Swinton took money when I had cancelled!

MKwife

I took my policy out last year and the insurance is due for renewal on 7th June. I rang Swinton on 9th May to say I would not be renewing with them. However on 30th of May they took a payment out of my account!

I rang them straight away and spoke to a man who said that in my terms and conditions it stated that they would automatically continue taking money out of my account just incase I renewed and that I would have to ring when they had taken it out so they could refund again!

How ridiculous! I told the man that I had given 4 weeks notice that I would not be renewing and surely that is enough time to cancel the automatic payment. He was really arsy and said what is the problem it will be refunded straight back into your bank. But it won't go into my bank until Tuesday.

That is not good enough as now I will get a bank fine as I always leave just enough money in my bills to cover all my bills plus an extra £20 just in case.

Would never use them again. I have never know any car insurance company in 10 years of driving to do this! Is this allowed?

Do you think I can make them pay my bank fine?

AJ1982

<IF> its a direct debit, and you specifically provided them such notice, then there are regulations in place which allow for recovery of such charges & monies more efficiently, I would do some digging on the subject, or someone more knowledgeable may be able to fill in here... Just dont rely on the banks to tell you such info.

For future insurance, I would goto Churchill or Esure, never had a single problem with them. Try and go through confused as rumour has it a discount is provided on aggregator quotes...

missile

You ought to have cancelled DD mandate via online banking. I would contact your bank and tell them DD was charged in error, hopefully this will be covered by the DD guarantee and then you will get your money and charges refunded by the bank.

C_Ronaldo

OP is what the guy said actually in the t&c's what the guy said,

easynotec3

Are you sure that it isn't the final payment for last years premium?

Very unusual for an insurer to take out a payment for a renewal policy before the renewal date

MKwife

Definatley not the last payment, I will be checking the terms and conditions when I get home!!

Missile - I will go into the bank on monday and see what they say.

I still can't believe it is legal for a company to do this though

smartie1976

I had the same problem with bennetts, renewing after I asked them not to.
They acknowledged their error, and refunded me the amount - minus £50.
They then sent me a £30 'sorry we screwed up' cheque.
Then i had to complain because they refunded me £50 short, which took another month to arrive in cheque form.

Completely bloody useless, but I got the money back and they agreed to pay any bank charges (there weren't any though)

missile

MKwife wrote: »

I still can't believe it is legal for a company to do this though

It is a fairly new "scam" where companies get you to sign an authorisation for auto renewal, many of us are too busy to cancel in time.

jonesMUFCforever

What does your policy actually state about cancelling?

My guess is that they will require something in writing not just a telephone call.

anniecave

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

What does your policy actually state about cancelling?

My guess is that they will require something in writing not just a telephone call.

I've had auto-renew for the last two years and last year it was just a matter of going onto a website and ticking a box, this year I just phoned up.

Neither year did I have to put anything in writing.

For the OP, I would wonder why the payment was taken before the renewal date though ... something sounds fishy there.

jonesMUFCforever

I didn't say anything about auto renewal I asked what your policy document says about cancelling.