To think direct debits shouldn't be able to autorenew if the amount has changed?

Sometimes it is a free tick box; but often it's done as a default with the instruction to 'just get in touch to let us know if you want to change this'.

Whatever the potential benefits to the customer of auto-renewal, companies will always want/push for it, as it then takes the power from the customer's hand and puts it firmly into theirs.

It's the exact same principle as with free trials of subscriptions, where you have to cancel if you don't want to start paying once the free period runs out. You would think that, if what they're selling is so great, people would be clamouring to sign up permanently and start paying, to avoid losing it; but virtually no companies have this confidence in the value of their product nowadays, nor the desire for customers to have made the 100% active choice to keep buying it.

It's kind of like the modern digital equivalent of the Britannia Music Club - where it's assumed that you will want to buy whatever they want to sell you, unless you let them know; although at least you don't have to go to the effort and expense of sending them your choice not to buy something from them in the post now... I bet plenty of companies would still love this to be the case, though, if they thought they could get away with it (and had mechanisms to deal with the extra admin at their end).

Personally, if ever I see a company where they have a big, simple, prominent link on their homepage saying 'click here to leave us/cancel', that tells me that A, they are a highly reputable company with integrity, that only wants customers who fully and actively consent to stay with them; and B, are probably the kind of company whose offer is strong enough that very few people do choose to leave them - at least for reasons of dissatisfaction (very different if you can no longer afford it or you're notifying them of a death etc.).

None of this 'you must phone us and then be given the ultra hard sell for us to persuade you to stay, coupled with us putting coercive obstacles in your way to prevent you from achieving your wishes'.

I can't agree it is "the work of the devil".

I shop around every year, for all my insurances (and car rescue) to make sure I am getting the best deal for me, but, should I be going through some disaster / terrible time at the point of renewal, and not be able to, I'd rather the cover still ran at an over inflated price, than I ended up with no cover.

I've been having trouble with my e-mails recently, and didn't receive my renewal proposal from my current company, but I still got both a letter in the post and a text from them to tell me it was due. Plus the renewal reminders from the comparison sites I commonly use. Plus I put a calendar reminder in for a month - 3 weeks before each renewal anyway.
Anyone choosing to not read the information the company sends them can hardly blame auto renewal, but auto renewal can be incredibly useful if you have had some emergency or terrible life event that has prevented you from doing your normal checks for whatever reason.
Auto renewal itself doesn't stop you from shopping around.

Is it not just a check box on the original contract? Do you want to autorenew Y/N?

I always clicked no when money was my primary concern. Now convenience is I tick yes..

@Fizbosshoes
A lot of people are inherently lazy and won’t bother shopping around. That’s where insurance companies make more money.

Read the direct debit guarantee, you’ve more protection with that than with a continuous card payment.

Insurance companies won’t accept standing orders.

Im intrigued how insurance works eg my car insurance quote was iirc £555 v 379 last year. Nothing has changed except me, DH and the car are a year older. I got renewal with a different insurer for about 370. When I called to cancel, the person asked if I wanted them to see if they could they could get a better price for me. Ie "dont leave" ...i said no thanks as id already set up the direct debit with the new company. But if they could do it for less (im sure they would have come back with a lower figure) where did the original renewal price come from?
If it had been eg 400, I probably would have gone with it out of laziness!

How would that work, though? For argument's sake, your last year's premium was £100. The renewal for this year comes in for £103, but your SO pays them £100 again - so you haven't paid enough to buy and enact the new policy, but you have still paid them £100 - which their accounts department may not recognise and struggle to even allocate.

I do get that a lot of people won't know what a standing order is though - it is like the cheque book - not something most people encounter every day and seems to be rarely used. My point was more that it would be a maybe yearly thing for the bank to text for each increased rate for insurance or whatever has steadily been coming out at one amount - they have the software to do this automatically. They must get thousands of calls with people complaining such and such company took more that they were meant to. So although I know there is a solution, I just think maybe it doesn't need to be a problem if they were caring more about their customers and the cost of living crisis.

Those of them who are online very probably; but there are still a lot of older folk who are not online (or who are but are not all that adventurous or confident), and so are effectively locked out of many of the best deals.

They can ask family members for help, I suppose, but they have to know about the existence of price comparison sites in the first place,and how much they can genuinely save you - or at least put you in a much better negotiating position.

Then set it up as a Standing Order where YOU control the amount going out each time.

This is a total non-problem. The solution already exists.

Again, the whole point of a direct debit is that it's for a variable amount! If you want it to be the same amount every month you need a Standing Order. But you won't be able to renew that. Or pay a variable bill like a credit card or electricity bill. Or do any of the things that a Direct Debit is actually for. Thus is completely on the OP for not reading her emails.

You can still do that with auto-renew.

I change my insurers regularly. I get the email with the new premium on (and that as a pp has pointed out, also informs me that I can shop around) and then I go to the comparison sites and the Martin Lewis site

But I still opt for auto renew, just in case I forget to renew/re-insure in time.

Auto renew is the work of the devil. Whatever insurance or other contract I sign up to the FIRST thing I do is make sure auto renew is turned off, even if it means calling the company to do so (a pain in the neck). I would rather keep track and find the cheapest year on year, (though I understand not everyone has the time or inclination to do so.)

Considering the warnings you get before you pay someone after putting all of the bank details in though, I am surprised banks don't send a text to check when a DD changes. I can't even change the reference on my DD these days without it needing me to put in everything again! You would obv still have to pay the first month but it would at least make you aware if you had things going to spam or whatever in your email.

You know it actually advises you to look around nowadays at renewal on your documents. It's an FCA requirement.

@BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows
I think it's the opposite - older consumers are far more likely to be savvy and shop around.

I always think it's telling that, if you call them to cancel or even just to express dissatisfaction with the premium increase, they can magically reduce it a lot in order to keep your custom.

It's absolute proof that they want to exploit people who don't have the time, organisation or other wherewithal to contact them. The latter will include huge numbers of elderly and vulnerable people who are ripped off - and these companies know this very well and actually design their methods around taking advantage of vulnerable customers for profit.

You hear of a lot of elderly people who have been scammed in this way by big household names - those who naively thought that they would be rewarded for sometimes decades of 'loyalty', when in fact the companies saw them as ripe for the plucking and went in full on with no mercy.

I think the gov has realised this and is trying to stop companies who hook with a minimal charge then rapidly increase charges. At least you have learned from this to keep an eye on when each contract is up and double check it will be the same ongoing or use a switch service to get a better deal. I put the end dates in my dairy now as British Gas got me about a decade ago for £660!

I'm sorry but that's still down to you. If you get an email you should read it. Not just glance at the first paragraph.

You say you were distracted and missed it. Had they not auto-renewed and just informed you that it was time to renew, presumably you'd have been distracted and missed that too. Which would have resulted in you being uninsured.

Had your pet then had an expensive medical issue or accident, I'm guessing that you'd have blamed the insurer for letting your insurance expire?

When it comes to insurance, auto-renew has an actual purpose, and it's not just to the company's advantage. It's very much to yours as well. It protects you against your own forgetfulness leading to a huge house/car/pet bill.

I think a lot of companies bank on people not reading/being too busy/too lazy to shop around for better offers.
My car insurance was due to auto renew. They sent me a renewal quote that was nearly £200 more than last year. I thought that seemed outrageous and went on a comparison site and got at least 20 quotes that were similar to last year. So just signed up with one of them and cancelled the policy.

To be fair I didnt do that with pet insurance (the renewal period is close to Christmas) but will be checking that next year

All true... however it's worth noting that a lot of companies will sign you up to auto-renew without asking you if you want that. I think they legally have to inform you, but they will TELL you that they do that - citing the reasons that you said in point 1 - rather than ASKING if you want that. I presume it's not compulsory, and you can object; but they usually present it as a done deal.

Obviously not quite the same thing, but it reminds me a bit of what led to the old PPI scandal, where banks and loan companies would often quote you a 'fully protected' price, rather than detailing all that they'd included and the extra costs - so you could make a fully informed decision - and how much less it would cost for just the actual loan repayments. You would have to proactively ask them what it included and, in some cases, be given the hard-sell and disapproving warnings if you wished to decline the extras.

@KlippityKloppity
I have just checked our renewal for our dog. It's an email advising that the renewal date is approaching (5 weeks notice). There are 5 pdfs attached - terms and conditions, renewal schedule, dates of payments if paying monthly, costs
Very clear and unambiguous.
Are you still within the 14 day cooling off period?

If you have a DD in place, the organisation must give 14 days notice minimum of a change in amount or you can reclaim the amount under the DD Guarantee Scheme as an indemnity claim.
The insurance company told you of the change. You either didn’t read it or didn’t act on it. They did nothing wrong.
If you want to cancel the policy, I’m sure you can do (unless you’ve made a claim since renewal). There may be a cancellation fee and they’d apportion the account so you only pay for the days used.

Exactly that. Home and car insurance premiums ALWAYS change annually. It's a fact of life. You have a choice of risks:

1. You pay annually and risk forgetting to renew. The consequences could be huge. Remember you'd also be driving without insurance, which is illegal.
2. You tick auto-renew and risk not noticing the change in premium. Annoying, but you can always cancel and insure with someone else