Just got caught out with the whole 'automatic renewal' thing with Admiral.

My policy ended with them about a week ago. They sent me a letter just before that, showing me a renewal quote (which for some reason was higher than what I paid last year, after 1 years NCB?) and I just skimmed over it thinking 'na screw that, I will just go with someone else once mine finishes'.

Get a letter off them today saying that their request to take ~£1000 out of my bank account has been refused by my bank, but they did not give a reason.. (cos there was sod all money in there probably!)

Scoured their first letter and it said in there that essentially they will renew my policy for me if I do not ring them and tell them not to, whilst making it sound like they were doing me a favour! (the bastards..)

I suppose the only thing I can do is ring tomorrow and take the £25 cancellation fee which applies if you cancel within two weeks after they renew your policy (without my bleeding consent!)

I don't suppose there is a way out of paying for this, as they haven't even sent me any renewal documents so it's not like it is costing them money. Anyone else ever fallen for this one?

I feel like a right noob, and it's £25 I could really do with putting on the car :(

Am pretty gutted as they have been great to me all year and I was actually thinking of staying with them provided they could insure my Bug. Don't think that will be happening now though.

Anyways just thought I would post it for the bitch and the rant

Thanks for listening

Edited 14 April, 201016 yr by CWA

Pathetic isn't it..

They basically say ''We are going to sign a 12 month contract on your behalf and charge you X ammount of money for that 12 months unless you contact us and tell us not to..''

Stick to your guns, I had the same a few years back, company auto renewed my insurance so i rang them up and said that my contract with them was for one years cover no more, and if they didn't put back the money they had taken from my account I would take further action. Was back in my account the same day. Don't take their excuses, if you only agreed to one year then that is all you should be paying for.

Edited 15 April, 201016 yr by grant.morrison

As above, give them hell. I told them I'd not received any letters.

yea my mrs got stung a few months back. we were just in the process of saving for the deposit on our new place and she paid for her new policy, then they took the renewal out of our deposit we had been saving. we were not impressed. took them ages to pay it back too. stick to your guns, also tell your bank, they may cancel any charges you get for the money being refused

I don't like the way that transactions can be authorised without signatures etc these days

I had the exact same issues - except fortunately my card had expired, so they couldn't take payment. But they still chased me for ages to post back new insurance certificates etc. I just told them I'd shredded them, and if they wanted them they could come and collect the shreddings from our recycling bin. Even registered an official complaint (because the daft twats kept ringing me about it), but got told it was a 'service' they offered all customers to avoid people forgetting to renew and driving uninsured. Apparently I should've been grateful.

To be fair, Adrian Flux did the same on one of my policys with them. But that was easily sorted with a 'phone call to them to stop it auto renewing - and thankfully that didn't involve spending 3 weeks on hold to talk to some call centre mong that can barely speak English. Couldn't say the same for Admiral though!

Ahaha.. mine was with Admiral too. I ended up taking the cancellation charge hit, apparently I couldn't put up a convincing argument over the phone.. such swine. I had no money in my account but my card still has ages left so as soon as enough money went in I know they would have jumped on it if I didn't get them to cancel.. plus the bank charged me £8 for every time Admiral tried to take the payment out of my account!

I don't even know what the £22.50 charge is for, at least if you change your policy details then they justify it with having to print out and send you new documents (which costs a grand sum of my arse, but still). They didn't even send me any documents though as they hadn't received payment!

And yeh I seriously hated how they try and claim it's a benefit for their customers, when it's quite clearly a dirty money grabbing tactic. If they were so worried about people driving uninsured then they could send a letter to cover their own arse just like anyone else.

And the worst part of it is.. I'm going back to them in a months time after my birthday to insure my Volvo with them! They're prices were literally the lowest by like a grand! Arggh haha

HIC did this to me recent they want 3 months of payments because they renewed the policy and i did not even know as i had just moved house a few weeks before my policy should of ended. and now they will not give me prove of the 3 years no-claims unless i pay the 3 months.

And to top it off i had the G in bits as i had a work van at the time so was paying for insurrance for a few months when i did not need it any way.

BS auto renewals are a con unless you click a box to say you want it.

Edited 1 May, 201016 yr by cheddarcheese

admiral did this to me, first person said i would have to pay the charge so i hung up and rang again got a different person and i didnt have to pay the charge

You should have a statutory 14day cooling off period! Brentacre told

me this was law! And it shouldn't coz you a penny! You could always have said you didn't get the letter and that they didn't try hard enough to contact you! Companies are getting very sly at this and bumping up automatic renewal prices!