Auto renewal

  • Jimbo57's Avatar
    I have recently cancelled my subscription to an online dating service,but I read on the web that they have a reputation for automatically renewing anyway! Can I stop them from taking any money from my credit card in the future?
  • 6 Replies

  • AshleighB's Avatar
    Employee
    Hi

    If you've cancelled with the company then they should not take anymore payments. If you find in the future payments continue to be charged then please give us a call on 03453662711 (Mon-Fri: 8am-6pm and Sat-Sun: 9am-2pm) to discuss further.
  • Jimbo57's Avatar
    Thanks for your reply,what I was trying to do was avoid the hassle of argueing with the company in the future and trying to get my money back
  • Lord_Layabout's Avatar
    This auto-renewal of stuff is a modern trend. It amazes me that it is not highly illegal, taken more seriously as a criminal act, and treated the same way as any other theft. You might get your money back if you complain, but is that much different from me quietly picking the wallet out of someone's jacket and giving it back if (and only if) they complain? Unfortunately, most people think it is a marvellous idea, which is how this situation has come about. They (and the marketing people) say it gives them "peace of mind" - a phrase that grates with me. On this forum we tend to be people who look after our money and want to be in control of what leaves their bank accounts. The average person however cannot be bothered and is content to let strangers do it for them.
  • ScottW's Avatar
    Employee
    I completely understand @Lord_Layabout. You can opt out of auto-renewal when you take out a policy with us, but otherwise it is automatically applied. This can benefit customers by making sure that they'll be covered at all times, as it can be easy to overlook the letters and emails we send out. It's not suitable for everyone and we know that. We'd always encourage our customers to read over their policy documents and contact us to opt out at any time, if they feel it isn't right for them.
  • Tig8XC's Avatar
    OK .. I know, late to the party and all that but sorry ScottW what you say about being able to 'Opt Out' when you take out your policy to start with is not technically correct as I have just discovered ... yet again! Last May [2017] I took out my current policy and yes I asked for the Auto Renewal feature to not be added to my policy and left it at that. But then today whilst checking my doc's online ready for this years round of playing Hunt The Best Quote I suddenly saw for the first time those annoying words at the bottom of my policy docs .... Auto Renewal! So there we go again ... I had this same funtime event last year, that of sitting on the phone waiting to speak to a human to sort out this matter that TBH should not really have happened and it looks like I get to do the same this year ... Oh Deep Joy (not). So it seems this will be my last year with Tesco's as personally I do not see this as an advantage, I see it more like a stealth pick pocket waiting for me to simply become a little absent minded and once the payment has been taken to go 'oh well, it's done now ... too late to look elsewhere for a better or cheaper deal' ... eh? Go on, be honest with yourself you know I' right :)
  • ScottW's Avatar
    Employee
    I'm sorry to read about your experience . We don't include auto-renewal on our policies to try and catch out any of our customers or to do anything unethical, we do it to make sure that there's no chance, or certainly less chance, of someone driving without insurance. We send reminders out to all of our customers 28 days before the policies renew, but in some cases these can be missed or other life events can get in the way and we'd rather cancel a policy after the renewal date and process a refund than have our customers driving illegally.



    In your case it sounds like a genuine staff error has meant your policy wasn't amended as requested and I'm really sorry that's happened. At the moment we don't include the option to opt out when you apply online, but we are looking into this for the future and we can be called at any time over the year of the cover to make the change with no additional charges.