Diamond Insurance

[debtdrinker]

hi all,
A while back my wife's policy was due to expire while we went away, the car was off road and I thought I'd sort it out when we got back.

Anyway, the policy ended, a letter arrived saying that we had 14 days to cancel otherwise it would automatically renew. They couldn't take a payment as the card details they held on file had expired and we had to pay an £80 fine.

Can I claim this back at all? I wouldn't mind it if I could!

[craigwalton]

Yes,

This sounds like an Administration charge. Ring them & ask them what they did for this £80. Providing they didn't send you a letter in solid gold then you have a very good case, just tweak the template letters and send to Diamond

[Rob S]

Have they tried to take a payment from an expired card and then levied a penalty charge of £80? If so, then it seems an unfair penalty charge. I would contact them first of all and ask them to justify the charge and ask them to refund it. If they don't, then the next step is to sue the buggers!!

[debtdrinker]

No, while we were away the letters arrived. One letter saying we had 14 days until it would automatically renew, I assumed if we were away it would expire if not automatically renew and then I'd renew with another company when I got back if that was the case.

After the letter saying we had 14 days to renew, they tried to take a payment which didn't go through. So they then said we had 7 days until the policy was cancelled.

When we got back after all this they said that we owed them £80 which covered the 21 days mentioned above even though this ws not authorised by us.

[craigwalton]

In this case you need to look at your policy documents to see if it mentions automatically renewing the policy.

[benjee]

Originally Posted by debtdrinker

.........I assumed if we were away it would expire if not automatically renew and then I'd renew with another company when I got back if that was the case.

To save on admin costs some Insurers will include an 'automatic renewal' notice in policy documents. This means that at renewal you must contact the Insurer if you wish to cancel or lapse the policy, however this is mainly for direct debit policies - not annual card payments.

In your case, Diamond should have been able to provide a renewal 30 days before its due, on request from you.
I would say the £80 charge includes cancellation fee and a charge for time on risk from the renewal date to when they cancelled for non payment - argue it after checking all policy docs.

[Janet-M]

How are you getting on with this ?