All the documentation sent by One Call suggests it's a one year policy.

The OH called them today & cancelled the policy for which they want to charge him for the privilege and which we (I, because it's me who will have to write the letter) will be contesting when they send the bill on the grounds that their documentation was misleading, he didn't receive the credit agreement until after the policy became active and as far as I know he's still within the 14 day cooling off period - can anyone confirm whether this runs from when you agree to take out the policy or from when the policy becomes active? - I told him to tell them when he spoke to them that he wouldn't be paying them anything but he didn't because he had to make the call from work and didn't have the time to get into a protracted argument about it. The car is now insured with someone else. The premium was higher but with a cashback option it works out at the same price, though he had to add my mum as a named driver in order to reduce the premium. (I don't drive).

Try talking to them by telephone and if they still insist on a cancellation charge which is totally iniquitous phone the Financial Ombudsman Service. They will write to them for you and you will find like I did that miraculously One Call will change their tune. This company is absolutely diabolical in their business practices and should be severely censured by the FSA.

I've had my renewal from One Call today, with the same deal. On the docs it says that it is a one year policy but if you choose to take it the price is fixed for three years.
All that would happen is when you renewed next year it would be at the same price. (I'm still not renewing with them though)

I have also been a victim of One Call Insurance charges. I paid in full for 1 year motor insurance in January 2011. I have been away over Xmas 2011 and came back to find 2 emails dated the 17/12/20ll and another email dated the 7/01/ 2012. Last one saying thank you for insuring again with One Call; of which I had not agreed to anything whatsoever!! I phoned them on Saturday the 7/01/2012 to tell them I did not want to insure with them again, only to be put through to a department telling me they were only their from Monday to Friday. I waited until today; Monday morning, only to be told they had taken my money out of my account and if I wanted to cancel this insurance I would have to be charge for them doing so!! Also it would take7/14 days to put my money back in to my account, less the charges incurred!!! I am so angry to think they could do this without my written or verbal consent!! I am going to take it the Ombudsman!! I have never in all my years of insuring my car experienced this. I wish I had read what other people had written on this page before I insured with One Call last year!! I will let you know how I get on and if anyone else has successfully claimed these charges back in full, please let me know how you did this? It has ruined my day and cost me through endless phone calls, because they kept putting me through to the wrong department.

Having been charged £49 by One Call for cancelling car insurance an hour and a half after taking it out and being told that they would take the money from my credit card and return the difference to me by cheque. I was totally outraged by both the charge and the way they were going to take it. I immediately contacted the Financial Ombudsmen Service who were most helpful and lo and behold I got my money back on my credit card after the FOS wrote to them. Yesterday about 6 weeks after my money was returned I got a call from One Call complaints department asking me if I was happy with the outcome. I told them that although I had got my money back I was very unhappy that other people were liable to be scammed by their sharp practice. I asked the complaints department if they were aware of the amount of complaints about them on the internet and the answer was totally aware. So their you have it they just don't care and where they can get away with it they will. So if you feel that you are the victim of their sharp practice or outrageous charges go to to the FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN SERVICE who will fight your corner.
If enough people do this maybe they will be censured by the FOS and stopped from trading in this manner.

I insured with them in October 2011 and received a recorded Email? from them this morning telling me that as I had not told them about a blame accident in Jan2011 my insurance had been voided from inception on the grounds of non- disclosure and non receipt of documents, I rang them straight away as my wife was out driving the car at 9 oclock and told them that i had not had any blame accident in 40 plus years and that this was an admin error by my previous insurer who told me they got this info from the previous one who totally deny this, seems simple to resolve, all I got was passed back wards and forwards by their switch board and then told at noon, " yes it has been cancelled , you have to apply again" I have gone to my local broker got similar deal, now written to One call returning certificate and asking for a full refund.they do not understand urgency, I would not use again, wished I had read this forum first

Received email on December 14 advising car insurance renewal approaching on January 6 and also advising that a further email would follow later. Perhaps stupidly I did not read all of the small print in all of the enclosed documents - I just checked the premium which had risen. We obtained insurance elsewhere and set cover in place. On Jan 9 received their next email attaching policy docs and I discovered they had deducted the full premium direct from my credit card on Jan 5. On immediately phoning to cancel this I was told there would be a £35 admin fee deducted because I had not told them earlier. Despite umpteen phone calls, emails and letters one month later we have still not received a penny of our money back from them. Annoyingly I guess I now will have to complain to my credit card company to lever my money back from them. So... BEWARE OF THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL TERMS BURIED IN THE SMALL PRINT!

Report them to the FSA, and raise a complaint with the FOS to cover yourself.
They are required to give clear information, and at least two weeks in advance.

They cannot hide it in the small print, and hope you don't notice.

just been on the phone to one call AGAIN it has been 8 mths since i was with them and they are still sending me letters that i still owe them £271.98 for car insuarnce that i DO NOT HAVE WITH THEM they now say it was for canceling the policy and i told them many times i did not cancel because i did not renew with them im with another company i am contacting office of fair traiding and ombudsman about these cowboys and why in the first place did they want a copy of my driving lience ????

I just did a quote with them and it sounded good, then looked around for others and within 10 minutes got a call from One Call to see if I still wanted the insurance. Certainly on the ball looking for new business!

Luckily I found this thread and won't be going with them now, I don't need the hassle they seem to give people.

This is an odd thread - lots of newbie posts with very similar styles....

Just saying!

Same person that did not want to disclose their driving licence to them for some unknown reason maybe?

Been all morning on phone, pased from CS to cancellations, made 4 calls in 3 hours, same old story got part of my uploaded docs missing some. Well not going to upload any more to this company as I have had an enforced cancellation notice wanting to charge 45% of a 12 month premium, only used 2 months! Staff have no sympathy at all and keep you on hold for 30 mins if you ask for a manager, then tell you the manager is in a meeting. A Nightmare worst I've dealt with.

am too dealing with this company
i too got charge 49 pound but managed to get that back ,but they put my dd up by £10 a month ,i was raging as im deaf and cant phone so stupidly i let it go ,last month i canceled as no longer own that car and canceled my dd at bank ,i had cancel throu email and was told have to put in writing and send poilcy paperwork back which i did so ,5 wks on i got a letter saying i now owe them £159 and they were cancling my policy from today ,wot a joke as i ready canceled wks ago,i emailed them got a quick reply ,they not back down and im not paying it they also said they take money out my bank account within 14 days ,can they do this as ive canceled dd wks ago ,any advice would be great

Also having a issue with these jokers, Took policy out on 23rd January 2012 sent all documents they asked for by post then on 10 Feb received a recorded post letter from them saying that the proof of no claims bonus was not acceptable, (Even tho it was the document they asked for!! )and threatened to cancel policy within seven day if i did not given them proof. Called there call center explained about proof was told not to worry and everything was sorted he even tried to lower my excess lol.
Then today (27 Feb) received a letter from them telling me my policy has been cancelled from the 17 Feb meaning ive been driving around without valid insurance for the last 11 days !!!!!!! as i am driver for a living this coudle of cost me my job and any chance of further employment
Now they even want to me pay a cancellation fee !!! this is even after they took a payment for the insurance after they cancelled it
One more call to call center later from a very unhappy customer they even wanted me to take a new policy out with them wtf as they could not uncancel
So in a nutshell 24 days insurance has cost me the grand total of £164.99 plus a cancellation fee of £50.38 the whole policy was £659.96

I went down to my bank personally and cancelled my Direct Debit with them.
I obtained a receipt as proof.
Several days later I checked on-line and One Call had re-instated it.
So you are wrong to say ' they cannot get at it'.

It is yet another unscrupulous practice of One Call Insurance.
Everyone with a bad experience needs to do as me, take some time and report them to as many authorities as you can think of.

They are a disgrace to the motor insurance industry.

I concur entirely with everything the people above have said. This company is barely short of fraudulent.
This year, they tried to claim I had renewed my insurance with them at the start of February. I had received no renewal documents from them. I pointed this out and they emailed me the single page showing the cost of renewing with them (which was about £30 more than other insurers). I arranged insurance elsewhere and emailed One Call immediately to inform them of this and request my no-claims discount.
Next thing I know, there are letters at the beginning of March from One Call and their credit brokers claiming I have defaulted on an Agreement for insurance for 2012/2013 which I never entered into! When my wife phoned about it (I was in hospital at the time) she was told you have to telephone to cancel your policy and that it was in the 'small print'. It's actually illegal to make such stipulations - you legally only have to cancel by telling an insurance company you want to cancel.
Furthermore, they still haven't sent my no-claims bonus so I can't forward it to my new insurer.
I've just come out of hospital to find this complete mess over a company that are inefficient, incompetent and bordering on illegal in their dealings with policy holders.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TOUCH THIS COMPANY WITH A BARGEPOLE! PAY MORE FOR AN INSURER WHO WON'T RIP YOU OFF!

Call themselves One Call....... I don't think so. I was insured with them last year and after getting passesd from pillar to post including somewhere in ireland i finally managed to get through to someone to inform them my banck account details had changed. Sadly the following month my direct debit was not taken out of my new account but my old one occuring bank charges and this went on for the next three months!!!! NEVER AGAIN WILL I GO WITH THEM. After 20 years of having car insurance this has to be the worst company EVER!
RANT OVER

One Call Insurance..apparantly they renew your insurance automatically every year and will send you an email to tell you you that they are about to do so. HOWEVER..if you email them back to say NO THANK YOU, this is not a valid reply and they will then charge you an extra 1 months insurance PLUS a punitive amount (In my case £131!!!)

I suggest, most respectfully, that ONE CALL INSURANCE are possibly not quite as good a bargain as they seem. As for the £131 they say I owe them, I would sooner stick pins in my eyes than give them another penny.

One Call Pain! Last year I was offered a discount if I paid monthly, "strange" so I took it, this year, like a previous poster said, I received this automatic renewal, I hadn't received a quote, I was looking out for it as I had received an offer from my previous insurer and wondered why nothing from One Call, yesterday, 2 days before due date, I got a thank you for renewing email and other doc's etc, today I received a written set of doc's by post from finance house, Creative with the 36 month agreement costing a total of over £800, which seemed to be for one year's insurance costing £241. Reported tp FSA quite honestly, a waste of time, no one really want's to take these kind of things on board, unless they get loads of complaints. One Call set up a direct debit with my bank so start paying on 10/4/2012, without my authority, How??? surely the bank needs my say so!. I cancelled with One Call and with my bank but have to cancell with bank again on 10th becaause its Easter, they need 2 clear working days to be sure, even the banks dont give a decent service, why should I cancell again? I did it yesterday! A Real pain, anyway I got out of their clutches and got a cheaper quote from Be Wiser, when you take into account they give you a voucher on your birthday to the value of your age, I just used my wife's voucher, Ha Ha.

If you've got a complaint report it or nothing will change.