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Motor Insurance Renewal


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A lot of motor insurers will renew you insurance unless you specifically tell them, before the renewal date, that you do not want it to be renewed. However some either by design, inefficiency or incompetence will still renew it and charge you even have you have told them to cancel.

Mine was due for renewal on the 20th, and I got a better quote elsewhere, so I rang my current insurers, BISL Ltd at Peterborough, and told them that I had a better quote and that I did not want to renew. The call centre monkey tried to get me to change my mind and to get rid of him I said I would think about it and get back to them if I changed my mind.

Surprise, surprise, when my post came on the 24th, there was an insurance certificate and I had been charged, (on the 22nd), for the renewal :huh::rolleyes::angry: . I rang them straight away and told them what had happened. Fortunately I had kept a note of the date, time of my original call and who I had spoken to & I was promised a full refund of the premium after I had sent the certificate back to them. This is going back tomorrow, with a stroppogram. Having done a quick google it's apparent that it's not the first time BISL have done this. They provide insurance for the Post Office and Yes Car Insurance and probaly others.

I've also written to the actual insurers, Fortis, and also the insurance company I dealt with who use BISL as a broker. Tomorrow, when my credit card company is open again I'm going to put the charge in to the dispute procedure.

So, if you change company when your insurance comes up for renewal, make sure you make a point of telling your old insurer, preferably in writing and keep a copy of the letter and a note of who you speak to at your old insurer & when you did it.

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It will be stated on your renewal letter that they will renew your policy automatically if you do not cancel. They then take the payment from the same source that was used when the last policy was taken out.

When you decide to re-insure elsewhere you simply need to notify your credit card provider not to allow a recurring payment to be made to BISL or whoever. If you should then change your mind you just give your payment details to your insurer/broker again.

You unfortunately told the call centre operative that you would think about it and get back to them if you changed your mind. As you feel you were dealing with a "monkey" it would have been better to have just made it clear that you were not renewing and ended the call to ensure that the "monkey" could not misunderstand.

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So, if you change company when your insurance comes up for renewal, make sure you make a point of telling your old insurer, preferably in writing and keep a copy of the letter and a note of who you speak to at your old insurer & when you did it.

That is your quote from your post.

so that is what you should have done. It works both ways. Say you forgot to "renew" your insurance on the exact date it was due and you had an accident and you were not insured. Your argument would be "I thiught it was renewed automatically".

If you know that you are going to cancel your insurance because of a new insurer then cancel your direct debit.

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It will be stated on your renewal letter that they will renew your policy automatically if you do not cancel. They then take the payment from the same source that was used when the last policy was taken out.

When you decide to re-insure elsewhere you simply need to notify your credit card provider not to allow a recurring payment to be made to BISL or whoever. If you should then change your mind you just give your payment details to your insurer/broker again.

You unfortunately told the call centre operative that you would think about it and get back to them if you changed your mind. As you feel you were dealing with a "monkey" it would have been better to have just made it clear that you were not renewing and ended the call to ensure that the "monkey" could not misunderstand.

As far as I'm concerned I made it quite clear that the insurance was not to be renewed unless I specifically, at a later date, changed this. The fact that I have been told that I will be fully reimbursed on their receipt of the certificate supports this.

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As far as I'm concerned I made it quite clear that the insurance was not to be renewed unless I specifically, at a later date, changed this. The fact that I have been told that I will be fully reimbursed on their receipt of the certificate supports this.

That doesn't really alter the fact that the person you originally spoke to had the opportunity to "misunderstand" you, whether or not it was deliberate on his part, and thus involve you in making yet another phone call to cancel the policy. If you had been more assertive and not, to get rid of him said you would think about it, then this would possibly not have happened.

Whilst you say your policy was due for renewal on 20th. you don't actually say what date you phoned to cancel the renewal.

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As far as I'm concerned I made it quite clear that the insurance was not to be renewed unless I specifically, at a later date, changed this. The fact that I have been told that I will be fully reimbursed on their receipt of the certificate supports this.

That doesn't really alter the fact that the person you originally spoke to had the opportunity to "misunderstand" you, whether or not it was deliberate on his part, and thus involve you in making yet another phone call to cancel the policy. If you had been more assertive and not, to get rid of him said you would think about it, then this would possibly not have happened.

Whilst you say your policy was due for renewal on 20th. you don't actually say what date you phoned to cancel the renewal.

I rang them on the 8th. The policy documents arrived on the 24th, and my credit card shows a charge dated 22nd for the premium. I rang them again on the 24th as soon as I received the paperwork, when they promised a full refund when they got the certificate back. This is being posted this morning.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have raised a complaint against my previous insurer (swiftcover). They renewed my policy automatically. I was on a comprehensive policy before and they renewed my policy on third party fire and theft. I was driving around without knowing that my cover was not comprehensive.

Its like banging your head against a brick wall. They are even trying to put that mistake of theirs on my head. I am trying to get a refund from them from renewal since a> I never asked for a renewal (never told them not to renew either) and b> they changed the agreement by altering the level of cover.

I am way past the 14 day cooling off period. Do I have a case?

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As far as I'm concerned I made it quite clear that the insurance was not to be renewed unless I specifically, at a later date, changed this. The fact that I have been told that I will be fully reimbursed on their receipt of the certificate supports this.

That doesn't really alter the fact that the person you originally spoke to had the opportunity to "misunderstand" you, whether or not it was deliberate on his part, and thus involve you in making yet another phone call to cancel the policy. If you had been more assertive and not, to get rid of him said you would think about it, then this would possibly not have happened.

Whilst you say your policy was due for renewal on 20th. you don't actually say what date you phoned to cancel the renewal.

I rang them on the 8th. The policy documents arrived on the 24th, and my credit card shows a charge dated 22nd for the premium. I rang them again on the 24th as soon as I received the paperwork, when they promised a full refund when they got the certificate back. This is being posted this morning.

Just to finish (?) my chunter off:

A credit for the full amount of the premium was back in my account on the 30th. Whether it was the stroppogram I sent on the 27th, along with the certificate of insurance, (by recorded delivery), or not that did it I don't know.

However, the incompetence at BISL continues. Yesterday I received a letter saying that I had not returned the certificate and telling me that it was a criminal offence not to do so. So - another stroppogram to them, this time to one of the directors whose name was on the letter.

They seem to provide insurance on behalf of a lot of household names, e.g. M&S, Post Office, Budget Insurance, and from different addresses in Peterborough, and Dial Direct at an address in Coventry. I've found three on 192.com in addition to the one on the certificate, (where it was sent back to), and the one on the letter I received yesterday. Maybe if these separate offices actually communicated with one another they might get their act together.

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.

However, the incompetence at BISL continues. Yesterday I received a letter saying that I had not returned the certificate and telling me that it was a criminal offence not to do so. So - another stroppogram to them, this time to one of the directors whose name was on the letter.

They seem to provide insurance on behalf of a lot of household names, e.g. M&S, Post Office, Budget Insurance, and from different addresses in Peterborough, and Dial Direct at an address in Coventry. I've found three on 192.com in addition to the one on the certificate, (where it was sent back to), and the one on the letter I received yesterday. Maybe if these separate offices actually communicated with one another they might get their act together.

Glad you finally got it sorted.

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.

However, the incompetence at BISL continues. Yesterday I received a letter saying that I had not returned the certificate and telling me that it was a criminal offence not to do so. So - another stroppogram to them, this time to one of the directors whose name was on the letter.

They seem to provide insurance on behalf of a lot of household names, e.g. M&S, Post Office, Budget Insurance, and from different addresses in Peterborough, and Dial Direct at an address in Coventry. I've found three on 192.com in addition to the one on the certificate, (where it was sent back to), and the one on the letter I received yesterday. Maybe if these separate offices actually communicated with one another they might get their act together.

Glad you finally got it sorted.

Thanks for that - but I had taken the precaution of putting it in to dispute with my credit card co. just in case they c*cked it up again.

They put up absolutely no argument about repaying the full sum so they must have realised that they had got it wrong.

Just to underline their incompetence, the renewal date was 20 Dec & I didn't get the docs until the 24th :rolleyes: .

When my wife's insurance comes up for renewal they're going to get it in writing.

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My buildings & contents was due on Jan 1st. All I did was cancelled my Direct Debit and told building society (verbally) that I no longer required their insurance and took out a policy with Churchill for slightly better cover but at a saving of £159. That was also on an "automatic renewal". It really is as simple as that. If you paid by credit card last time then just cancel the recurring payment with the credit card company before it is due for renewal.

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