Renew Insurance
If you are thinking of using Renew Insurance then you need to read this experience and consider carefully whether it is the right thing to do as my experience with them has been terrible.
Renew Insurance are part of Hastings Insurance Services Limited so I had hoped that using Renew and them being backed by Hastings would somehow give me some comfort but I was very wrong.
Here is an update for Renew Insurance – I have had a few people now tell me they had chosen NOT to get insurance with Renew Insurance (Part of the Hastings Group) due to a loss of confidence after reading about my experience.
They have had the nerve to ask me to contact their office to confirm my credit card details becuase they want to refund my £16!!! So they are keeping £100 for the dubious privilage of paying my insurance to them upfront!! The leter says quote – “Don’t forget we are here to help” what it should say is “Don’t forget we are here to rub salt into the wound we created” well they can keep the £16 quid and I will continue to publish bad press which is starting to roll in nicely, in fact once I start to push Facebook and Twitter the negative feedback should escalate just like it did with Capstone Mortgages.
Here is my ’slap in the face’ letter from renew Insurance and the rest of the sorry story is below.
Renew Insurance - Actually Do Not Renew!
My insurance on my Suzuki GSX-R 750 was due on 1.3.2011 and Renew Insurance offered me a renewal at £102 so and 0n 22 Feb I paid in full for the year with the policy to start on 1st March. I have a number of bikes and this particular bike was only in its second year of ownership by me so I only had 1 years no claims bonus.
A few days later I had a letter from Renew Insurance saying I needed to produce proof of 1 years no claims bonus, I did not have this as I had renewed with a different company and so a few days later I wrote to me previous company to get them to send me proof through.
Renew Insurance then started my policy on 1st March and sent me a further letter requesting my paltry 1 years no claims proof, the effect of 1 years no claims on a policy that cost me just £102 is very insignificant and I would of been happy to just pay the extra had I known what was in store.
It took 4 weeks and two requests to get my no claims proof from the previous insurance company and when I contacted Renew Insurance to send it in I was told my policy was cancelled. I spoke to a very arrogant man who stated that it was 7 weeks since the policy started and that was long enough to get the proof in.
I said to him I paid to renew my insurance early and that the policy did not start until March 1st so he then said well a month is plenty of time – Well a month is not plenty of time if your previous insurer does not send it to you promptly!
This means that you are at risk of insurance companies cancelling your policy due to each others incompetence and that hardly seems fair.
Renew Insurance told me that even though I now had confirmation of my no claims bonus the policy was cancelled, I said why not just charge me the extra £10 for a premium without a years no claims bonus they said no, I said to them I had paid in full nearly two weeks before my insurance was even due to start, still no mitigation.
In the end I had to concede that my years Insurance that I was just over a month into had been cancelled because another company failed to give me proof of no claims and even though I paid in full and early there were no mitigating circumstances, even though I now had the proof it was no go, I could perhaps understand it if I had gained a few hundred quid by claiming several years no claims discount but all this for a tenner!!
Now here comes the bit that starts to make sense of it -
Renew Insurance had my money, they had the full years premium and they had it nearly two weeks early.
When I now ask for my refund they tell me that even though I am just into my second month my refund from £102 is just £16… yes Sixteen quid!!
Now it all falls into place, they have my money, they have cancelled my insurance and they are virtually refunding nothing, Renew Insurance tell me its because of the cancellation fee, they are charging me so they can cancel my insurance!!
What it really means is that renew now have a years premium and no risk of a claim because there is no policy and therefore no risk.
I can now understand the business model – take the money – cancel the insurance – make profits as there will be no risk and therefore no claim!
Thanks for that Renew Insurance – So the moral here is do not let yourself be exposed to Renew Insurance in the first place and if you get insurance elsewhere make sure you do not pay it all up front and consider the safety of direct debit and instalments since this would mean I still had my money and I bet Renew Insurance would not be so keen to cancel then!!
This article will appear very high in Google search as its what I do for a living and so there is no doubt in the end I will get my pound of flesh as people factor how I was treated into their buying decisions. Secondly it means that having a name like Hastings Insurance Services Limited will not give you any added comfort.
HI Shaun
I have just got back months in China to find that Renew had cancelled my motor policy about 3 weeks after I left the country.
If you read their terms and conditions you wil lsee that in section 6 they clearly describe themselves as carrying out the services as a insurance broker. The law of agency will therefore apply to the broker client relationship and they are bound by Fiduciary Duty There is some information regarding fiduciary duty here
http://www.trustees.org.uk/review-index/Fiduciarity-What-are-the-dangers-and-can-you-avoid-them.php. and here http://www.out-law.com/page-8927 and here http://fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/ICOBS/4/3
I plan to bring an action or threaten to do so for breach of fiuciary duty in as much as they have a cancelation policy which in most instances produces a fee income for them which is greater than the introductory commission they stand to get from the insurer, a straight forward conflict of interest. I would allso hold that as my agent they stand in my shoes and can only as brokers cancel the policy at my request or deal with a cancelation requested specificaly by the insurer, in which case I can see that the insurers cancelation fee would be payable to the insurer and not the broker.
They further incriminate themselves in the wording of their letter of cancelation to the client mine begins ” We are authorised to act as your insurer’s agent for the purposes of cancelling insurance cover”
At the outset of the transaction they became my agent and can not act in this capacity for the insurer without my knowledge and consent.
As an aside if they were allowed to act as an agent of the insurer in the cancelation process then their fee arrising for work done should be paid by the insurer and not the client anyway..
I will be firing my first shot at them in the next few days and will also contact the FSA, the more peopld who bring this company to the attention of the FSA the more likely they are to be investigated so perhaps you couls make that point on your blog
Good luck
Brian
Im new to all this car insurenace business, ive been with my current insurer for 2 year and i was going to move to Renew but after reading the above i wont bother!!
Thanks
Thanks for that I have my RSV insured with them and I was about to insure the Girlfriends YZF R6..i Will look elsewhere for hers and won’t renew my own when its due..they should give you your money back and deserve to lose our custom..swinton aren’t much better so beware
i am in the process off being charged £180 “cancellation” fee because i wanted to transfer my insurance to a car from a van which i am told is a commercial vehicle( inspite of the fact that i only used it in the same way as i would a car ,social,domestic and pleasure ) and the £180 increases to £245 if i don’t re-insure the car with them because they are willing to waive their cancellation fee for staying with them !!! . i will drag my feet and resist paying this for as long as i can but unfortunately i fear they have me by the proverbials because i didn’t read the “small print” , unfortunately the hubble telescope was not available that day so i couldn’t read it ………highway robbery is what it is
renew want to charge me 35.00 for a replacement certificate what a rip off
Hi There, I am glad you found my blog informative, I never did get my money back and despite pretending to make an effort to resolve it Renew Insurance never actually spoke to me. I will leave this blog in place so other people who have had an unfortunate experience can share it too, if they ever bothered to contact me and resolve the problem I would be the first person to publish the facts in a more positive light but I guess they are just not bothered.
hm im due for renewel soon and im with renew!!! luckily i havent had a problem yet!! i will not be renewing with them and i will be informing them the reason is due to your blog! ill even happily pass them the link to this page lmao!!!!
I am amazed that Renew did not give you your money back, it todays marketplace with insurance being so competitive a customer who pays his premium in one go should be a valued customer. I don’t blame you for outing them and I hope they lose a lot of business.
Hi Shaun
I know what you mean about a bitter taste from Renew cheap car insurance, or even Hastings with their competitive insurance quotes. The cheap car insurance companies, like Renew, are taking us for mugs. There are so many conditions attached to these cheap insurance quotes, such as £35 change of detail fees or higher excess (including high excess on glass cover whether it is replace or repair) that they are not really cheap insurance at all.
I have decided to stay with my present insurance company, who are quoting £60 more for a combined policy for both vehicles but with a lower excess and a much lower charge for amending the policy unlike the likes of Renew and Hastings.
The £60 I could save on the cheaper insurance premium would be lost on just one claim for a windscreen for one vehicle!
A cheap car insurance quote isn’t aways the cheapest. In the same way that making excessive admin charges, like Renew car insurance, is not the best way forward for a company.
SEO rules
Kind regards
Ray
Hi Ray, Glad you saw the post, at the end of the day I never got my money back, the new manager at Renew Insurance lied about sorting it out, Renew lied about looking after me as a disgruntled customer and I will never use Hastings Insurance either because Hastings insurance are the parent company. I think the fact that they ripped me off was bad enough but the deception in pretending to address what was a very real and unfair treatment of a paying customer leaves a very bitter taste. I do not know if Hastings treat their customers this way at the main Insurance business but I will never be going there to find out, I now have 4 children all on the road with motorbikes and 2 cars and none of them will use Hastings Insurance or Renew Insurance so the bit they ripped from me is costing them far more than sorting out my problem would.
Hi Shaun
Thanks for publishing this, I’m just looking at a quote from them, and Hastings, for two vehicles. Like you I thought oh Hastings, can’t be all bad then, but having seen your comments and the others, especially a £35 change of policy details fee I don’t think I’ll be bothering now!
My current insurer charges £15 for change of details which seems about average.
On a brighter note, keep up the fight!
I had a similar dispute with a car dealer a few years back. It took about 5 years for them to come to their senses but it the end refunded my original deposit and paid for 5 years webhosting, site design and development and some legal fees which resulted from one of their earlier, heavy-handed, approaches.
Good luck
Interesting reading. I will point out that contracts have to be reasonable in the eyes of the law. What is being said is not reasonable and I implore you all to take legal action through the small claims court for this disgusting treatment by this insurance company. The bank didn’t get away with the bank charges so why should they.
Thanks for your post on Renew Insurance, I still have not had a return call from their new manager and I never got my money back so I guess there is a policy of doing this and making lots of money out of admin charges.
Glad I`ve read your experience with RENEW was going to take out car insurance with them as its due soon not now though.
Lots of people are faced with this issue. There was no reason why renew insurance couldn’t have contacted your previous insurance company to ascertain the one year’s no claims. This has some very serious implications – very worrying. It’s time for insurance companies to grow up and see sense rather than grab every last pound and penny for reasons given that make little sense. I have just switched insurance companies and face the same issue. Guess what, it will apparently take 7 to 10 days for previous insurance company to send no claims doc through! Why so long? And new insurance company want proof within 7 days!!! – insurance companies need to wake and grow up big time. You shouldn’t be allowed to mess with people this way…
Well Helen i have more bad news because I was contacted by the new marketing director at Hastings Insurance about 1 month back. I missed his call but then returned it and called twice further.
His answerphone message at the start said that he wanted to resolve my issue but then he went awol despite me calling him and leaving messages.
This now means that I will do a second blog about this director at hastings Insurance bacause at the end of the day I belived for a moment that i would get some justice from Renew Insurance.
So all it has done is complete and compound my disatisfaction with Renew Insurance and their poor stance towards innocent consumers and furthermore it reflects this with the senior management people who are also insincere.
I have had ten other posts that I did not publish as they were too emotive but what I might do now is contact these people and ask them to write again with less venom so I can publish this dissatisfaction.
Luckily for renew I have been busy lately but now I am again on the warpath against the general ripping off of the concumer by large organisations.
I wish id seen this site before, am finding it interesting that the t##t at renew insurance i spoke to on the phone doesnt appear to be an isolated twat.
renew charged me £35 for me to notify them of a change of address…now im not sure if this is normal or not for insurance companies but when i questioned it with him, he told me it was to cover the cost of the call…but i said its a premium rate number and iv been on hold 15 minutes – i called you!!! He replied…’its to pay my wages’… nob.
Did you get anywhere with renew??
Please update as i am considering whether to renew my policy with them but you seem to have had a bad experience so I may move onto another insurance company.
please update us/
R
I was with Hastings and had been with them for over 3 years.
In May my direct debit bounced as my salary went in late with the bank holidays and to make matters worse I was away ofr a few weeks.
When I returned home I had a few letters from Hastings and this is what had happened in my abcence. On the 5th May Hasting had been informed by my bank that the direct debit had failed, they then for som emad and unknown reason, CANCELLED my direct debit and tryed to take the months payment useing my credit card,,,,, I used my credit card over a year ago with them to make a one off payment, they have kept ALL of my credit card details on their system without my permission knowledge!!!. So they have the ability to use it and dip their fingers into my account as and when they wish.
As you can imagine that is the most area of concern for me and I bet most of their customers don`t know about that, shocking. But my card had been replaced since then so the details had changed so that didn`t work for them,,, but when did they cancel the direct debit so soon if they planned to take a payment anyways, it would of made more sense to use the direct debit which was the official way of getting my monthly payments.
So they sent me a leeter on the 10th giveing me till the 18th to resolve the problem otherwise they would cancel.
I returned home on the 20th and kept trying to ring them, but was always on hold over 50 mins at a time so my cordless phone would go flat, I got throught to them and they said that they had just cancelled my insurance less that 24 hours before hand and even though I only had 2 months left before my policy was due for renewal they was requesting £79 from me which would be more than the amount remaining for this year but they wasn`t going to restart the policy hahahaha.
They kept saying to me look at the small print and that was it they have been no help what so ever, I made a complaint by email and after 2 weeks now I hadn`t heared anything from them, so I rang them and they admitted that they have that many complaints they have a back log, I got a letter this morning confirming they have my complaint and it can take up to 28 days.
By the time they get around to it my policy would be due for renewal anyways, Mad.
They haven`t sent me my prove of no claims with any of the corespondence and haven`t replyed to my request so I can not insure my car with a nother company (I have over 8 years N.C) so it is significant. I have found out that there was an FSA fine in 2008 £758,000 for the same thing and they obviously haven`t learnt.
My advise to anybody thinking of going with Hastings or and subsidiary, DON`T.
Renew Insurance could give you a real problem if you factor in the new powers the DVLA have now that ministers are granting the right to crush uninsured vehicles. With the way the police work and the sheer level of incompetence with the police force you could renew your insurance legitimately only to find it cancelled whilst you were away and your car or bike crushed in your absence all because of some administration jerk and the Renew Insurance cancellation doctrine.
Renew Insurance didnt help me at all and I lost my money too, why would they charge a person for cancellation when they cancel and you do not want them too, Renew Insurance are charging you for their over zealous administration – go elsewhere for your insurance.
Renew Insurance did the same to me, I had renewed my bike insurance and then they claimed i didn’t send them my no claims but I never had a request, it went to the wrong address and yet they still cancelled my insurance, the first I knew was when I got a cancellation letter.
renew insurance seem to have a policy of cancelling quickly and keeping most of your money, my worry is that what would they be like if they had to pay out on a claim, they quote terms and conditions.
Renew your insurance with somebody else!!