Insurance was with Bradford & Bingley and renewal came in a couple of months ago. As you'll know, reminders seem to arrive about a month before the actual renewal date and at some point after receiving it I ran a quick confused.com search, found the insurance was about £100 cheaper elsewhere
and signed up with new insurer. New insurance docs arrived OK so all fine. Then just over 2 weeks after renewal date, insurance docs for the coming year from B&B arrived
. Called them up and they say it's due to me being on auto renewal.Tell me they can refund but will be less a month's insurance +£25 admin fee. What has hacked me off is they haven't sent the docs to me until over 2 weeks after renewal date. Credit card statement has since arrived and payment was taken on day before renewal date. Asked about cooling off period and told 14 days have elapsed! Aye - because it has taken them over 14 days to send me the docs!
Current situation is they have cancelled the insurance and refunded less £60 odd quid. Now some convoluted appeal process if I want to write in with details, proof of insurance elsewhere to try and get a full refund.
Accept this could be my fault if I didn't tell them I wasn't renewing but what's the score with auto renewal? Is it a legal thing to ensure cars are always insured, or in my guess, more likely a marketing procedure to accumulate more business via the apathy of owners not searching out better deals, but sold to us as saving you time and hassle?
If the latter, I thought they would have a fairly straightforward procedure for those in a similar situation. I hate dealing with insurance companies...
And payment and partial refund have straddled credit card statement dates
