Why are Insurance renewals not sent but demands arrive a month later!

[just john]

I'm sure this has been covered before but could not find previous postings, so apologies but I need some advice on how to sort this out other than just continuing to deal with errant Insurance companies (AXA and Thelem).

Why are Insurance renewals not sent but outstanding demands arrive a month later! What is this sharp practice about?!, We changed our broker (who had been recommended by our Notaire) after the first year when this happened first time and then sought out a broker who was happy to assure us that renewals would be sent promptly before due so that if we wished to change then we could, but this doesn't happen; my insurance in France for a maison secondaire and french car however do receive a demand months later for non-payment! In the latest incident I had made it clear to my broker at the beginning of the year that since the car was now completely immobilised and therefore (as per a previous discussion) I did not intend to renew the policy with them. Worse still as a Maison secondaire I had made it clear that I wanted correspondence sent to my UK address and despite verbal agreement with the broker this doesn't happen, correspondence is always sent to the French address, causing more delay?

Does anyone else suffer this? and does anyone have an Insurance company that does send out renewals, best of all to a UK address?

 

 

[Clair]

Insurance contracts are automatically renewed unless cancelled.

See here for details: http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1188586/ShowPost.aspx

[just john]

Thanks for your reply Clair, I've read the post but what happens in a circumstance such as mine when no renewal has been sent and then just a demand for payment over a month into the contract?

Does the amount remain outstanding? Can I still cancel? If so what form should the correspondence take?

[woolybanana]

It is a nice little fiddle and earner for the insurance company, surely?

[mint]

You can't cancel for this year, JJ.

Make a note to yourself and cancel within the required notice period next year when you have found a better deal elsewhere.

[Chardie]

Funnily enough I had a bit of a rant about this last night. No renewal notice sent for our house insurance. Normally arrives at out UK home 1 week before the expiry of the insurance - not arrived this year. However discovered that I can find out the amount and pay online with AXA.fr - which I have done so no lapse in cover. (Would insurance company pay out if  you hadn't paid the renewal by the expiry date and something happened to the house in that interim period? I bet they wouldn't.)  

[mint]

Yes, I wonder about the exact same thing expressed in your last sentence.

When we first bought our house, we didn't have enough money in our bank account to pay the insurance when we had to sign for the house at the notaire's.  Not easy to pay just a small amount in euros into our French bank account.

The insurance people said not to worry, we could pay them when we got over here and sorted out our finances.  They went ahead and issued the policy and appropriate certificate.  We were able to get a friend over here to pay the bill as we did worry about having to claim in the interim period.

But, I am now a lot more relaxed about these things (rightly or wrongly) and I just pay up whenever the demands come.

[bubbles]

We recently went into our local agents to pay our car insurance which was due for renewal the following week.

I happened to mention that I thought it was very expensive, having gone up by about 50 euros since last year (when I also thought it was very expensive for such a titchy little car and two old fogies who have never had an accident in the last 40 years).

The girl in the office said "leave it with me over the weekend. come in on Tuesday (day before renewal date).

Bingo - she came up with a different policy, same cover exactly, 70 euros cheaper.

Her words were (but in French) "That company wouldn't reduce the amount demanded so I cancelled the policy and took one out with a different company"

Tout est possible I suppose.

And there was me thinking I was stuck with the old one. Just lucky I suppose.

[woolybanana]

Last year I did the same and the lovely little blonde with the nice bum asked whether I was retired and on being given an affirmative reply, reduced the bill by over €100

[mint]

Funny, I hadn't put you down as a "bum" man myself![:P]

[woolybanana]

I was being polite!

[AnOther]

Here's a novel idea to preempt this sharp practice.

Note renewal dates on a calendar or in diary and remember them yourself in good time [Www]

With reference to another thread, if you had an iPhone you could put them in that and it would remind you [geek]

I suppose it depends in which sense 'bum' is being used sweets [:)]

[Chancer]

Regarding whether you will be covered the answer is yes.

Somer companies, notably AXA have a policy of either not sending out the renewals or printing them at the date required by the Loi Chatel (30 days before) and then hanging on to them until after the policy expires whereapon you have very little time and have to be well informed and very persistant to cancel, they rely on the fact that customers in the main dont do what ANO sensibly advocates and by not sending out the avis d'echéance most end up stuck for another year with the tacit renouvellement law.

Even if you do cancel under the loi chatel by using the postmark as the effective date in the 20 days that follow they still have you for the premium during that period.

Whether you pay or not you are still insured (unless they cancel the policy by recorded delivery) although they will of course hound you for the money, I have been playing cat and mouse with AXA, their sleazebag local agent and all thei debt recovery companies since Jan 2009 on the 3 policies that I cancelled with them, as I had already threatened to do so on this very subject, where they would not accept the cancellation despite the agent confirming in writing (but with deliberate errors of autograph) and then later denying.

I have around 50 or so letters from various debt collection agencies and some faux huissiers some of which were quite convincing but throughout that time all the policies were still operative, it was not untill April or so of this year that they wrote by recorded delivery to say that they had cancelled the contract on I think one of them, maybe two but definitely not all of them.

[NormanH]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Last year I did the same and the lovely little blonde with the nice bum asked whether I was retired and on being given an affirmative reply, reduced the bill by over €100[/quote]

I hope you knew what to do with it.

She was obviously smitten..

[mint]

Do you mean the €100 euros?  Or what?[8-)] 

[woolybanana]

That would be telling, Sweets!