Auto-renewal of travel insurance: difficult to avoid renewal

ashfor

I'd appreciate opinions on whether there's any point in progressing this or should I just give up!

An annual travel insurance was recently due for renewal and the insurer practices auto-renewal.  I had no intention of renewing and was planning to decline the invitation to renew before the renewal date.  When the renewal letter arrived, it was written assuming that the customer would renew.  There was no information in the letter about how to avoid renewing and nothing on their website, which had a great big "Renew now" button but no way of declining renewal.  The only way of avoiding renewal appeared to be with a phone call and, after waiting in a queue for 58 minutes, hearing the same inane message over and over and over again, I finally spoke to their call centre and stopped the renewal.

I complained to the insurance company on the basis that they were deliberating making it difficult to decline renewal, that they should tell customers how to avoid renewal in their letter, and that they should provide a web-based way of doing this, especially as they must be aware of long waits with their call centre.  I felt that they were, as a matter of policy, making it as difficult as possible to avoid renewal and that this amounts to unfair treatment of their customers.

The complaints handler has offered £25 for the inconvenience but won't accept that their policy or practice is at fault.  I can appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service but I'm unclear whether this will do any good.  I don't want compensation; I just want insurance companies to treat their customers fairly and not put barriers in the way of customers who don't want to renew.   Opinions welcome!

dunstonh

There was no information in the letter about how to avoid renewing and nothing on their website, which had a great big "Renew now" button but no way of declining renewal. 

The FOS expectation is that the renewal letter should have a what happens next section explaining the next steps if you do or do not want to renew.    If what you are saying is correct, then they would appear to be doing something unexpected.

  I can appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service but I'm unclear whether this will do any good. 

The FOS is not the regulator.  It wont force change. 

 I don't want compensation; I just want insurance companies to treat their customers fairly and not put barriers in the way of customers who don't want to renew.   

In which case, the FOS is not going to help.

davidmcn

ashfor said:

The complaints handler has offered £25 for the inconvenience but won't accept that their policy or practice is at fault.  I can appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service but I'm unclear whether this will do any good.  I don't want compensation; I just want insurance companies to treat their customers fairly and not put barriers in the way of customers who don't want to renew.   Opinions welcome!

I would

(a) pocket the £25

(b) publicise who the company is, rather than remaining coy about their identity.

Thrugelmir

Auto renewal is perfectly legal as a practice. 

Unfortunately Covid will have made call centres busier than is normally the case.

ashfor

Thrugelmir said:

Auto renewal is perfectly legal as a practice.

Yes, I'm aware of this.  Personally, I think forcing it on an unwilling customer is unethical.  Presuming consent, which is what this (and other) companies do isn't informed, freely-given consent. I do appreciate that political pressure would be needed to change this.

Thrugelmir said:

Unfortunately Covid will have made call centres busier than is normally the case.

I understand that and sympathise with the predicament of companies that use them. But that doesn't really excuse the quite deliberate policy of making a customer call in to avoid renewal.  They could very easily provide a web-based method of doing this (as they do for customers who want to renew) but choose not to do this.  That's cynical, and deliberately erecting a barrier to the detriment of customers.

If FOS is unable to influence unfair policy, perhaps the only route is to lobby the FCA via one's MP and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Socajam

Auto-Renewal - place reminder on phone, call day before or day of renewal.
Companies have to be dragged kicking and screaming before they make any change, then it's up to us to set things motion to stop Auto-Renewal

Sandtree

ashfor said:

Thrugelmir said:

Auto renewal is perfectly legal as a practice.

Yes, I'm aware of this.  Personally, I think forcing it on an unwilling customer is unethical.  Presuming consent, which is what this (and other) companies do isn't informed, freely-given consent. I do appreciate that political pressure would be needed to change this.

Thrugelmir said:

Unfortunately Covid will have made call centres busier than is normally the case.

I understand that and sympathise with the predicament of companies that use them. But that doesn't really excuse the quite deliberate policy of making a customer call in to avoid renewal.  They could very easily provide a web-based method of doing this (as they do for customers who want to renew) but choose not to do this.  That's cynical, and deliberately erecting a barrier to the detriment of customers.

If FOS is unable to influence unfair policy, perhaps the only route is to lobby the FCA via one's MP and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

The FCA actively supports auto renewal as it has vastly reduced the cases of accidental uninsured incidents. You get a ton of stories on here each month about people saying they’d forgotten their renewal date and had wanted to switch car insurers, had they not automatically renewed they’d all have been driving without insurance.

FOS ensure customers are appropriately compensated when insurers, banks etc do wrong; they don’t police the companies nor can apply penalties. They do report to the FCA and highlight trends in complaints and the FCA has the authority to force changes or apply fines beyond customer losses.