Translation: "Don't tell me what I don't want to hear."



I really don't understand why people don't read what they have signed up to. Is it laziness, ignorance or something else?



I've been with Admiral before and the auto-renewal thing isn't exactly hidden under mountains of small print - either when you first take the policy or at renewal. Your renewal will say quite explicitly, "if you want to renew, you don't need to do anything". You didn't do anything and they renewed - I fail to see where the confusion lies?

I would assume that any judge would view auto renewal as something you should opt into rather than opt out of

.....and by agreeing to Admirals terms and conditions you "opt into" auto-renewal.

Indeed but more specifically, under DD rules, they also have to give you a certain amount of notice once the amount of money is known, of how much they'll take, and on what date. I'm assuming that information was given and presumably ignored.

Thanks all



I phoned them this morning and explained that "before we start the complaint has already been registered with the ombudsmen, the money needs to be paid into my account before close of play today, there is a risk that because of your actions i will default on a mortgage payment and I am already bouncing of my overdraft limit".



The money has been paid directly into my account and i can now see it on my on-line portal. I paid no fees and am relatively happy with the outcome.



FWIW though, i have been an admiral customer many times in the past and never experienced an auto renewal. This feature should be opt in/out and they should not be able to authorize a direct debit without my written consent.



Perhaps i have missed this in the policy i received 12 months ago?. But can any of you honestly say they read the small print in every utility bill that comes through the door? I would hazard a guess that the vast majority do not and that is EXACTLY why this type of practice is created in the first place. It has ZERO to do with protecting dozy drivers, who forget to re-insure, it exists purely to extort money out of the populace by massively inflating your premium and catching people who dont spot this in the 14 day limit with admin fee's



I am not a noob when it comes to car insurance and i spend 3-4 months in the run up to renewal ensuring that my premium is the absolute best available. I also scrutinize any policy details regarding hire car, legals, roadside assistance etc. This is easy to do as they are the headline features and not hidden in the small print.



As Jerry C mentioned before it is most defiantly lesson learned, but it also means that Admiral will never get my custom ever again. Shame really because i have been a customer of theirs many times in the past.

Why won't Admiral get your custom again? you explained your problem and they rectified instantly, now AVIVA, they are a company that you should avoid .

Depends what you mean, I swapped from Direct Line to Aviva this year and got two cars insured for the same price as I was paying for one at Direct Line, then added a 24 year old as another driver for just £300 more.



You have to shop around every year, there will always be a company who want your business more than lots of other company's in the same way that there will be those who clearly don't want your business - and that situation will change from month to month.



Pay monthly (ok it costs more) and you won't lose a lump sum next year like the OP and mark your diary for next year giving yourself at least two months to look at the renewals and gather quotes again.



One thing I will give Direct Line credit for is that your renewal statement and actual policies state your level of no claims, I've been stitched up before by other company's (and I think it was Admiral) who don't do that on the actual policy and who then want an "admin fee" to confirm that after you've left them.



You learn as you go along...

Because in my opinion they never fully made clear a pretty important part of my policy and one that could have wrecked my Christmas.



Would you not be slightly miffed in two grand exited your account without your knowledge and [uexplicit[/u permission?

Try making a claim and it taking close to three years to sort even though i had 3 independent witnesses, photo evidence and a favourable police report, passed from one department to the next and ignored and fobbed off so much i had to get a solicitor to sort it all out for both me and my wife.

Whilst I can understand why you would not want to use this company again, many others use the same procedure (which is in my opinion wrong) - see Unsolicited Goods Act which[i nearly[/i covers it. But as stated above - they instantly rectified the problem and waived their charges. I would think that this was a good reason to use them again. Other companies might not be so obliging.

So if you got burgled and the thieves, once caught, offered to return your property, you'd be entirely OK with that?

I had a row with an insurance company recently. Paid my deposit (a month's premium) and sent in proof of no claims but they rejected them - for no good reason I can see, as the company I'm now with accepted them no problem.



They wrote to advise they were adding £178 to the premium and charging a £55 admin fee and an immediate random £76.55 in additional cover for the privilege, and that they would take payment within a few days. I immediately cancelled the direct debit and instructed them to cancel the policy, but seeing as they'd taken so long to write to me in the first place I was outside the 14-day cooling off period. Never mind that this constituted a 'major change' to the policy, which should therefore allow me to cancel free of charge (according to their own Ts & Cs).



Anyway, I won the battle in the end by pointing out that they had only taken a deposit, and according to The Financial Services Authority a deposit is a one-off payment (defined by the term 'deposit'), not a recurring payment and therefore they were not entitled to use my card details to take additional monies, which in fact should not even be held on file. I requested that they delete all payment details with immediate effect.



Of course I told them the Financial Ombudsman and Citizen's Advice had also been giving me advice - not true, I'd simply read the small print and done a little research. That email was my final correspondence to them, I never heard a peep again.