounds like back office / IT system screw up. These happen everywhere. The important bit is that you were offered full refund - so I would argue their practices are actually not bad.

There is still a moral form this story - which is to always double check you are not charged for insurance policy renewal, even if you turned off auto-renewal. No matter the insurance company.

jonesMUFCforever

Aretnap wrote: »

There is no need to cancel the old policy .(cancelling means terminating the policy before it is due to expire), just to inform the insurer that you do not wish to renew. Which the OP says he did.

That said, the insurer evidently made a mistake, but if they have offered a full refund they have evidently put it right. So I'm not feeling especially outraged...

Setting auto renew to off does not cancel the policy. For all the insurer knew the OP may have wanted to pay a different way.
If you want to have any policy stop you cancel it - no ifs or but!.

Aretnap

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Setting auto renew to off does not cancel the policy.

Of course it doesn't - the policy will continue until it expires, and then it won't renew.

For all the insurer knew the OP may have wanted to pay a different way.

Telling your insurer that you don't wish to auto-renew means just that - telling them that you don't want it to renew when it expires (unless you subsequently tell them otherwise). It has nothing to do with how you might want to pay for the new policy that you're not going to buy.

If you want to have any policy stop you cancel it - no ifs or but!.

You seem to be confusing quite a few things here. You're confusing cancelling a policy with not renewing it. You're confusing the fact of renewal with the method of payment. Possibly you're confusing electing not to renew with cancelling the method of payment (eg a direct debit). IT would be better if you didn't tell the OP that he's in the wrong because of your own confusion.

jonesMUFCforever

Aretnap wrote: »

Of course it doesn't - the policy will continue until it expires, and then it won't renew.
.

...But the policy did renew didn't it? That is why this thread was created.
I am not confused at all - a policy needs to be cancelled if you don't want it to be continued.