Bit silly but i paid 2 insurance companies for 1 car last year. Should they have noticed? Can i claim it back? Options

[Roamingandy]

So, i'm not a very organised person. I got an email last week saying my insurance was ending, which was odd as i'd just renewed it.

Turns out one policy was ending and a totally different policy with a different company was set up fine, and they had both been active last year.

What happened was that my policy was ending last year and they were sending me urgent emails that gave the impression my policy was about to expire. I decided to shop around and bought a better policy, shortly after that my previous company auto renewed my policy with them via direct debit.

Obviously i should have noticed this, but i have a real blind spot for finances. Should the insurance company also have noticed that i was already insured and not gone ahead with it, or is it ok to have two separate policies? I'd quite like that money back, any chance they'll give me it?

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[666]

There's nothing to stop you having two policies, on the same car, but it just makes things complicated if there's a claim.

You say "I'm not a very organised person". I suspect that you agreed to autorenewal, and the insurer will be able to evidence that.

I don't give much for you're chances of a refund, but if you don't ask you won't get.

[andy_foster]

I think I was offered the choice of auto renewing when taking out a policy once, as opposed to having the uncertain term imposed on me and buried in the small print.
Or I might simply have been so happy that I could easily cancel auto renewal on an online portal, rather than having to spend 20 minutes on the phone to opt out of something that I never agreed to in the first place (and was never given the choice), that it felt like I had been given the choice.


I think I was offered the choice of auto renewing when taking out a policy once, as opposed to having the uncertain term imposed on me and buried in the small print.
Or I might simply have been so happy that I could easily cancel auto renewal on an online portal, rather than having to spend 20 minutes on the phone to opt out of something that I never agreed to in the first place (and was never given the choice), that it felt like I had been given the choice.

[Slapdash]

Many companies are explicit in their "time to renew" emails. They tell you einther rhat they will renew it at that price or that it will lapse.

A noticeable exception to this has been Churchill. On 2 occasions they have told me it will lapse on X and auto renewed it anyway.

Check what they actually said in their email.

Most likely they told you they were going to auto renew (I believe this is a regulatory requirement). If they did your chances of a refund will be slim.

You can nake a formal complaint of course asking them to actually evidence your acceptance of auto renewal and complain to the ombudsman if necessary.

[rosturra]

I had this happen to me once.

I'm sorry but , unhelpfully, I just can't remember the exact circumstances.

I e Whether it was my 'fault' for not noticing an auto renew, or the insurance company's for auto renewing without my permission.

But I was refunded one of the policies when I realised, and complained.

This may have been because it was an obvious error on their part, but I recall it was no hassle, no need for a formal complaint and handled by phone call.

Point is, it probably happens more often than you'd think.

[Steve_999]

Even worse - I had my policy set up to auto-renew. Had the email saying it would be renewed automatically - shopped around and couldn't better it by much so let it carry on to renew. Realised about three weeks after renewal date that the charge had not hit my bank account and found I had been uninsured for that period!
It was quickly sorted with a phone call, and I daresay the company would have confirmed cover had I been pulled by the police, but I do wonder whether they (the insurance company) would ever have realised if I had not contacted them!

[nigelbb]

Even worse - I had my policy set up to auto-renew. Had the email saying it would be renewed automatically - shopped around and couldn't better it by much so let it carry on to renew. Realised about three weeks after renewal date that the charge had not hit my bank account and found I had been uninsured for that period!
It was quickly sorted with a phone call, and I daresay the company would have confirmed cover had I been pulled by the police, but I do wonder whether they (the insurance company) would ever have realised if I had not contacted them!

I had a similar experience 10-15 years ago except I was driving about for nearly six months. It wasn't until I needed to get a green card prior to trip to France that I discovered the mistake. It turned out that for some reason Admiral hadn't taken my direct debit. They wouldn't let me back date the renewal but insisted I had to take out a new policy which meant I saved a couple of hundred quid while driving uninsured.