So Admiral car insurance have invoked a hidden "auto renewal" of my multi car policy and whipped nearly £1800.00 quid from my account just before Christmas (a massively inflated price than last year to boot)

the two cars have just had new separate policies set up just last week and i am now insured twice on each vehicle, not to mention well into my overdraft and pretty much skint just 5 days before the big event.

Please people any advice is appreciated if you have experienced similar. As i understand things i can easily retrieve the money but may be liable to pay an admin fee of around £25 to have my own money back (the thought of which absolutely boils my pee pee)

Needless to say i am absolutely seething and would really appreciate it if any "read the small print" type replies are avoided. This is not a feature that should be hidden in an annex of my insurance documents.

The financial ombudsman will be getting called very early tomorrow morning just before i ring Admiral.

The money is one thing, but they really have left me up 5h1t creek here. The timing is abysmal and i am in serious peril of not being able to pay my mortgage this month. Never mind not buying the wife's presents.

Thank you in advance

The auto renewed policy is still subject to the 14 day cooling off period so you should be able to cancel it within that period and get all your money back. Happened with my travel insureance eariler this year, got my money back no problem once I managed to get through to them.

Thanks mate

How long did it take to reimburse you?

Unless they stick the cash back in by close of play Friday i am goosed.

Pay the £25 fee and wait for the money to come back. If you don't get it back in time get a payday loan or borrow from family / friends.

Swift sent me notice through three months before then one month before renewal, telling me if I did nothing I would be auto renewed. You not get notices?

Mine came in at just under what I paid last year so pretty happy.

They said it would take up to 7 working days, I got it within 3 I seem to recall.

They sent a renewal quote through the post as is standard with all policies.

As to me scrutinizing it with a fine tooth comb, it is not something that i would normally do. if the quote is higher or not to my liking, then it goes straight in the bin. I have used admiral many times in the past and never had this issue.

I have got a four week old baby in the house and things have been busy, I am pretty confident that no other "we will tAke the cash and renew" type letter has arrived however

If I had been paying monthly then I could forgive a single monthly payment comming out.

If they are going to take the best part of 2 grand in one fell swoop, them the letter (if it exists) should have big red flashing lights attached.

Out of interest when did your renewal letter come? Just I'm with Admiral too and I know my insurance expires at end of January and not had anything from them yet.

Its a lesson learned, it also niggles me that companies can charge a random "admin fee" for almost anything but will refuse to accept or just totally ignore an "admin fee" that you send to them for your time (yes I've done it), however in this case I'd pay up and walk away, they aren't ever going to get your business again, count that as a bit of payback because insurance companies really do rely on you not questioning their renewals and also rely on recommendation.

Its also a really good reason to pay monthly.

And shop around.

Phone your bank first, they should class it as an unauthorised withdrawal and reimburse your account immediately

I've had an identical problem in the past and the bank were not interested because in fact it was authorised [size(see small print).[/size

Really, even if he has agreed to an auto-renewal (which is in Admiral's standard terms)?

My understanding is that the issue of auto-renewal has been looked into and the ombudsman has no real issue with it. In fact, it has been deemed as a useful feature given how many people simple claim to 'forget' to renew their insurance. If it reduces the number of uninsured vehicles on the road (either deliberately or inadvertantly uninsured), then I can't see why the FSA, OFT or MID would oppose it?

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.