RAC Autorenewal £25 cancellation fee - cooling off period?

Bigwheels1111

The do nothing route seems not to have worked.
It does not matter what you believe or think you know.
All these companies will get your money if you do nothing and refuse to give it back.
Had it with Hastings,AA and Rac.
I rang to cancel all of them, but had them on speakerphone and recorded them with my mobile.
Asked for the agents name and the date and time.
Then followed up with emails.
Still did not stop them.
Welcome to my favourite time in the world, time to argue and get their money.
Tsb complaints gave £500 and later said it was not enough and gave another £100, Peugeot 4 years free AA cover and money back Plus interest on payments about £300 and a free service and Mot via resolver.
Hastings £75 good will gesture after a section 75 claim, Rac £100 Plus interest and money.

MD1970

Thanks all. Will see how the complaint goes but not holding my breath.

McKneff

There are those 2 words again..
I assumed

Ibrahim5

I would always complain to the card provider that it is an unauthorized transaction. They can then reverse it. If the RAC believe you still owe the money they can take you to court.

Sandtree

diystarter7 said:
It happens quite often with many companies I've dealt with and most recently LV.

I always insist no auto-renewal but I have to take action still to stop it.

Thre should be a law on auto-renewals and a tick box on the policy stating if you opted in or out.

When it comes to insurance there are rules around auto-renewal however generally the regulators support auto renewal and credit it for the significant reduction in the number of cases of driving without insurance and non-motor related cases where someone goes to claim to find they forgot to renew their policy. 

With the majority still renewing with their insurers each year there are cost savings that we all benefit from too

born_again

Ibrahim5 said:

I would always complain to the card provider that it is an unauthorized transaction. They can then reverse it. If the RAC believe you still owe the money they can take you to court.

No. They just contest it with the card provider & you get redebited...
Remember RAC have ALL your details. So it does not go down well with bank when it's found a customer has just attempted a breech of trust.

MrFrugalFever

Car_54 said:

MrFrugalFever said:

That’s disgusting. I find it weird that your credit card details could have been passed onto RAC without your knowledge or permission, that almost surmounts to fraud?!

Not even remotely.
However, it may have breached the DP regs.

Theft/fraud, having your money taken without your consent is hardly acceptable.

Jenni_D

MrFrugalFever said:

Car_54 said:

MrFrugalFever said:

That’s disgusting. I find it weird that your credit card details could have been passed onto RAC without your knowledge or permission, that almost surmounts to fraud?!

Not even remotely.
However, it may have breached the DP regs.

Theft/fraud, having your money taken without your consent is hardly acceptable.

But it wasn't (taken without consent) - unless the auto-renewal wasn't covered whatsoever in the initial terms of contract. (Which would be very unusual).

Lack of consumer awareness <> fraud/theft 🙄

Sandtree

MrFrugalFever said:

Car_54 said:

MrFrugalFever said:

That’s disgusting. I find it weird that your credit card details could have been passed onto RAC without your knowledge or permission, that almost surmounts to fraud?!

Not even remotely.
However, it may have breached the DP regs.

Theft/fraud, having your money taken without your consent is hardly acceptable.

Need to learn the difference between not giving consent and quickly clicking the "I agree" button having not read the T&Cs above. Its your choice not to read them and it doesn't invalidate your consent. 

Our website, going back a fair few years too so much slower webpage loading times, had an average of 8 seconds between the request for the Assumptions & Conditions page and the average customer having scrolled down 2.5 pages of bullets and hitting the I Agree button. These weren't minor technicalities and "small print" but fairly major declarations like you've never had insurance cancelled before, you agree to your payment details to be stored for auto-renewal etc etc 

notdedyet

AA wanted 57% more this year, for absolutely no changes (unless my age increasing made a difference....). Spent time on 2 comparison sites and MSE Compare+, came up with One Call Insurance (whom?) best quote for "only" 30% more than last year.
Disgusted with AA; went with One Call. Then couldn't remember whether AA was on autorenewal - their reminder email was ambiguous - had to fill out a autorenewal cancellation request on their website - their no reply email said they would consider my request (!) and if "not possible to cancel" would email me within 5 days (awaiting their response).
Meanwhile, One Call Insurance: cannot access their autorenewal cancellation request until the policy has been created (- as previously mentioned why can this not be a tickbox on the application?)
Also noted that One Call charging £30 "New Business Fee" in their total - if I cancel autorenewal I assume they can charge this (or loads more) again next year.
This pressure to autorenew/difficulty to cancel when premium risen by 57% for no good reason (oh it's inflation says the guy from the ABI on Martin's show last night - if it was say 10 - even 20% I might accept that as a reason, but 57%? - that in my book is Usury. 
I don't usually complain (about anything) but this gets my goat.
Rant over. Love to all