RAC breakdown cover cancellation fee

[cadburyegg]

I used to pay for RAC breakdown cover by yearly direct debit but my card details expired and I forgot to change the details, so the renewal was cancelled. I’ve since had a letter from them that I owe them £62.46. I don’t understand why I have been charged a cancellation fee when I had already paid for the full 12 month period. I have called them today and they said the only way they could remove the charge was for me to say that I am experiencing financial difficulties so I had to say that. I kept being asked why I didn’t want to pay.

It’s ridiculous. I have never been charged for not renewing a policy which is essentially what happened even though they consider it “cancelled”. Has anyone else experienced this?

That’s standard for things that automatically renew.

absolute disgrace . cancelled within 24 hours , there was no mention of cancellation fee or admin fee to cancel . when told we wd be charged for cancelling even tho less than 24 hours i asked where did it tell me about cancellation fee . was told its in the paperwork that comes by post that has not been sent out yet !! so meant ti gave a crystal ball ?! told if didn’t pay wd affect my c/rating :spoke to manager who sd there wd be an investigation . told him wd make sure potential wd know about this scam customers 30 mins into call manager hung up cos he knew was 100% in wrong . reason all financial institutes ave to refund because did not inform of charges in advance . rac absolute disgrace customer service / care poorest ever experienced zero stars for this lot