Thetownend.com

My insurance company automatically renewed by policy without notification stating what the new premium was. 5 days after it started I noticed the premium had gone up by 150%. I phoned to cancel.

I have now received a threatening letter for £74.78 for 5 days cover and cancellation charge.

Is there not a 14 day cooling off period for renewals and how can they charge over €40 for 5 days cover?

A lot of companies now do a paperless renewal. They email you before renewal date.

Did you not receive an email? How did you receive previous documents?

All email. But previous companies have always sent a letter stating the new premium. The email I received from Dial Direct didn't mention the new premium and it took some digging when I logged in to find out that it had risen from £19 a month to £46.

My insurance company (when I had some.... (got company car now) used to send me my renewal in the post 1 month before it renewed but some also email you as well. If you received nothing I would tell them to take a hike.

I bet you received a renewal email.

Won't help you now but you can opt out of this 'service.'

You would have got a renewal notice because you need it to carry your no claims proof over.  What they may have done is e-mail the notification and stored the documents in your online account.

It's this.

Ironically if you don't open your email they will send you a printed version of your offer.
I'm surprised the email didn't make mention of the offer price, they normally do

I've sorted it. Got them to knock £25 off - which is what they charged to send me a threatening letter!

£11 for 5 days cover which was fair enough and a whopping £38 admin charge for cancelling the policy.

Still a bunch of cnuts - that was my drinking budget for tomorrow's game!