You're uninsured

[saaby93]

A mate phoned up his insurance couple of weeks ago to check a few details on his policy that was about to auto renew. All ok confirms credit card details etc - so he sits back and let's everything happen.
A week after it's renewed ( or so he thought) a letter comes through 'thank you for contacting us to confirm that you do not wish to renew your policy'
Panic!- Quickly back on the phone to sort it out.

Obvious question, what would have happened if he'd suffered an ANPR pull or worse - an accident?

No prizes

[saaby93]

Wouldnt the response from the insurer be, sorry youre not covered we thought youd cancelled?
Can they backdate through to the missing week?

[saaby93]

LD1Racing said:

Did they take any money from his card when he first tried to renew his policy?

no they just checked the number they had on file was correct, so that come the due date they could take the payment. They didnt.
Probably pressed the wrong button somewhere.
Askmid says he's on cover now so all ok

Edited by saaby93 on Thursday 11th March 12:02

[saaby93]

oldsoak said:

So when he found he had more money in his account than he should have had....

too easy oldsoak
Do you check your credit card bill before it arrives

[saaby93]

inkiboo said:

I pay for everything on credit cards, despite having more than enough cash to pay for the same items. Difference is, buying on a credit card gives you far more protection than cash/debit cards.

Only if the bill actually reaches the credit card company!
Barclays claim their debit card changed to add the same protection as credit card

[saaby93]

The insurance company have said that he was uninsured for the intervening days.

If you phone just before an automatic renewal it's converted to manual. Saying thank you very much and leaving it there doesn't automatically renew.

[saaby93]

In summary heres what happened

A mate had a reminder a couple of weeks ago that his insurance was going to auto renew. He wanted to check some details , did that and they confirmed his credit card - it was the same as before.
He left it at that thinking it was going to autorenew

A week after it's renewed ( or so he thought) a letter comes through 'thank you for contacting us to confirm that you do not wish to renew your policy'
Panic!- Quickly back on the phone to sort it out.

What's happened is that when you phone up it reverts to manual mode ( most people phone up to cancel or alter their policy).
What he should have done ( but didnt know) was either confirm payment then, or phone up one more time.

The insurance confirmed that he was not covered between it not auto renewing and him phoning up, and 'you were lucky you werent stopped'

[saaby93]

G51CAV said:

In the event of an ANPR hit then a check on PNC and with MIB would show no insurance and the car would be seized and an endorsable ticket (6 points £200 fine) would be issued.

Unfortunately for your pal the officers stopping them would be duty bound to seize the car, they would be unable to distinguish your pal from the many chancers we meet who make similar claims.

askmid was still showing insured

[saaby93]

tom2019 said:

What I don't get is why bother asking for a certificate , why not just rely on the database and then get insures to send a letter confirming you've been put on the database.

Same with tax , why bother having a tax disk if its all on a database ?

The insurance database isnt updated straightaway and its not mandatory anyway. What chance of the road tax database being correct?

Edited by saaby93 on Thursday 11th March 23:53

[saaby93]

Jasandjules said:

The call to the insurer would be recorded so they would be able to check and confirm that he said go ahead rather than cancel.

Unfortunately he didnt say go ahead or cancel.
He assumed it would auto renew, but because he'd phoned in the computer was expecting a 'go ahead' box to be ticked following confirmation of details. he didnt give that so the computer resorted to 'dont go ahead wait further instructions'

[saaby93]

Mate's insurer refused to backdate the week, and started a new 12 months from the time he phoned up again.
Are theye so worried in case somethings happened that theyre unable to correct a mistake?

[saaby93]

Noger said:

Which is why I said that in practice the insurer would provide confirmation of cover to police/court. But would not provide a backdated cert.

Without him having an accident or being stopped in the intervening period it would be difficult to prove what would have happened but the insurer did say 'you were lucky you werent stopped' rather than 'dont worry we'd have covered you'

[saaby93]

Noger said:

I know, it seems mad. The received wisdom is that backdating cover is illegal.

Yes maybe he shouldnt have said backdating. Really it was late payment ( a week) for something he thought was already in place