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

[KlippityKloppity]

I have pet insurance. I got the email last month saying it was auto renewing. Fair enough. I was in an insanely stressful time at work so saw the email and thought "sure, fine" expecting it to renew as it always does.
Except now on closer inspection I realise it has fucking DOUBLED (and ive made zero claims since I took it out 3 years ago).
Okay, fine: they sent me an email giving me a headsup. But AIBU to think thats not fucking good enough? I had no reason to suspect they would randomly hike up my premiums like that.
Now I cant change anything im locked into it for a year and I just think its disgusting because I cant afford that price jump 😩 I think its really dishonest

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.

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.

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.

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

In case anyone is reading and wondering: I cancelled with immediate effect and took out new insurance for way more coverage for less than half the price

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?

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!

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

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

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!

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?

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"!

Mmm I think it's made pretty clear

I dont. The email came in at 6am and all it said in the first screen is the insurance is renewing. Its only when you scroll down you realise it has doubled. If ive made zero claims before why would i have any reason to suspect a 100% increase on price? Anyway they let me cancel with a refund with zero fuss which suggests to me they know damn well it may be perfectly legal but legal is not the same as moral

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

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.

@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?

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.

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

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 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 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.

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

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

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.