Admiral insurance and cancellation fees issue

majeedk

This has happened to my brother and I am asking for help on his behalf. My brother and his family has been out of UK since last August due to a family situation.

He had a multi car insurance policy with Admiral. he always pays the full amount every year rather than monthly instalments. He is sure that he never agreed to auto-renew with Admiral Insurance.

Anyway, before leaving the UK, he SORN'd the cars  and parked them in his friends garage. Today, I went to his house to check on things and  I found this letter from Admiral Insurance asking to pay £121  (which includes £80 admin fee) with in ten day because his policy has been cancelled. Then I checked his recent statements and there are fees from his bank due to failed payments to Admiral because of insufficient funds which is probably the reason they cancelled it.

He doesn't have proper access to internet and can't make international calls. So I need to contact Admiral in his behalf. What options do i have to contest this ridiculous admin fee?    

JJ_Egan

You have no options as its not your policy .

you need permission to speak on his behalf .

Auto renewal would be on his insurance documents , send out the renewal quote and customer accepts/cancels  or its renewed .

majeedk

JJ_Egan said:

You have no options as its not your policy .

you need permission to speak on his behalf .

Auto renewal would be on his insurance documents , send out the renewal quote and customer accepts/cancels  or its renewed .

I have his permission to speak to them on his behalf that's why I am asking here on what to say to Admiral.

as per Admiral's website:

You'll receive your renewal notice from us between 14 and 21 days before it's due. If you registered online this will be sent out as an email. Once you've received your renewal invite, you can call our renewals department at any time to discuss it or cancel the renewal. If you cancel outside the 14 day cooling off period you'll be charged for the days on cover.

My brother is locked out of his email accounts after he tried to log in from the country he is in. How come emails are considered the only way to when Admiral have no way to prove that it was delivered and actually opened by the receiver (unless they are using tracking technology in the email).

Sandtree

Duplicate post Admiral insurance and cancellation fees issue — MoneySavingExpert Forum

majeedk said:

JJ_Egan said:

You have no options as its not your policy .

you need permission to speak on his behalf .

Auto renewal would be on his insurance documents , send out the renewal quote and customer accepts/cancels  or its renewed .

I have his permission to speak to them on his behalf that's why I am asking here on what to say to Admiral.

What format is the permission? Power of Attorney? Your brother sent them a letter before going?

[Deleted User]

majeedk said:

How come emails are considered the only way to when Admiral have no way to prove that it was delivered and actually opened by the receiver (unless they are using tracking technology in the email).

Emails have become the standard channel - it's how he would have received his documents initially.

majeedk

Update:

I called Admiral's customer service and explained the situation. I was told that they (Admiral) have sent renewal notice via email only and that was 14 days before the insurance expiry date. But when it came to chasing for payment they sent like 5 letters  in the post.

Really annoying why couldn't they send the renewal notice via post as well

The agent said that there are further letters coming and its likely going to debt collection department. So just panicked and to save my brother's credit profile i paid them to clear this mess.

jimbo6977

majeedk said:

Update:

I called Admiral's customer service and explained the situation. I was told that they (Admiral) have sent renewal notice via email only and that was 14 days before the insurance expiry date. But when it came to chasing for payment they sent like 5 letters  in the post.

Really annoying why couldn't they send the renewal notice via post as well

The agent said that there are further letters coming and its likely going to debt collection department. So just panicked and to save my brother's credit profile i paid them to clear this mess.

Very kind of you!

Has this insurance been cancelled by Admiral or not?
This is very important for your brother's future insurance situation. 

majeedk

jimbo6977 said:. 

Very kind of you!

Has this insurance been cancelled by Admiral or not?
This is very important for your brother's future insurance situation. 

According to the agent I spoke to, the policy was cancelled by Admiral for “non payment”. She wasn’t very helpful/knowledgeable to confirm the implications of that. 

However, what she confirm was that it hasn’t gone to any debt collection agency and the matter is still with Admiral. 

That’s point when I decided to stop this from escalating any further to ruin his credit profile.  I hope I have succeeded in that. 

Sandtree

The issue he now has to declare he has had insurance cancelled for life which results in many insurers refusing to quote and those that do vastly increase premiums (the last person on here complaining about the impact had seen an increase of 5x their previous premiums)

majeedk said:

Really annoying why couldn't they send the renewal notice via post as well

Almost all insurers give you a choice of how you want comms and so in all probability your brother asked for docs by email and so they are just following their request.

Cancellations have highly serious consequences, especially for Motor, which is why they tend to also send those letters by post... the law is also clearer on when post is considered received -v- emails.

forgotmyname

Insurance is probably cheaper with a poor credit rating than having to declare a policy cancelled for non payment.
Fail to declare that and the bills may get bigger.

majeedk

Thank you everyone for the advice and sharing your views. It is really unfortunate that my brother has made a mistake of not sorting his affairs before leaving the country (even though it was bit of an emergency) and now he will have a mess to deal with when he comes back.

From my own experience I would like to say that it depends on the company you are dealing with.

Admiral kept sending letters and relying on emails. They should have just called him up and/or checked the vehicle status (both cars were decalred SORN) to realise something was wrong rather than just carrying on with auto generated letters and emails. I am saying this becasye their agent confirmed that they have checks in place to confirm vehicle status like ownership, SORN etc. IMHO, this is the reason why fully automated systems can't work in every situation and a human intervention is required.

I am currently insured with Aviva and in Feb they sent me a quote (post+email). I did the ususal method of searching price comparison sites and then Aviva which was > £500 cheaper than what Aviva had already quoted earlier on. I used their website to renew the policy. two days after renewal date I got a call from Aviva agent saying he has noticed that I havent accepted their renewal offer (sent via post). He was shocked to find out that I have alread renewed with them at a cheaper rate. I am glad that they called rather than trying to start two insurance policies but it was also shocking that their system isn't capable of detecting that I had already renewed with them.