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

Mmm I think it's made pretty clear

Not always as clear as it should be, though, when they make you sign in and follow several links before you get to the price.

Yes, a DD is designed for flexibility; but I think it's highly disreputable for companies to just state a new figure that's twice as much as it was before without even any attempt at explaining or justifying the increase. Absolutely fair enough if the price is based on how many units you use/order and the price has doubled because you've used twice as much; but not for things like insurance - especially considering that the vast majority of people have no dealings whatsoever with the insurer except for when they pay each year, and don't ever see anything tangible for their money.

In fact, I always think that online reviews for insurers are largely worthless, as very few people will ever actually know how good or bad they are when you really need them. Great if people who had to claim can relate their experiences to others; but most reviews will be from people who don't really have anything pertinent to add when push comes to shove, other than "The lady on the phone was friendly and my payment went through OK"!

I had to look this up as I didn't know what you were on about but what he's doing isn't the same as OP said at all

So why are you bringing that into this?

How interesting! Burnham is going to deal with this exact scenario funnily enough! What a coincidence there’s a thread on MN about it.

All hail the king of the north!

It is made clear when and how much though isn't it

It nneds to be made clear when and how much, how can you contract with someone when you dont understand the terms

If I don't want to accept auto increases, I usually pay up front instead of monthly, then hunt around at the end of the year. Of course, that requires more admin / headspace effort really so probably not a useful strategy to a v busy person!

What is disgusting?
The OP was notified but decided (for whatever reason) to ignore the email.
How many emails (or letters) is a company meant to send out to advise of a change in premium and what of the people who check all correspondence, they would be complaining of information overload?

It’s not unreasonable for @KlippityKloppity to have failed to properly read the renewal details when concerned about other things.

But it is unreasonable to blame the direct debit process when you have a contract that includes auto renewal via their renewal notification email which you did not read properly

They told her in the email, though? Doubling the price is shit, yes. But OP was only 'caught out' because she assumed it would be the same price without making sure.

I dint think that’s what happened though. It will say in the contract that the price can vary. Get one that doesn’t auto renew or opt out of auto renewing.

If they couldn't change, they wouldn't work for mortgages, utilities etc.

Do you really want your mortgage to default because you missed an email?

I pay my gas and electric on an "as you go" basis, so it's different every month. Other than manually (which costs more because they give a DD discount) there's no other way to pay it.

You can still cancel it. With DDs you can do an indemnity claim with your bank and claim all the money back. You have 14 days to canx a new insurance policy if its within that they can't even charge you a canx fee. Ring them and discuss if over 14 days you may have a canx fee but it is likely way cheaper than double premium and shop for a new one.

I deliberately set insurance to auto-renew because I don't want to be left without cover if I accidently miss a renewal email (or a postal letter doesn't arrive in time). Paying more because you miss the email and don't shop around is much better than finding you need to claim but your policy has lapsed, especially with house insurance which can be a massive claim.

Insurance companies won't take payment by standing order, the risk of non-payment is too high and then the policy will be void.

DD arrangements are built for flexibility.
If you don’t want them to be able to change the amount make it a Standing Order instead.

"Caught out" by what? Not reading an important email properly?

Indeed. When we got the renewal email from Petplan, it had increased by about 30% since last year (despite no claims for this dog, ever).

We shopped around and found a similat policy for less than half the renewal amount, so cancelled Petplen.

I'm sorry, OP, but you have to read the details when insurance renewal emails arrive - the only one ever likely to go down is car insurance on an ageing car (my partner's just did!).

What’s the alternative? Cancel the cover of people who bought and authorized auto-renewing insurance, just in case they didn’t mean it?

It's usually easy and quick enough to cancel. I had an email from Octopus saying they were planning on increasing my DD next month, despite me being £1k in credit with them. I thought not a chance and it took me a minute to change the amount online.

I'd rather it auto renew and I just make a note to check my e-mails once a year to check the new premium amount than risk driving around with no car insurance or finding out my dog's insurance has lapsed.

I think this is disgusting, how many others have been caught out by this, dreadful.

Absolutely this. A repeating payment for the same amount is a standing order. You are free to cancel.

I think auto-renew DDS can be a double-edged sword. Of course it's good to have the peace of mind and one fewer admin thing to worry about - which is what the companies stress when they urge you to have them; but equally it's a huge temptation to disreputable companies to jack the price up sky high - and effectively help themselves to as much of your money as they want - in the hope that you won't notice in advance, or will be too busy to spot it until it's been collected.

Not all companies go out of their way to make it clear what the increase is, though - they will often bury across-the-board increases in their websites and expect you to think to look and see it; or they will send you a link to your new proposed policy renewal, where you have to sign in (with a forgotten password that you haven't used for a year or more) and maybe additional security/authentication steps (just to make sure that some crook isn't paying your bill for you!!)

Yes, they are doing it 'by the book'; but they are obviously banking on customer confusion, busyness or other lack of full transparency to get an amount from you by default that you very likely wouldn't actively hand over without any quibble.

Then again, if your regular payments go up by 2%, many people wouldn't welcome being bothered by being told they have to authorise it first and maybe risk their cover/service lapsing. It doesn't help that a lot of companies bombard you with regular rubbish email 'updates' and baked-potato 'advice', so their very few important emails can easily get buried, as you get used to the mindset that emails from them are just ones to ignore.