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[Viral_Jim]

Back in December our home insurance auto-renewed at nearly double the premium (standard practice these days it seems  ). Naturally I wasn't too chuffed at this and called up Bodge-It insurance to cancel. I was told that as its in their standard terms and conditions I would have to pay £35 for admin and cancellation fees. Even less impressed by this I cancelled, took the £35 on the chin (it saved me £200 over the course of the year by switching) and then set about coming up with a way of getting it back.

What I came up with was the assertion that the auto-renewal clause was unfair . By that I mean in the legal sense rather than in the sense of having a moan  . I drafted a letter up laying out why I believed the clause was unfair and implying that I would be willing to test this in the small claims court. There followed a couple of months of stalling while my assigned customer service manager sought advice.

But low and behold last Friday a letter dropped informing me that while my letter was wrong on all points, and that their standard terms are in no way unfair, they would refund my £35 as a gesture of goodwill in my case. 

If anyone else has been stung by auto-renewal, or is interested, I'd be happy to post the text of the letter I drafted.

[TheBoy]

Its cheaper to goodwill than go through the process


But lesson is, although all policies have an auto renew, either ring them up to tell them to cancel the renewal a few weeks into policy, or set a reminder to shop around


Strangely, following my "incident" with the garage, we're still with the same insurance, as they were still the cheapest

[Andy B]

Not quite the same ........ but I once phoned about a fortnight before SWMBO car's insurance auto-renewed  to tell them NOT to do so. But they did!  I phoned to tell them what they'd done & the half wit I spoke to told me it was my fault for not cancelling it  ...... she was too thick to realise that no sane person would cancel a fortnoght before the policy ended. Got it sorted in the end & told them I'd never have anything to do with them again ..... to give them their due they have never sent any bumf to me since. (Company was where we had a battle in 1066  )

[Viral_Jim]

Its cheaper to goodwill than go through the process

Yup, it's one of the (very) few advantages that we as individual people have over big businesses.

Funny you should say that about the renewal, I now have a standard form letter that I drop in the post recorded delivery a few days after the policy docs arrive saying I don't want to auto-renew and that if the company does, I will be levelling a £50 admin fee to address the issue. Not had to use this yet but it could be the easiest £50 I'll ever make .

Tbh I only really went after Bodge-It this time as they sent no indication of renewal prior to it happening and there were specific items on the insurance which we didn't need any longer which they had carried over and charged for. As a practice it pi$$es me off like no other.

[Andy B]

.....

Funny you should say that about the renewal, I now have a standard form letter that I drop in the post recorded delivery a few days after the policy docs arrive saying I don't want to auto-renew and that if the company does, I will be levelling a £50 admin fee to address the issue. Not had to use this yet but it could be the easiest £50 I'll ever make .  .....

One company (forget now which) got quite upset with me when I refused to send back the policy they'd automatically sent to me on the assumption I'd renew. I didn't ask for it so had shredded it it and told them if they really wanted it back I'd send them the contents of my shredder ........ they didn't!

[raywilb]

Not quite the same ........ but I once phoned about a fortnight before SWMBO car's insurance auto-renewed  to tell them NOT to do so. But they did!  I phoned to tell them what they'd done & the half wit I spoke to told me it was my fault for not cancelling it  ...... she was too thick to realise that no sane person would cancel a fortnoght before the policy ended. Got it sorted in the end & told them I'd never have anything to do with them again ..... to give them their due they have never sent any bumf to me since. (Company was where we had a battle in 1066  )

  I am with them but I too had a quote that was over double. I rang them & made it clear that if a more realistic renewal cost was not offered I will cancel my D/D ,which happened. so a week before I used a price comparison site & picked a policy that ticked all the boxes & included a full breakdown with recovery cover. the punchline it is a Hasting policy. renewal quote was £640+ ( from 250 ish previous year ) the cost from the same company by looking online via Go Compare fully comp £ 288

[zirk]

Happened to me last year, went from £20 to £40 something per month, went to cancel, £80 Admin Fee, £40 Cancellation Fee as it was past there 28 Day notice, £15 DDM cancel Fee, and was only entittled to 50% of the Premium back as per there Online T&C's, was actually cheaper to stay with them for another year and put the renewal date in the dairy for next year, which is what I should have done in the first instance.