Help being charged £50 to cancel insurance despite ticking not to autorenewal

silverchair1

Hello

My OH organised my car insurance last year. He downlaoded the insurance companies app and completed my datails and ticked do not autorenewal.  He definietly did this as we had a discussion on how I was caught out last time and he was able to do it easily and showed me.
Anyway the insurance company no longer has the app ,its no longer in the app store.

I renewed my car insurance for this year choosing to go with a different company.
My OH did get an email from last year's insurance company but presumed it was yet more marketing emails from them as he has received a lot of them from this company. He also ticked do not auto renew so wouldnt have expacted that they would ignore this.

He checked his bank statements and they have taken out money for this year's car insurance. He has emailed to cancel (day 10) and has been charged a £50 admin fee!

Any advice on what he can do about this. Best way to deal this would be appreciated.

Thank you

Brie

Complain and provide proof that autorenew was disallowed.

silverchair1

So it is actually in the app store just under a slightly different name from the car insurance company so didnt come up at the top when searching for it.
He has reinstalled it but infortunately it no longer recognises his login details. The actual website doesnt have the option that we can see to not autorenewal it was just on the app.

Bigphil1474

(Good) Insurers usually contact you a few weeks before renewal to give you a new price for the next year. If you don't want to renew, it's best to tell them rather than assume. As you've found, it can cost not to remember the key dates of car ownership - MOT, and Insurance date being the main two. 'Road Tax' if you don't pay by DD as well. 

You might have some joy under consumer protection/distance selling and 14 day cooling off period, but I don't know the ins and outs.

DullGreyGuy

Having opened with stating you'd been caught out once before it seems strange that you haven't learnt that you need to read the documents your insurers send you (by email or post) rather than just assume what they say. Yes, if you did tick a box to not auto-renew then the renewal notice should have been a quote, that you'd want to see anyway to compare to other prices, but its much easier to read that, see its is on auto renewal and advise them in advance not to renew it than blindly let it renew and then have to fight after.

Ultimately if you believe you ticked a box not to autorenew you need to put a complaint in; it wont take them too long to double check if that's what happened or not (you wouldnt be the first that accidentally double clicks something therefore selecting it and then deselecting it).

Bigphil1474 said:

(Good) Insurers usually contact you a few weeks before renewal to give you a new price for the next year. If you don't want to renew, it's best to tell them rather than assume. As you've found, it can cost not to remember the key dates of car ownership - MOT, and Insurance date being the main two. 'Road Tax' if you don't pay by DD as well. 

You might have some joy under consumer protection/distance selling and 14 day cooling off period, but I don't know the ins and outs.

All insurers do, they are required to. The letter/email will also be totally clear on what happens if you do nothing, either it will renew or lapse. The OP admits they received the email just didn't bother looking at it.

Financial Services are not covered by things like the CCR (replaced the distance selling regs) or CRA (replaced SoGA for consumers) but have their own rules and regulations predominately set by the FCA. Similar to a subscription service outside of insurance (say a gin club sending 1 bottle a month), statutory cooling off period relates to the first purchase not each and every subsequent.

Unlike the CCR financial services companies are entitled to charge for a cancellation even within the cooling off period. It's a right to cancel not a right of fee free cancellation. With some classes of insurance, though not Motor, once the cooling off period's expired you have no right of cancellation until the next renewal.