Cancelled insurance issue
Discussion
I use a secondary email for things to do with purchases due to the spam that inevitably follows an online order or enquiry. Included will be insurance, so when I buy it I print a copy of the policy for the car and forget it. This means I can go a month or so and not look at the email inbox.
I needed to renew some home insurance so went back in and searching brought up a cancellation of one of my car policies, meaning the car had been uninsured for a few weeks. Fortunately no accidents or stops in that time!
I remembered updating the policy and being asked for the additional premium (very small amount) and told it would be taken from the card they had on file, which is the way I always pay for my insurance - annual lump sum, no auto renewal or direct debits. Looking back prior to the cancellation email, I see one warning me I need to pay this additional sum, but the telling one is the one before that which confirms the vehicle change and says the additional premium will be added to my payment plan.
Now I've never had a payment plan, not once in my insurance life. I've always paid for whole premium up front by card. The card has always been on file and any amendments with increases have been taken from my card at the time I've phoned up to tell the insurer about the new car. In the case in question, I remember the call well, sitting in a crappy site waiting to get the car covered so I could drive home. I also remember the normal conversation around taking the additional premium from the card on file. Anyone who has made an amendment will know they take payment at the time, which is what they said they were doing. You don't get a pay later option or "we'll send you an invoice". I suspect someone pressed the wrong button marked 'add to payment plan' not 'take from card on file'.
Did I notice it hadn't gone from my account later? No. I have approximately 200 transactions through my account every month. I don't check them all, I scan for big numbers and if there aren't any that's it. I see they refunded a small balance on cancellation to my bank (which shows they had my account details all along) and I didn't pick up on that at the time either.
So first thing I did was take out a new policy with the insurer, at exactly the same price, so no loading for 'cancelled insurance'. However, putting to one side the narrow escape I've had with being uninsured, they absolutely refuse to accept they were in the wrong. Their attempt at deflection is that whatever happened, I should have checked my emails. My question about why they wouldn't back up something so important with snail mail or a phone call was dismissed. They don't want to talk about why they added the premium to a non-existent payment plan, describing it as "a glitch". Just to rub salt in, when I purchased the new policy, they asked if they could take payment via the card they had on file...and duly did.
All I'd like, is an acknowledgement they screwed up and that the cancellation was inappropriate, because of the potential impact of having to say yes and explain to that question on proposal forms. I guess their concern about reinstatement is based on the fear of a lurking claim which there most definitely is not as far as I can possibly be aware. The complaints policy is interesting. I was asked what outcome I wanted. When I said I would like the policy reinstated as if the cancellation had never occurred and an apology I was told "they won't do that" which rather brings into question the objectivity of the complaints procedure. I've started that anyway.
Thoughts on this from the collective?
I needed to renew some home insurance so went back in and searching brought up a cancellation of one of my car policies, meaning the car had been uninsured for a few weeks. Fortunately no accidents or stops in that time!
I remembered updating the policy and being asked for the additional premium (very small amount) and told it would be taken from the card they had on file, which is the way I always pay for my insurance - annual lump sum, no auto renewal or direct debits. Looking back prior to the cancellation email, I see one warning me I need to pay this additional sum, but the telling one is the one before that which confirms the vehicle change and says the additional premium will be added to my payment plan.
Now I've never had a payment plan, not once in my insurance life. I've always paid for whole premium up front by card. The card has always been on file and any amendments with increases have been taken from my card at the time I've phoned up to tell the insurer about the new car. In the case in question, I remember the call well, sitting in a crappy site waiting to get the car covered so I could drive home. I also remember the normal conversation around taking the additional premium from the card on file. Anyone who has made an amendment will know they take payment at the time, which is what they said they were doing. You don't get a pay later option or "we'll send you an invoice". I suspect someone pressed the wrong button marked 'add to payment plan' not 'take from card on file'.
Did I notice it hadn't gone from my account later? No. I have approximately 200 transactions through my account every month. I don't check them all, I scan for big numbers and if there aren't any that's it. I see they refunded a small balance on cancellation to my bank (which shows they had my account details all along) and I didn't pick up on that at the time either.
So first thing I did was take out a new policy with the insurer, at exactly the same price, so no loading for 'cancelled insurance'. However, putting to one side the narrow escape I've had with being uninsured, they absolutely refuse to accept they were in the wrong. Their attempt at deflection is that whatever happened, I should have checked my emails. My question about why they wouldn't back up something so important with snail mail or a phone call was dismissed. They don't want to talk about why they added the premium to a non-existent payment plan, describing it as "a glitch". Just to rub salt in, when I purchased the new policy, they asked if they could take payment via the card they had on file...and duly did.
All I'd like, is an acknowledgement they screwed up and that the cancellation was inappropriate, because of the potential impact of having to say yes and explain to that question on proposal forms. I guess their concern about reinstatement is based on the fear of a lurking claim which there most definitely is not as far as I can possibly be aware. The complaints policy is interesting. I was asked what outcome I wanted. When I said I would like the policy reinstated as if the cancellation had never occurred and an apology I was told "they won't do that" which rather brings into question the objectivity of the complaints procedure. I've started that anyway.
Thoughts on this from the collective?
journeymanpro said:
Ultimately your responsibility to ensure you are insured.
Well yes, but I suppose there must be a point at which a customer should be able to rely on an insurer providing what has been paid for and not removing it in error. I'm fortunate that I didn't have a prang or was pulled for no insurance. That would have resulted in all manner of grief and potentially for innocent third parties as well. I'm just a bit concerned that if that happened, the insurer would be able to say "yes, we know there was a glitch with us taking the money, which meant we shouldn't have cancelled his policy, and the customer did nothing wrong apart from not check his emails, but it's just tough".Push ahead with the complaint and ask the policy is reinstated, you have nothing to lose except your time. Check the Ombudsman's decisions website to see if there are any previous similar cases, this might give you an idea how it will play out. They will have a call recording to prove what was said, but not reading the emails won't do you any favours - IMO it's a really bad idea to have such important stuff going unread, and TBH your fears of such spam are well out-of-date, I've used a single email address for probably 20 years and get virtually none.
Having multiple cars and insurance policies that renew at different times I've missed the renewal email before and been auto renewed so saying the onus is on the receiver to check their mails isn't correct in this day and age, I have a 'focussed' inbox on outlook and that gets over a hundred emails a day so it's easy to miss the odd email or two.
KungFuPanda said:
Surely a pro rata refund and a written apology wouldn’t be beyond them if that’s what you want.
Honestly, no harm has been done apart from the potential problems associated with having to declare that I've had car insurance cancelled. That's really annoying in the circumstances but I'm resigned to having to go through the complaints procedure now. That's the same complaints procedure that tells you won't get the outcome you want right at the start. My whinge has nothing at all to do with money, apart from the extra cost I may incur in the future. It's not about compensation for hurt feelings, etc. I could go on about what might have happened but nothing did, so I'm just grateful for that.Edited by Taylor James on Friday 31st January 20:12
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff