Car Insurance has renewed after me telling them not to!?

hannahrose25

So I've been with Shelia's Wheels this last year and my insurance ran out today.. or so I thought! Last month I went on their customer service live chat to ask them to cancel the auto renewal as I didn't wish to renew, the person on the end told me that had all changed and that my insurance would now end today on my policy end date instead of renewing. They sent me the transcript of this conversation and I went on my way getting insurance with Privilege (which has started today).

On Friday I got an email from SWs saying that I needed to phone them as my insurance 'may' lapse.. as I knew it was coming to the end of its policy I assumed this was just a normal email and them trying to get me to renew again but as I had already spoken to them about not renewing I thought nothing of it. Tonight I have sat down to check that it's all switched over only to notice that my SWs account has thanked me for renewing and has given me all the insurance documents! I have looked at the email again and it appears they emailed to say they tried to take the money out but was unable to (luckily this would be because the account didn't cover the amount!).

All their customer services have closed now so I cant contact anyone but I'm really worried now that 1) I'm double insured, 2) they wont be able to cancel it, 3) they will charge me for canceling and 4) it will screw me over because I will have to say about this to other insurance companies when I renew next time!? I'm really upset because I already contacted them about not renewing and it appears they have still renewed it!? I did the 'live chat' customer service for the first time instead of calling them because it said I could do it that way! as I said luckily they sent me the transcript of that conversation so I have proof I asked them to cancel and I have confirmation they would. I just need to wait until first thing tomorrow to phone them and get it sorted but its made me so anxious now! has this happened to anyone else and how was it sorted?

dunstonh

This is a clerical pain in the neck but not something to worry about. Its not declarable to anyone else

You have the transcript that shows you told them not renew.    You contact them and reference them to that.   They will say "oops" or whatever and confirm it hasnt been renewed.

Aretnap

(1) Contrary to popular belief you are not doing anything wrong by being double insured. It's obviously not great financially to pay for two policies when you can only claim once, however the bottom that you are somehow breaking the law by doing it is an urban myth.
(2) A policy can always be cancelled.
(3) If they try to charge you for cancellation (unlikely) you can make a complaint and present the transcript as evidence that it was a mistake in their part

(4) You would only have to declare this to future insurance companies if your insurer cancelled your policy against your wishes, which is not what has happened here, quite the opposite in fact

(5) Stop panicking

(6) Call them in the morning

diystarter7

Hi
This problem of "aut renewal" seriously ticks me off and its not just this outfit but most for car ins and all other insurances, memberships etc

Low and behold, one even had the cheek to tell me there was no option but to have auto renewal and I needed to call back nearer the time to cancel. I demanded to speak with their manager and the phone person/staff was wrong.

Auto renwal works for many but just as many it is not for them and imo, many outfits keep you on auto renwe even when you have told them several times, no thanks

Thanks

chrisw

I had the same thing with Direct Line. They were quite rude on the phone insisting I must have made a mistake. Anyway, they went away to listen to the phone recording and came back very apologetic that it was indeed their error.

They simply stopped the insurance and refunded the premium they'd taken and I never heard any more.

DullGreyGuy

diystarter7 said:

Hi
This problem of "aut renewal" seriously ticks me off and its not just this outfit but most for car ins and all other insurances, memberships etc

Low and behold, one even had the cheek to tell me there was no option but to have auto renewal and I needed to call back nearer the time to cancel. I demanded to speak with their manager and the phone person/staff was wrong.

Auto renwal works for many but just as many it is not for them and imo, many outfits keep you on auto renwe even when you have told them several times, no thanks

Thanks

You may hate it but how much would you hate it if the next car that hits you turns out to be uninsured because they forgot when their renewal date was? 

Auto-renewal has been credited with massively reducing the number of uninsured vehicles on the road. Just look at the number of posts on this site when people admit they forgot a date or dont remember receiving a piece of post etc. All of those are potential future uninsured drivers due to poor memory (rather than bad will)

Advising you dont want to renew when you get your renewal quote is not a major pain compared with having to declare a fault claim for 5 years because some other person couldnt remember if their policy renewed in June or August.