Bennetts insurance rip off scam

[999Mike]

+3. My Bennetts premium hiked in the second year, did usual comparisons and found a cheaper insurer. Difference is that I phoned to tell Bennetts NOT to renew my policy, to which a lady said no problem, we won't renew and your policy will lapse from renewal date. Lo and behold, after taking out insurance with another company i get a new insurance certificate from Bennetts and £140 odd quid charged to my credit card they'd kept on record. After 3 weeks of letters and phone calls I eventually got all my money back, albeit in 2 bits, card refund minus cancellation fee then a cheque for the rest after mucho arguing with them. They eventually listened to my original phone call and admitted they were wrong. I understand why there's auto renewal in case you forget but once you speak to someone and they assure you no charges will be made then they do anyway and try to make out it's your fault makes me very wary of big companies and their ability to comminicate with each other.

[StumpyFingers]

+4 when I renewed last year they wanted £286 , up from £180. I enquired at the Bike show and got slightly better cover for the total of £160.
I do not use the auto renewal as I know shopping around gives a better chance of savings.

[999Mike]

I do not use the auto renewal as I know shopping around gives a better chance of savings.

Me neither or so I thought, I know I'm old and farty but sometimes I hark back to the good old days of loads of brokers in your local area where you could go in and have a crack and pay with such strange devices as cheques and even some stuff called cash

[AlanH]

There are lots of negative comments about Bennetts out there.

What they do is certainly money grabbing and could be described as a rip-off. Well, they are not in business to make friends.

However, I'd say it's not really a scam as they provide you with a complete list of all the weasely underhand ways they seek to bleed you for cash. You agree to these terms when you take out the policy and there is a cooling-off period to allow you time to read the documentation. If you choose not to read their info and choose to trust that there is nothing in their terms and conditions that could influence your choice of insurer, it's entirely up to you.

ALWAYS READ THE SMALLPRINT!!!

[999Mike]

There are lots of negative comments about Bennetts out there.

What they do is certainly money grabbing and could be described as a rip-off. Well, they are not in business to make friends.

However, I'd say it's not really a scam as they provide you with a complete list of all the weasely underhand ways they seek to bleed you for cash. You agree to these terms when you take out the policy and there is a cooling-off period to allow you time to read the documentation. If you choose not to read their info and choose to trust that there is nothing in their terms and conditions that could influence your choice of insurer, it's entirely up to you.

ALWAYS READ THE SMALLPRINT!!!

I DID!!!!

Which is why I phoned Bennetts 10 days prior to the renewal date, getting a Bennetts employee to confirm that they would not renew my policy, and then they just renewed it anyway. I might as well have p*&&$d in the wind for all the good it did

[AlanH]

I DID!!!!

The comment was aimed at the OP and anyone else who agrees to stuff without reading it first

Unfortunately a telephone call isn't worth the paper it's written on

It is safest to put cancellations of an automatic renewal in writing and send by Recorded Delivery. Regardless of the cancellation method, request written confirmation of cancellation in writing from them. If you just rely on phoning them, you are relying on them to have a recording of the call if you need to prove they are wrong.

Ineptitude seems to be a core competency for many customer service roles these days so it's not just Bennetts.

[yellowpurple]

I originally took out a policy with Bennetts when I came back to bikes last year. With no no claims bonus, they came in at a reasonable £197 for a (parallel import) Dominator. A year later the renewal was £228, no changes, no accidents or convictions. I punted around & re-insured with Adrian Flux at £106 for the same cover. I rang Bennetts to cancel my renewal & they said they couldn't get anywhere near that price. My renewal was cancelled without any problems, but I was shocked at their renewal price. As previously mentioned, they lure you in with a good first year policy, then sting you at renewal. I don't think that is unusual however. My good lady had the same problem with her Beetle through Tesco insuance. The renewal went up by 20%, we looked around & found Churchills were the best value. When I rang Tesco to cancel the renewal they said we should have called them before we renewed as Tesco insurance is underwritten by... you guessed it, Churchill. Seems we were ripped off to start with!

[jarl]

The comment was aimed at the OP and anyone else who agrees to stuff without reading it first

Unfortunately a telephone call isn't worth the paper it's written on

It is safest to put cancellations of an automatic renewal in writing and send by Recorded Delivery. Regardless of the cancellation method, request written confirmation of cancellation in writing from them. If you just rely on phoning them, you are relying on them to have a recording of the call if you need to prove they are wrong.

Ineptitude seems to be a core competency for many customer service roles these days so it's not just Bennetts.

What about if I record the call?

[AlanH]

What about if I record the call?

Yes you can record the call. However, you can't play it back to a third party at a later date unless you have let them know you are recording the call for that purpose and get their agreement.

[999Mike]

It is safest to put cancellations of an automatic renewal in writing and send by Recorded Delivery. Regardless of the cancellation method, request written confirmation of cancellation in writing from them. If you just rely on phoning them, you are relying on them to have a recording of the call if you need to prove they are wrong.

This is what I will do in future. Thankfully Bennetts do record calls and it took somebody 5 days to listen to the call and then another 3 to decide I was right all along. Another thing I found out after talking to my credit card company and being 1 day too late to stop the money going off my card was that if I had contacted them earlier with the company details and amount of the transaction they could have/can refuse to take the transaction so the credit card doesn't get charged. If I'm ever in that situation again that's what I'll do as well as writing to the insurance company.