Tesco saying that auto-renew is a legal requirement!

racerlady

I'm pretty sure that this is a lie.  I rang to cancel Tesco car insurance as I had got a quote £100 cheaper elsewhere.  I hate auto-renew, as I always check prices every year, but I had forgotten to check and turn it off.  She quoted something about a 2011 law meaning that all insurance companies HAVE to provide auto-renew.  Is this true?

user1977

She's probably mixing it up with the law making it a requirement for your car to have a policy at all times (unless it's SORNed), so autorenew means you at least stay legal if you forget to sort it out yourself. But there's no requirement on the insurers to autorenew.

YBR

It's a requirement to have a car insured (or SORN'd), and as I understand it, it's a requirement to provide an auto-renew option. So "she" is right. 

OTOH, It's not a requirement to apply the auto-renew (key word "option") although it is the default everywhere I have seen.

Mildly_Miffed

Another vote here for confusion with continuous insurance, which did come in in 2011...

That says nothing about insurer auto-renewing or not, just that if your car isn't SORNed (which came in in 1999), it MUST be insured. Or, rather, if it's not insured it must be SORNed.

Archergirl

Perhaps auto renew is a good idea, they do notify you when the ins is due (you should know this anyway, put in in your diary or a calendar..) so we have plenty of time to shop around but it will stop 'forgetful' people driving uninsured.

TooManyPoints

It's a requirement to have a car insured (or SORN'd), and as I understand it, it's a requirement to provide an auto-renew option. So "she" is right. 

No, "she" is not right.

It is the Registered Keeper's responsibility to ensure a vehicle is insured, not the insurers. Insurers provide auto-renewal for all manner of policies, not only motor insurance, because it is to their advantage. The "inertia" from which many people suffer means they are less likely to shop around to get a better deal.

The only issue I have with it is that if the policyholder forgets to cancel the auto-renewal or his instructions are not acted upon for any reason, the insurers will eventually cancel the policy and this must be declared, usually to the policyholder's detriment, indefinitely.

There should be a way of discriminating between the cancellations necessary because those reasons and those which are undertaken because of, for example, the failure to declare accidents, claims or convictions, etc.

racerlady

Thanks everyone.  I still think it is misleading of Tesco's advisor to say that auto-renew is a legal requirement.  I accept that the option to auto renew is a legal requirement, but that is not the same.

IOWJJBTM2025

Agree that Auto renew is a pain. I remember getting a new policy and asking for it not to auto renew.
Was told that once the policy was completed I could go on line to my policy to uncheck the auto renew.
I did this but they are still trying to Auto renew.
In my case this was for Pet insurance.
Our dog is now 10 years old. The Auto renew was just over £1000 per year. When I looked at the new policy it does not cover us for hardly anything because most cover areas are only up to the age of 9.

Grey_Critic

I never Auto-renew and actually got it in writing from one insurer who then did auto-renew. I blocked the payment and they got rather shirty until I sent them a copy of a letter they had sent me acknowledging that they would not auto-renew as requested when I took out the policy.