A cautionary tale!
I was stopped by the police on Wednesday evening and told that my numberplate was showing up as an uninsured vehicle on their system. It turns out the insurance company didn't take the direct debit because my credit card had expired, but didn't tell me. I am now facing 6 penalty points and a £200 fine. To make matters worse, when I rang the company (AVIVA) to re-insure quickly to avoid any worse consequences, they upped my premium by 50% on what it would have been if it had been renewed in April as it should have been. Needless to say I've sent a strong letter of complaint and am planning to move my insurance elsewhere within the cooling off period.
So if you have your insurance on an automatic renewal, check it! I know I was stupid not to realise, but it was due just before we went on holiday for 3 weeks so I'd forgotten about it by the time we got back. >:(
A good bit of advice. Some years ago I only had a 3 monthly bank statement. My contents includes accidental damage. My video camera got damaged, when I asked for a claim form they told me my insurance had lapsed even though the renewal notice stated I didn't have to do anything (direct debit) if I wanted to continue. They hadn't taken the monthly premiums for two months. After a few choice words a very nice supervisor apologised and restarted the insurance. They also paid out for a new camera. Needless to say I now have a monthly statement.
We got a letter recently to say that home insurance had been cancelled several weeks before. No idea why it has been running for years. To late to restart nearly 6pm so I just started it new policy (That dept worked later) it was considerably cheaper all sorts of extras thrown in as well.
Take it to court, explain what happened and if you still have old insurance documents, etc. you can submit them as evidence that you are normally a law abiding citizen that pays their way. Personally I don't thnk you have anything to worry about. A load of hassle all the same.
Aviva should have contacted you though. Just to let folks know, my wife was insured with Aviva (Norwich Union at the time) and they totally screwed her over when her car got stolen. To me, Aviva = Devil.
Don't renew automatically,there is no benefit for loyalty.
Change your insurer every year.the money you can save is astonishing and clearly if you stay loyal often the companies don't !!!
If they finally tackle the corruption in the banks, I think insurance should be next on the list!!
I agree with mac mac,or at least search around before renewing to ensure that you are still getting a good deal.
Two years ago I did a search and found that the AA were my best bet and the were offering free entry into the AA.
Now I was already a member of the AA so I asked them what's in it for me?
His reply was membership and insurance are two different departments so he wasn't in a position to answer my question,but he did say; mention it to the membership department when that comes due for renewal ....so I did.......guess what they gave me home start free.
So it is worth checking each year, because it seems if you don't ask you don't get in fact they may even take more than they are entitled to.
Another thing is check your insurance details as well!
These might have changed, as they did with me when I retired and I was doing less miles.
I contacted them come my renewal and the girl said it wouldn't make any difference, I replied to " do a check and make sure" she did and my premium dropped substantially because I was less of a risk.
Similarly with your estimated car value, it depreciates each year meaning they are liable to pay out less if it is written off, so if that is the case! So should you!
Moral of this story; question everything because when the ball is on the other foot they sharp question you, and they are always right when we know they are not!...Tg
I never have mine on automatic renewal. If you are not totally braindead at the end of the phonecall they will slip this little gem in with their spiel. So always state at the start of the conversation that you do not want it.
Another tip is when you have to phone about a query it is usually a number where you have to pay so much a minute to phone them, only to be held in a queue and listen to some musak for about ten minutes which costs you a couple of quid. Fill in an online quote, with the company, ten minutes later they will phone you asking if their quote is competative. Then just get them to put you through to the right department, they will do this pretty d**n quick if you give them a bit of grief.
Caroline, read the small print before you cancel, it could cost you a lot of money. Sorry about the fine and points but they will certainly convict you, you are lucky they did not crush your car. As they always unjustly say, 'Ignorance is no defence' Chasing you is easy, thousands of people who bypass the checking system are still getting away with it.
Thanks for the responses. I always shop around every year- the only reason I've remained "loyal" is because they've come out cheapest for the last few years.
Another twist is that, as i've been shopping around this weekend, I got a quote for just me and OH and top of the list was "quotemehappy" who, it turns out, are the online-only part of- guess who- Aviva! Who always boast that they are not on comparison sites! And their quote was £200 less than the Aviva guy told me it would be just for the two of us!
To give them some credit, I received a letter from Aviva yesterday in response to my complaint, in which they admitted it was their fault, reduced my premium back to what it was at renewal, offered me £200 to cover my fine plus £100 compensation and offered to write a letter of indemnity for me to give to the police/court to try to get my penalty points removed. A reasonable and pretty quick response, I reckon, even if they should never have made the mistake in the first place.
Yesterday I received a letter from my insurer stating they were unable to collect the monthly premium for July. As it turned out, my debit was set up from my debit card not my bank account. I cancelled my debit card at the beginning of the month due to fraud from the other end of the country. My debit is now reset through my bank account as this does not have an expiry date ::)
In case anyone's interested in the end of this story, I got a letter from North Yorkshire Police today to say that the ticket has been withdrawn. :D Now I just need to decide what to spend my £100 compensation on!
Result at last Caroline, you can muse over your compensation after all it's only taken 4 weeks to sort it ;D. Nice that someone admits to being wrong ;D.
Well Done Caroline it is nice to hear you won the battle amd that the insurance co and the police were prepared to put things right for you.
Yay! Good result!! :0)))