Thank you for your replies. The reason I was not aware that the payment had not been taken from my bank is because I have recently had my account transferred from Woolwich to Barclays. I don't receive statements, but use the online banking, which is far from satisfactory on the Barclays site compared to the old Woolwich online banking site. Barclays had kindly informed all my other creditors of my new account details to ensure monthly bills were paid on time. However, I hadn't realised, or been informed by Barclays that monthly debits from my debit card would not be included in the information transfer. I was therefore unaware that anything was amiss. Having not heard from Dial Direct either, I was none the wiser. My first knowledge of any issue was when Dial Direct requested the return of my Certificate. In the past they had contacted me by phone to advise that a payment was late and I had no reason to believe that if the same were to occur at any time in the future that they wouldn't contact me in the same way. When my premium was announced in April I was satisfied in the fact that it had not risen substantially from the previous year's, however I put my trust in them to offer me the best deal available. It is only now when I compare prices of all the providers, that most quotes are in the same ball park, in that they are all pretty much 50% of what I have been paying for the last 5 months with Dial Direct. I think it scandalous that they have not passed on the benfits of reduced premiums to one of their long standing Customers. Insurance premiums have been rising steadily, so I don't see why they should suddenly halve unless they have misquoted me in the past and continued to do so ever since.

Hi all, this is my first post and I hope someone can offer me some help here. I have just received a letter from my car insurers requesting that I return my insurance certificate. On further investigation I have discovered that due to my recent current account transfer from Woolwich to Barclays, the Spetember payment was not paid by my bank. This was a payment that had previously been taken from my debit card each month and the bank had not informed my insurers of the new details. On phoning my insurers, Dial Direct, they advised that my policy has been cancelled due to non payment and that they had written to me advising of the cancellation, but were uninterested in hearing that I did not receive any letters from them until the request of return of the docs. They have demanded £167 cancellation charges, for a policy that ends in April. Up until now I have been paying £32 a month. I checked online for other quotes and found that Dial Direct are quoting £153 a year for the same cover, yet they quoted me in excess of £360 per annum. So far this year, my total payments have exceeded their online quote. Who can I contact in relation to this, as I feel that they have been ripping me off for some time?