Automatically renewing Motor insurance

J

jordata

Guest
My car insurance was due for renewal end of last month. Without having to ring around a number of companies sent me quotes as I had approached them last year. My current insurer came in cheapest and before the renewal date the rang me and offered me a further 50 euro reduction so I agreed on the phone to renew with them. I paid by DD monthly so they set that up and sent me the new disk. When I checked my bank statement I saw the DD had been drawn down correctly but I noticed that my previous insurer (from April 2005) also had drawn down a DD premium. I checked back on the correspondence they had sent me and noticed a paragraph of a letter entitled "invitation to renew motor insurance" they stated that if i did NOT want to take up the insurance premium offered by them to send back the disk and certificate they'd enclosed. As their quote was higher I had not read through the whole letter. I did not reply to their invitation but they took that to mean I wanted to accept it. I have now sent the disk back to them and asked for a refund of the one month's DD they refunded. I presume that should go smoothly.
On closer inspection of my bank statements I noticed that they also drew down DD's last year. They must have sent me a similar letter which I scrapped as I got I lower quote elsewhere. I would not have noticed the DD's as my husband had insurance with them. So I paid an entire year's motor insurance that I did not want or need. Can a company automatically renew like this without me having to sign a proposal form and/or direct debit form or have any kind of reponse from me? Is there anyway I could get a refund?
 
You should be able to get a refund. Outline exactly whatn happened, dates of direct debits, copies of policies in a letter.Get a letter from the company you changed to stating that you were insured with them from 06 to 07.
If you were with the insurance co in question from 05 to 06 and paid by direct debit they will automatically renew your insurance every year until you tell them otherwise. I assume in 06 you changed companies and did not notify them?
So as far as they were concerned the letter they sent you this year was your renewal as they did not know you went elsewhere.
Depending on the company they should accept it as aa misunderstanding and refund you.
Moral of the story....ring your insurance co if you are going elsewhere. It's common courtesy and will save headaches.
 
Am I right in saying that DDs have to be cancelled by yourself in your bank? Or is that Standing Orders? :confused:
 
If you contact the insurance co they will cancel the direct debits but you should probably cancel them too just to make sure. Standing orders have to be cancelled by you as far as I know.
 
Back
Top