I may ride without Insurance. Rant

[j1979]

Usually in the case of insurance renewal you'll get a letter stating your upcoming policy price, unless you say otherwise they will assume you want to continue your policy with them.
You sure you didn't receive such a letter?

yes they probably sent it ... but i informed them i moved 8 months ago. they say they have no record of me calling.

[usxhe190]

You should tell your credit card company that they took your money without your consent and get it credited back to your account.

Yes I know it is a hassle and takes your time but you shouldn't just back off if you told them you have moved and they didn't bothered about it.

Oh, and don't ride without insurance.

[j1979]

You should tell your credit card company that they took your money without your consent and get it credited back to your account.

Yes I know it is a hassle and takes your time but you shouldn't just back off if you told them you have moved and they didn't bothered about it.

Oh, and don't ride without insurance.

yes i might do that!! i doubt i will ride without insurance, but if i do i promise not to post here

[GamerGuy]

You shouldn't ride without insurance anyway, it is a complete disrespect of others on the road and near it.

[usxhe190]

We will never know whether you do or not but we are just urging you not to do it as it hurts alot of innocent people and those innocent people might be the ones you know and you might regret it for the rest of your life.

[JPreston]

well after my bike insurance renewed without informing me i am pretty mad. i moved 10 months ago and informed them via phone about 8 months ago. I only knew that they had renewed because of my credit card statement.. i rang them today, they have cancelled minus £30. A £30 cancellation fee is a lot of money to me and there is no way for me to get this back now. Unless im covered by a 28 day right to cancel, (it's within 28 days) but i don't know about renewal.

so next time i may ride / drive without insurance. it's all one big scam anyway! multi billion £ scam industry!! Lets be honest, the lowest paid have pretty much been priced out of owning transport these days!

Is this Bennetts? Those thieving punks did exactly the same to me (they even doubled my premium and charged me a hidden fee to automatically renew in this way, when I didn't need the policy), and I got every penny back by complaining loudly over the phone, saying I would put my complaint in writing and then going to the ombudsman 30 days after that if I did not receive a full refund, and then hanging up. I got a couple of cheques, one for my premium and one for the admin fee, within a week or so. Before I'd got around to writing my complaint letter anyway - which is a necessary step before I could ever have involved the ombudsman - easy peasy

The reason they try this is because when you originally bought your policy you would have have been asked something like "When your policy is about to ends may we contact you to offer continued cover?" to which you will have said "Yes".

Sounds like they were asking to send you a quote in a year's time doesn't it, but what they claim that means is "May we retain your credit card information to make an unlimited charge in the future without asking you to consent to that transaction?". With credit cards there is nothing like the Direct Debit guarantee to prevent this, and it is clear this "auto-renewal" policy is a complete scam, and I understand the ombudsman always finds in the customer's favour, which I presume is why they refunded me out of the blue without me doing anything beyond phoning once.

So don't let them tell you it's in the T&Cs (and DON'T dispute the charge with your credit card company; you'd end up paying an admin charge to them on the false chargeback because technically you do owe that money, and Bennetts or whoever can and do still take action to recover it anyway) - the wording is designed to mislead (my renewal schedule didn't even add up because they slipped an undisclosed £30 'auto-renewal fee' into the total), the question of whether you did in fact 'consent' is open to say the least, and it seems their tactic is to quietly back down to avoid ombudsman scrutiny once you threaten it.

[Gerrard]

I think it was Budget Insurance that also has the auto-renewal. I got the letter a month before renewal and was able to cancel it before being charged anything. As far as I can remember, there wasn't an option to opt out of it when I originally signed up. However, I can see why you are complaining as you wouldn't have got the letter to remind you to cancel it.

[TAKTAK]

I've just had to accept an auto renewal for Aviva because there was no way to continue with the transaction without doing so, i've just got to try and remember to cancel it next year :/

I can see how it may benefit some people that would otherwise let it lapse and thus be driving without insurance, but for 99% of the population, it's just pure money grabbing...

[finlay666]

but for 99% of the population, it's just pure money grabbing...

I think it's a lot less than that.

I know my parents were never proactive in changing insurance companies.

[peterb]

posting what, that i may in the future? from an poster that is anonymous?

snip--->

Anonymous?!!! On the net?

[TAKTAK]

I think it's a lot less than that.

I know my parents were never proactive in changing insurance companies.

You're right by quite a hefty margin, it was just an off the cuff comment but having just asked a few people, hardly anyone seems to shop around at renewal time :/, if i'd done that it would have cost be £400 more for the privilege of not changing :/


And whilst i agree that insurance is extortionate, a chunk of that is covering against the uninsured which hikes it up.

My first year of insurance was £1500 for a 1.2 clio, i couldn't afford that much so i took out a "family loan", and paid it back bit by insignificant bit.

This year i'm in a better position having already budgeted for a large out-going, with my insurance dropping to just under £800, and tax being due the same day.

Which leaves me the rest of the year to try and increase my funds to cover the next few years while i'm at uni, incase i don't find work...

At the end of the day, driving without insurance is just idiotic, it raises everyone's premiums and causes unnecessary hassle, plus putting yourself in a very poor position, facing bankruptcy and prosecution in the event of an accident.

Insurance is there for a reason, if you "can't afford" it, then don't drive...

And the people that say they cannot afford it, so you can afford to be bankrupt and have the rest of your life affected with problems getting credit?

[finlay666]

Reminds me I need to get my insurer to remove a 'claim' from my record, I reported someone driving into my car then leaving without providing details and it's on as a claim I have a feeling if I don't it'll affect my no claims

[schmunk]

Very oddly, my (wife's) recent renewal with Tesco was cheaper than any new policy quotes we could find.

That said, they included in the package breakdown cover at ~ £90, whereas it was ~£60 for the 'Finest' (i.e. most expensive) cover on the website, so we got £30 knocked off for that... A bit cheeky of Tesco, I feel.

[eshrules]

Reminds me I need to get my insurer to remove a 'claim' from my record, I reported someone driving into my car then leaving without providing details and it's on as a claim I have a feeling if I don't it'll affect my no claims

I hope for your sake it's not more than, it took me no less than 3 months and a gazillion calls to get them to remove the exact same thing.

And FYI, screaming ombudsman doesn't work with the Eastern call centres.

[oolon]

Unless your insurance is less than £360, 30 Quid for a months insurance could be considered pretty cheap. Don't forget you have had the benefit of the insurance for a month, just have not had to draw on it.

[finlay666]

And FYI, screaming ombudsman doesn't work with the Eastern call centres.

My call centre is in Teeside