Okay I've just heard there is a database that keeps track of ANY insurance cancellation, particularly payment related. Granted, I may now have to phone each insurance company personally. I would be happy to do that. We'll see how thing play out today anyway I suppose. Thanks!

Thank you for the welcome, hello. No problem, thanks!

Hi there. I appreciate this is a bit of a unique set of circumstances, if it was straight forward there'd be no need to post here, but I wanted some clarification and advice. I'll try and keep it simple. At 20 years old, I got my first car in October last year, Smartmiles was the cheapest insurance because of the box, however I still wanted to pay monthly due to my working circumstances and financial situation. In June, with only 2 payments to go, my direct debit bounced due to negligence on my part. I became aware of this, and went on to Creation's website (who manage my policy's finance) and paid the money that I was in arrears on there. Unbeknownst to me, paying through the website didn't stop the direct debit from being repeated a few days later, once again putting my account into "arrears" even though I actually only owed the final month, which shouldn't be due until the end of July. Then, due to the direct having bounced twice in a row, I apparently got hit with a £25 charge. However I was not told about said charge, and as such did not pay it. I got the usual letter from Hastings saying my policy would be cancelled in so many days due to my account being in arrears, however when this has happened previously I have called them, paid what I owe, and everything has been fine. Naturally, as I knew I had already paid for June's payment, and July wasn't due yet, I knew my account should not actually be in arrears anymore, and could disregard the letter. Except for the hidden £25 charge that had appeared. That ensured my account was still in arrears, and as such when I hadn't paid it by the 22nd July, my policy was cancelled. First phone call to Hastings, was told they'd ring back the next morning, I never had a phone call but they told me they could not get through to me. Fair enough. Second phone call, spoke to someone who basically told me that the £25 charge being unpaid was the reason my policy was cancelled, and they wouldn't reinstate it. Third phone call, spoke to a lovely lady, and she actually looked upon my situation, my finance account, transaction history, and saw that it was simply a case of computer automation, for example if I had phoned the company to pay, they would know it was paid before the 2nd direct debit went out, therefore I would have had no charge. Human intervention, in other words. She said she's going to have a look at it today, and call me back, which I appreciate, I shall see what she says and go from there. However I still want some advice. I completely understand that it is my responsibility to make sure my DD payments are going through. I get that. What I'm stumped about is being hit with a £25 charge, which I had no notification of, and cannot find any information about on Creation's website. If I had known that it was due, I would have paid it straight away and this would never have happened. As such now, with only 1 month's payment left (£155) I have lost the no claims of my first year, and, for the foreseeable future, whenever I try to get a new quote, I have to declare that I have had a policy cancelled, and so most insurers won't go near me, and the ones that do are easily charging north of £3000 for a 1.0 Saxo at 21 years old. Any advice? If this was a simple case of me missing a DD payment, and it being cancelled for that, I would accept it as my mistake, however the way I see it, it is not completely my fault at all. Thanks folks, apologies for being a bit long winded, it's just slightly complicated.