Hastings Direct - unable to cancel auto-renewal

Guzza

Morning all,
I have just taken new car insurance with By Miles (thanks MSE for the £55 worth of free miles!).
Hastings Direct auto-quoted me £686 (this year gone cost me £580), By Miles price is £236.11 upfront with 3.4p/mile (est 6400 miles) = £398.71 so some saving!
My insurance is due for renewal on 17th July so I tried to find the cancel my auto-renewal on the Hastings Direct site... turns out they don't offer that simple solution! You have to call them (I assume to give you a better quote/keep business). Fair enough (I guess). However, due to their staff working from home and larger number of calls when I call them they say they are not taking any more new calls and then cut me off. So there is currently NO way of cancelling my auto-renewal. Can someone assist?
~Guzza

sheramber

Try calling as soon as they open at 9 am.

Ayeshalush

Renewal lines are open - maybe try again - open from 9:00-18:00 Mon to Fri and 10:00-14:00 Sat

Oncebitten_2

Hi Y'all,
Currently 68 minutes into trying to get Hastings Direct to cancel auto renew on my car insurance.
They close in 73 minutes' time.
Is that it, keep us on hold until we lose the will to live so that the auto renew happens anyway?

MalMonroe

Oncebitten_2 said:

Hi Y'all,
Currently 68 minutes into trying to get Hastings Direct to cancel auto renew on my car insurance.
They close in 73 minutes' time.
Is that it, keep us on hold until we lose the will to live so that the auto renew happens anyway?

Hi, this thread is a bit old and maybe you could have started a new one?

But, I'm with Hastings Direct and I phoned to cancel my auto renew at the end of last year as the figure they quoted was too high.

I don't think they are using any weird tactics to leave people hanging on so the renewal happens automatically at all. They should have given you longer notice of auto-renewal than this, they usually do. Every time I phone to cancel auto renew they end up offering me a much better deal. It's really worth hanging on, if you can be bothered, so you can haggle. 

Basically, if you act as soon as you receive an auto renewal notice, you DO have time to negotiate either a cancellation or renewal at a price that suits you. 

You can always hang up and try again. But I have to say I didn't have to wait long for my call to be answered and it's worth waiting. Although I'd have hung up by now and would try again later or on Monday.

sheramber

Phone first thing when the  lines open and get in  the front of th queue

eddie7612

If it's over an hour on the phone, I'd be tempted to go old school and send them notice of cancellation by post

Conrad3000

You could ask your card issuer to give you a new card (with a new number obviously) so the number that's with the insurer won't go through, thereby no auto-renewal.

Thedvdmonster_2

They have become a joke of a company 
raising insurance by hundreds of pounds despite no changes or claims and not having the option to times off auto-renewal or e able to cancel online is disgraceful. 

The last time I rang they said they could do a fresh quote then said it had gone up by a further £200 in the days after they sent the renewal then the clown on the phone said “would I be happy to go ahead with the new higher quote “
surely nobody is that dumb?
also no surprise , I was left on hold for ages and as soon as I said I wanted to cancel the advisor started the wonderful “I’m sorry sir I’m having trouble hearing you, the line keeps braking up” bull
rhat seems to happen with so many companies when they don’t want the customer to leave, very suspicious 

DullGreyGuy

Conrad3000 said:

You could ask your card issuer to give you a new card (with a new number obviously) so the number that's with the insurer won't go through, thereby no auto-renewal.

Your insurer should be using Card Updater service so would be given the new card number. 

Also what you are talking about is non-payment not declining the renewal and given payment is taken after inception that means your policy does renew and at best they cancel the policy for non-payment which you then have to declare for life or worst case they consider it as "no intent to pay" (aka fraud) which also means you have to declare it for life but will also get a CIFAS marker against you which will make getting any form of credit in the next 6 years will be hard. 

chrisw

DullGreyGuy said:

Conrad3000 said:

You could ask your card issuer to give you a new card (with a new number obviously) so the number that's with the insurer won't go through, thereby no auto-renewal.

Your insurer should be using Card Updater service so would be given the new card number. 

Also what you are talking about is non-payment not declining the renewal and given payment is taken after inception that means your policy does renew and at best they cancel the policy for non-payment which you then have to declare for life or worst case they consider it as "no intent to pay" (aka fraud) which also means you have to declare it for life but will also get a CIFAS marker against you which will make getting any form of credit in the next 6 years will be hard. 

Thread resurrection. The post is over 3 years old so hopefully they're sorted.