Insurance policy cancelled auto renew still showing as renew automatic

Pat38493

I have a caravan insurance policy that is due for renewal end February.

The company sent me a renewal quote for 0.00. Obviously this is a mistake on their side and not the first one. I do not want to renew with them but the auto renewal was showing as switched on - this company has made it very difficult to work with them just to run my policy, so I have no confidence what would happen if I ever need to make a claim.

After negotiating with an AI bot which was programmed to block my call if at all possible, and insisted that policy numbers can only start with 6 when mine starts with 7, I eventually managed to get through to an agent and after eventually locating my details, the agent agreed to cancel the renewal and said that they had requested it to be cancelled.

If this was several days ago, and the policy on their portal is still showing auto renewal as "automatic".

I believe I am within my rights to contact my card company and cancel the CPA with this company, considering that I clearly informed them I want the auto renewal cancelled on a phone call?

born_again

You have a right to contact bank & cancel a CPA no matter what. Only thing is it does not cancel any contract.

In your case you have cancelled. So I would do it anyway.

The issue is if you are in a fixed term contract & the company as such has the rights to the rest of the payments for the contract period.

Which could see them taking it to court.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6653385/insurance-policy-cancelled-auto-renew-still-showing-as-renew-automatic

CPA and renewal are totally unrelated. Most companies will renew first take payment second and so by that point you have an inforce contract which needs paying or it will be cancelled for non-payment which you then need to declare to others.

Did the agent send you anything to confirm they'd changed the policy to lapse rather than auto renew? The call alone should be enough but personally always prefer to get something by email or letter as a confirmation of the conversation.

Some firms have all singing and dancing systems with realtime updates between the different channels, others can be a little more smoke and mirrors in nature and what's online doesnt necessarily reflect what's in their core systems.

Pat38493

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866291#Comment_81866291

OK - but even if they did that wouldn't the 14 day cooling off period apply, so I could then cancel it again.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866311#Comment_81866311

Don't think so, renewals are not covered by the 14 day distance selling regs re cancellation without penalty.

OTOH, insurance companies can charge a fee, on top of any part-year policy coverage, to cover set-up costs in the case of cancellation, £25-50 is not unusual.

I'd be looking for written (letter/email) confirmation of auto-renewal switch off.

Pat38493

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866338#Comment_81866338

If the company is in breach of their own terms, would a complaint waive this. For example, in the company contract terms and conditions, it says that you can cancel the auto renewal by emailing a specific email address.

However if you send an email to this address, you get an auto reply saying that it will not be actioned and you need to call them. Surely this is in breach of FCA guidelines if it actually says in the T&C of the policy that you can do it that way?

Also, when I spoke to them today, it said the call was being recorded, and I made a note of the time I called.

Therefore I would make a complaint to the address mentioned in the T&C rather than pay the admin fee.

Pat38493

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866297#Comment_81866297

This firm is definitely one of the ones without linked up systems or processes - when I call them, the AI voice agent asks you to make choices, but then refuses to recognise the options that it itself listed to me as options! Then if you manage to get through to an agent before being cut off, they usually don’t recognise your policy number and have to go searching - my guess is that they have subcontracted some of their business to another company and the systems are not linked, and they don’t even have access to them.