The most boring question ever (cos it's car insurance related) but...

Grunfeld

I didn't want to renew my car insurance with Company X so I cancelled the DD and thought no more about it.
Seems it had something called "auto-renew".
So I get a letter saying I owe them for the full amount of the policy.
Phoned them today, said I don't want insurance with them; they cancel the policy but say I'm liable for about £90 cancellation admin charge.

If anyone has stayed awake to read this far, do you know if there's any way of getting that charge waived?
Or do I just suck it up?

I've never encountered or even heard of "auto-renew" before -- I generally shop around for car insurance.  It "feels" unfair but it's not impossible that I didn't have my legal team check the small print a year ago.

Iamnobody

I don't know the legal position - but I wouldn't be paying them a penny.

How are they going to recover the £90 if you refuse to pay it?

octatonic

Iamnobody said:

I don't know the legal position - but I wouldn't be paying them a penny.

How are they going to recover the £90 if you refuse to pay it?

By engaging a debt collector.

@Grunfeld, cancelling the DD is not sufficient to cancel a policy.
If you had auto renew on then I reckon you do owe them the cancellation fee.
I would suck it up.

Grunfeld

octatonic said:

By engaging a debt collector.

@Grunfeld, cancelling the DD is not sufficient to cancel a policy.
If you had auto renew on then I reckon you do owe them the cancellation fee.
I would suck it up.

Without doubt @Iamnobody I don't want to pay them a penny but if I don't have a legal leg to stand on then I suspect I will just have to suck it up cos they'll go legal like James has said.  And I can't be doing with that.

So, beware of "auto-renew"  THAT'S the take home message from this one.  I didn't even know it existed.
And on a personal note just to make it feel like justice haha, I will aim never to spend another penny in the supermarket chain where I got the car insurance.
Tesco's loss is ASDA's gain cos I'll deprive them of £90 in the first fortnight. 

boogieman

If it's an auto renewal they should have sent you at least an email telling you what they were about to do. My car policy with Axa has just renewed itself ( I let it, it was a decent quote) and I got two letters through the post plus numerous emails and texts. If you haven't had any notifications Oli then I'd dispute the charge, otherwise I'm afraid you're buggered. 

Iamnobody

Grunfeld said:

octatonic said:

By engaging a debt collector.

@Grunfeld, cancelling the DD is not sufficient to cancel a policy.
If you had auto renew on then I reckon you do owe them the cancellation fee.
I would suck it up.

Without doubt @Iamnobody I don't want to pay them a penny but if I don't have a legal leg to stand on then I suspect I will just have to suck it up cos they'll go legal like James has said.  And I can't be doing with that.

So, beware of "auto-renew"  THAT'S the take home message from this one.  I didn't even know it existed.
And on a personal note just to make it feel like justice haha, I will aim never to spend another penny in the supermarket chain where I got the car insurance.
Tesco's loss is ASDA's gain cos I'll deprive them of £90 in the first fortnight. 

Have you tried asking them to waive it as a good will gesture? Have you asked to take it higher?

I understand they probably have you by the bollocks but it's worth a try. 

My my insurance is withTesco as well so I'll watch out! Thanks for the heads up.

Grunfeld

boogieman said:

If it's an auto renewal they should have sent you at least an email telling you what they were about to do....

They quite possibly did but I always use disposable email addresses for this kind of thing to avoid spam.
Buggered indeed.  EDIT --  Just seen Iamnobody's:  waive as goodwill idea.  I'll have a go.  I'm sure I'll be chatting to them again.
On the positive side I've said that I'd already phoned them to cancel it *cough* so they'll have to go through the farce of pretending to look through the call logs, and writing to me, and I'll query that all the way, and basically string it out till they call in the debt collector and thereby at least I'll get the £90 of admin that I'm bloody paying for.

tony99

agree with disco biscuit, you should have been notified before it "auto-renewed", thus giving you a chance to opt out or crash you car and put a hefty claim in

TTony

Grunfeld said:

boogieman said:

If it's an auto renewal they should have sent you at least an email telling you what they were about to do....

They quite possibly did but I always use disposable email addresses for this kind of thing to avoid spam.

Without wishing to sound harsh, using a disposable email address for something that is linked to a legal requirement is a bit daft.  There could be many reasons why your insurer might need to contact you.  If they can't - but can show that they tried, repeatedly, using the contact details that you freely gave them - then you'd be stuffed if one of their emails was changing some aspect of the cover that you subsequently needed to rely on.

You can avoid spam from them - and any reputable company - by ticking the opt-out box for marketing comms.  Next year, when when the new DP regs come into force, you'll have to actively opt IN for all the spam mails, so it'll be even easier to avoid.

Grunfeld

TTony said:

Without wishing to sound harsh, using a disposable email address for something that is linked to a legal requirement is a bit daft. 

Pros and cons.  I've just checked and Tesco Insurance have tried to send me 49 unwanted emails in the last year.  I'm guess that they didn't all come in the last month.
I agree there are reputable companies -- I've got plenty of disposable emails with "0" beside them.  But some household names are in the hundreds.  And you never know who's who until it's too late.
I really hate spam so that's how I handle it.  If they didn't send it, I wouldn't feel like I needed to do it. 

olafgarten

My Sister cancelled her old insurance on her car before it renewed, but the last payment of £1.50 didn't go through because her card expired. 

They didn't contact her about it until they had called in the debt collection agency who wanted to charge a £50 processing fee. 

We called them up and managed to sort it out but it was a lot of hassle.

joneve

Had you noticed and contacted them within 14 days of it renewing? 

If Yes, you should be able to cancel without question due to the 14 day "cooling off" period. 

I had the same thing with my home insurance with Legal and General....I went with someone else - their renewal docs didn't make it clear it would auto renew, so thought nothing of it and noticed I'd been charged.

So I called them up, and they cancelled and refunded straight away because I was in the 14 day cooling off period. 

Interestingly the guy said "if you pay insurance by DD, it will more than likely auto renew so you just need to make sure you cancel the DD if you don't wish to take the policy on for another year"....so according to him, cancelling the DD is sufficient, which is contrary to what has been said on this thread. 

ROOG

This is an annoying trait of modern life, but I can foresee that it has protected a few forgetful types keeping them covered when they might have inadvertently allowed their insurance to lapse.

In my case if i choose to change insurers I always phone the current insurer to say that i don't want to continue with them, and ask them what i need to do next. I usually record what they say and follow to the letter.

Its a weird world at times, but it used to be that if you didn't hand over the cash they assumed you had gone.
  

boogieman

joneve said:

Had you noticed and contacted them within 14 days of it renewing? 

If Yes, you should be able to cancel without question due to the 14 day "cooling off" period. 

I had the same thing with my home insurance with Legal and General....I went with someone else - their renewal docs didn't make it clear it would auto renew, so thought nothing of it and noticed I'd been charged.

So I called them up, and they cancelled and refunded straight away because I was in the 14 day cooling off period. 

Interestingly the guy said "if you pay insurance by DD, it will more than likely auto renew so you just need to make sure you cancel the DD if you don't wish to take the policy on for another year"....so according to him, cancelling the DD is sufficient, which is contrary to what has been said on this thread. 

I think that guy's talking through his arse. Cancelling the DD only means they can't claim the payment, it doesn't cancel the policy. They'll pursue you for payment by another method. 

Fretwired

Grunfeld said:

I didn't want to renew my car insurance with Company X so I cancelled the DD and thought no more about it.
Seems it had something called "auto-renew".
So I get a letter saying I owe them for the full amount of the policy.
Phoned them today, said I don't want insurance with them; they cancel the policy but say I'm liable for about £90 cancellation admin charge.

If anyone has stayed awake to read this far, do you know if there's any way of getting that charge waived?
Or do I just suck it up?

I've never encountered or even heard of "auto-renew" before -- I generally shop around for car insurance.  It "feels" unfair but it's not impossible that I didn't have my legal team check the small print a year ago.

You will have to prove that you didn't agree to the automatic renewal of your policy or were unaware of it. As it stands if they can prove you agreed to a policy with an auto renewal feature and you didn't follow the cancellation procedure you will owe them the money.

rawk100

I had this with my house insurance once, I didn't realise that it was auto renew and the provider didn't send me any notice. I took out a new policy with someone else and then got an email saying my old policy had renewed. When I phoned them they said I'd have a cancellation charge unless I can prove that I'd already renewed my policy with someone else. I proved I had renewed elsewhere and they dropped the cancellation charge. Don't really understand the logic behind this...

DefaultM

Yeah he's talking crap. As an example, if you take out a gym membership and sign to accept the terms such as auto renewing, giving 30 days notice etc, you can't then just cancel the direct debit and say you've cancelled the policy.
All it means is they can't take the money from you, so they'll pursue you for it and mark them as missed payments on your credit file.

BigMonka

joneve said:

Had you noticed and contacted them within 14 days of it renewing? 

If Yes, you should be able to cancel without question due to the 14 day "cooling off" period. 

That was my first thought too.
I accidently forgot to cancel an insurance policy on a vehicle I'd sold. I noticed on the day it auto-renewed so phoned and 
asked to cancel it. As it was within the 14days, and I hadn't received any days of policy cover, they just stopped it without me having to pay.

Grunfeld

EDIT...  blergh!

chillidoggy

I think auto-renewal is a legal requirement. I stand corrected, though.

Legionreturns

I worked in that game for years, send them a copy of your replacement insurance showing that you were insured elsewhere and didn't need the cover. Auto renewal is not a legal requirement and the issuers of the actual policy (not the brokers) will not charge you for time on cover, as you've proved thatyou were insured elsewhere. The ninety quid is pure admin charges and a disgrace. You cancelled your dd, signifying your intent to cancel your insurance. Pm me if you want further help