Hastings car insurance cancellation problems

longview13082

Hi all,

First post- please be kind!

I received a Hastings car insurance renewal quote late December 2019 (auto-renewal on 9th January 2020). I found a cheaper quote elsewhere and therefore chose to go with another provider (esure). I pay monthly.

On 7th January I inadvertently clicked on a link from Hastings and accepted their renewal offer! The link was a bit cheeky and made it seem like you were merely looking at the breakdown of costs and NOT confirming the auto-renewal!

I immediately emailed Hastings on the 7th January (i.e. two days before renewal) and stipulated I had made a mistake and that I would like to cancel my renewal. I didn’t hear anything from Hastings for a couple of weeks and assumed that all was good. I then emailed again on 23rd January (i.e. within 14 days cancellation period) to state that I had given notice to cancel the policy previously and that I would like confirmation of that cancellation. I then received an email saying that I could not cancel over email and that I needed to call them up.

I finally got round to calling Hastings on ~6th February and went through all of the above. I stated that I had asked to cancel and that I had cover with another company (that started immediately as Hastings should have expired). Hastings said that I would not be liable to pay if I was covered elsewhere but that they would need to see my policy documents with esure.

I have provided Hastings with these documents and have just today received an email to say that I am liable to pay for insurance from 9th January to 17th February. Their reasoning was that the Hastings insurance covered me and a named driver and the esure cover only covered me and therefore Hastings were effectively insuring this named driver on the policy- even if they weren’t insuring me. Can they do this!?

I was thinking that perhaps I could argue this as a) the named driver has fully comprehensive insurance with another provider (and is the main policy holder) and b) the named driver has not driven my car during this period (weak excuse) and c) surely me not being insured on the policy during that time means that the policy is void (I’d be effectively paying a huge sum for a policy that just covers a named driver!?)

I’d very much appreciate your opinions on whether or not I should argue this case with Hastings. I feel as if they have just found a loophole and are being a bit exploitative. I am able to pay the fee, but I do feel as if I was tricked into clicking the auto-renewal button and, if it were someone less able to pay, that this would cause them an undue amount of stress.

For information this is the breakdown of the costs that Hastings have given me:

Total cost for time on cover

The cost of your main insurance policy, including insurance premium tax (IPT) at the current rate and any amendments, fees and additional products          £134.72

(Our fees 1. Policy arrangement £20.00 2. Cancellation    £45.00 3. Instalment interest      £14.84)

penners324

I believe you mis read the renewal email from Hastings.
The email I received from Hastings states the insurance will auto renew, to stop this happening please phone us on....

csgohan4

Always diarise to call your insurer to either lapse your insurance or haggle, never leave it to the insurer, what ever they say

longview13082

penners324 said:

I believe you mis read the renewal email from Hastings.
The email I received from Hastings states the insurance will auto renew, to stop this happening please phone us on....

Thanks for the reply.
Semantics here but the quoted email said the following:

"What happens next

 Unless you tell us otherwise, we'll automatically renew your policy and your new cover will start on 9th January 2020. On this date, we'll upload your new insurance documents to MyAccount and will take your payment on 3rd February 2020.

We're here to help

 If you don't want to automatically renew your policy, or you'd like to discuss or change any details please feel free to contact us."

To me, contact us allows for a bit of flexibility!

I assume by your answer your opinion would be not to contest this?

longview13082

Just to finish this post off:
I rang up on 18/02/20 and discussed the issues with the insurer. I stated that "contact us" did not specify that I had to call them and that I had emailed 3 times prior to the end of the 14 day cooling off period. I also noticed that their first contact with me was 15 days after the renewal had started and that it was only at this point that I was told I could not cancel by email and that it had to be by phone. The insurer has now cancelled the bill and have apologised for the inconvenience. I'm happy with the outcome!

If anyone else has had this issue (i.e. emailed instead of called) I do believe that it is reasonable to assume that an email is sufficient to cancel your auto-renewal or even your policy (after the auto-renewal has kicked in). Please make sure you argue it with them!
Thanks for the help to the two previous posters,
BW,
Lewis