AutoAid Auto Renewal

Applecrop

After some advice about company etiquette/moral responsibilities. We signed up for annual car breakdown for £59.99 last year, we used a company who promote the fact they come 'highly recommended by The Money Saving Expert'. One year has passed and we find a second annual fee for the same amount £59.99. After speaking with Lauren who explained very clearly that the company made the decision in February 2020 to enforce a general rule that all existing policy holders will now auto renew, they follow what they feel is a fair/legal process of emailing all customers via their automated system letting them know this is the case. They then email you giving you six weeks notice, see email text.

'Following the feedback that we have received from our customers we have decided to offer you the option to renew your policy automatically. This will improve the process of renewing your policy, eliminate any potential risk of your policy accidently being overlooked and is to ensure that you have the continuous benefit of our award-winning breakdown policy.

As a result, you will no longer need to call us or go online to renew your policy on . We will contact you in good time before your policy is due for renewal to remind you of your renewal date. Payment for your policy is to be debited on the date of your renewal from your payment card. Provided the payment is successful, your policy will continue for a further 12 months. If the card previously debited has now expired or you wish to use an alternative payment method, then please call us prior to your renewal date on xx to amend the details. Confirmation of your renewed policy will be issued via email, unless requested otherwise.

All other terms and benefits have not changed and our terms of business document can be viewed on xxxx.

We would like to remind you that AutoAid Breakdown is an award-winning breakdown cover that is recommended by The Money Saving Expert. If you do not wish to take up the advantage of automatically continuing your policy, then please visit our website at and follow the instructions displayed on screen or call us on xxx.

Please note: You will receive your renewal notice prior to your policy renewal date which will include the annual premium and your exact renewal date in due course.'

We did not see these emails as they ended up in our junk (due to being automatically generated) and have now been charged a full annual fee of £59.99 (charged August 29 2020).  Once we have seen the charge, phoned up to question why they had made this decision to be told the new auto renew policy. Your can of course cancel as we are within our 14 days but see charge breakdown;

'Once purchased, you have the right to cancel within 14 days of your renewal date. Provided you have not had any claims we will refund any premium due based on your time on cover and minus any charges. Please note: A minimum charge of £15 + IPT from the Insurer will be applicable and a further £15 administration charge to cancel your policy. '

We ended up being refunded £23.19 due to the days our policy was in active use (a note we never made any claim so fees all related to company policy.

The emails sent did offer a link to then take you to your policy to opt out but our emails went to junk folders.

Anyone using AutoAid, please to watch up, make sure you opt in for post and email updates as well.

Does anyone have any advice for next steps in claiming back?

Thanks

Danny

Sandtree

Best advice is to change your junk mail settings, most important notices from insurers, banks, credit card companies etc are auto generated and you should be flagging these as things to read not things to go into the junk folder.

The only question is if you gave them a continuous payment authority when you first bought the policy for them to have a right to store your card details but it’ll be hard to check now.

Eric_Jones

I just got caught by this one also [The email they sent the messages too does not support imap/pop3 so is only checked every 6 months to keep itr alive] The first I knew about it was when I logged in to keep the old email account alive and found they had just taken the money. As above autoaid/Rightchoice refuse to give a full refund even though they have been informed that the policy was never requested nor wanted. They must know full well that what they are doing is wrong but state that they are technically within regulatory guidelines so can do this (get away with it).

Unfortunately autoaid was taken over by rightchoice insurance brokers and it is certainly not the company you used to be able to rely on and trust any longer.

Regarding the comment above. I always check for autorenew options assiduously and NEVER accept them, nor do business with any company that makes autorenewing the default option unless opted out of. I can state that when I DID last authorise a policy payment the year previously it was a one off payment and NOT an autorenew. In fact at that time autoaid did not even offer autorenew. They confirm this themselves stating in the mail sent nearly a year AFTER I authorised the one off payment
"Following the feedback that we have received from our customers we have decided to offer you the option to renew your cover automatically. ". That mail was sent to an email address that they do not even know still exists.
So No. They have never been given authorisation to hold the details for recurring payment. They have just sent a mail to an email adress from a year ago, then taken the money from a credit card that they have on record from a previous ONE-OFF payment.
Perhaps worse, they are now saying that I ask my credit card to pursue the unauthorised payment  then they won't even give the partial repayment due because i found they had done this within the 14 day cooling off period as required by law.

They know very well what they are doing but rely on the technical loophole.
They may be correct that they are within the rules, I don't know. If they are, then the rules have a massive loophole, but what they are doing is certainly wrong ethically and they seem to know that and simply not care.

If you have any policy with autoaid or rightchoice insurance brokers then I suggest you contact them and instruct them to delete completely any payment details they hold from you. I would advise not renewing and if you are considering doing business with Autoaid or Rightchoice insurance brokers I would strongly advise you NOT to.
I'd also strongly recommend that MSE stops recommending either autoaid or rightchoice. It very clearly is NOT the right choice any longer and certainly not worth any (much smaller than it used to be) initial saving.

melbury

My AutoAid policy is coming up for renewal and I was extremely surprised to see on Martin's recommended best buys that it says if your car is over 15 years old you have to pay more, which is a bit disconcerting and the first I have heard of it, as one of our cars will be 16 years old this year. 

I have been with AutoAid for years and don't recall ever having been asked how old our cars are.  I thought this policy was purely based on the person not the vehicle.  I can't see anything in the renewal notice I got last year that says you have to inform them when your car reaches 15 years old, but I would hate to have a claim rejected because of this.

Seems a bit negligent on their part if this is the case.

Does anybody know if you are meant to tell them?

Sandtree

Eric_Jones said:

The email they sent the messages too does not support imap/pop3 so is only checked every 6 months to keep itr alive

They sent the messages to the email address you gave them... insurance shouldnt be going to a mail box that you only check every 6 months.

If you feel they have held your data, eg your card number, for purposes other than were described to you at the time you gave them the data then register a complaint with them. If you are then unhappy with their response you have the choice of taking the matter to the Financial Ombudsman or the ICO, the two organisations have an MOU about complaints that fall under both their jurisdictions. 

Eric_Jones

Sandtree.
They have used my credit card details for a purpose other than I gave them.
I checked very carefully at the time I provided them that there was no autorenew (their own emails confirm this did not exist at the time the credit card details were provided. (If there had been any reason for further dialogue then of course I would have ensured communications. There wasn't, it was a one-off transaction.) So they know very well that they have used them for a purpose other than they were provided. So they have been used without authorisation. They changed their terms AFTER the credit card details were provided (before that it was not possible to have auto-renewal even if you wanted to, and anyone on these forums should know why you should not want to), The FCA (and OFT before that) made clear that express opt-IN is required to set up continuous payment OR any change of terms. Neither of which was done.
Autoaid simply sent an email to a historical address and then took money from historical credit card records. So yes, of course this will end up at the Ombudsman unless they behave with any shred of decency and return the money they took without my even knowing about it. They have had multiple opportunities to do so and so far refused.
I really do recommend that no-one should take out any business with autoaid or provide them with any payment details. If you already have a policy: Be aware that autoaid was taken over by Right Choice Insurance Brokers. It is no longer the same company that it was, I'd advise anyone to contact them to explicitly state that they do not have permission to take any money from payment details previously provided and then do not renew.

mattyprice4004

All this hot air when people don't bother to check on communications channels companies have with them - ridiculous. 
You cannot blame them for your own poor communication.