Car Insurer Messed Up

[TDDD333]

Hi all,

We're with Admiral for our car insurance. They really messed up and I wanted to see what you thought would be good next steps for us.

We came to the end of our policy and our card had expired so they weren't able to take payment. I called them and updated our card details within our previous policy period. The guy on the phone said everything had gone through and that was it.

Next thing I know, we receive a letter saying that our policy had been cancelled due to not receiving payment and we owed Admiral a £65 cancellation fee, meaning we had been driving an uninsured car for 2 weeks...

I then called Admiral again and asked them what was going on. Checking back through their notes, they could see that I had called and the new card was saved on system, but for some reason manual payment was not put through.

In my mind, this is a pretty serious issue. If we had crashed the car in that period, I have no idea what would have happened. Am I over-reacting and what should I do next?

Ask them to backdate the policy start date, waive the £65 and take payment from your new card?

This.

Admiral calls are recorded (I think all
insurers are) and they are very good about putting things right. You can get transcripts of calls if you suspect they are fibbing under GDPR to prove them incorrect and their staff know this.

As far as legally is concerned, the call transcripts would have validated your cover too. Have a friend who makes such calls to insurance companies when it’s used as a defence, usually at the last minute. Mistakes happen and when courts are involved, the bigger insurance companies make sure of their facts.