Car Insurance Cancelled without Notice

LCranberry on 13/10/2023 - 01:01

My comprehensive car insurance was setup with automatic renewals, which is listed in the policy document. I didn't realise but it didn't automatically renew because of my credit card number change. I didn't receive any notice that my insurance policy was cancelled or about to be cancelled. I only realised when I looked up my policy online and it's no longer there. I usually receive emails from them and received no communication by email or mail.

When I googled online it seems like there are some rights where a insurance company has to notify you before cancelling but I couldn't find more information. Does anyone know more about this? It's been more than 6 months since it didn't renew. I need to make a claim. It's my fault for not looking into it myself but just wanted to see if there are any obligations on the insurer's end to notify me.

Automotive Car Insurance Insurance

Comments

  • hasher22 on 13/10/2023 - 01:35
    +2

    Read your PDS, the answer might be there in terms of cancelation and their policy on dealing with non-payments. But there are laws surrounding when a company can cancel your insurance.

    Example from Insurance Council: https://insurancecouncil.com.au/resource/q-under-what-circum…

    • A: The insurer may only cancel your policy in certain circumstances, for example:
      You fail to pay your monthly premium instalments and the payment remains outstanding for at least one month

    AFCA, The AFCA Approach to cancellation of insurance policies for non-payment of premiums : https://www.afca.org.au/media/1145/download#:~:text=A%20noti….

    • An insurer must give notice in writing of any proposed cancellation. This notice should clearly set out the insurer’s intention to cancel the policy.

    • Insurers sometimes provide the insured with a final opportunity to pay the premium in the section 59 notice. This may not comply with section 59.

    Which leads to section 59 and section 62 of the INSURANCE CONTRACTS ACT 1984.

    Speculation and conclusion: Call your insurer and ask them how they sent the cancellation letter, if they say they didn't send one, you may have a very good case of them enabling your insurance back and you can pay 6 months worth of premiums then make your insurance claim. If they don't budge, go to the ombudsman.

    But if they did send you a letter of cancellation (whatever form, e-mail, mail etc…) then you will have a tougher battle.

  • Cranberry on 13/10/2023 - 06:10

    Thank you so much, this is really helpful!
    I will find out and see if they believe they sent a cancellation letter or not and go from there. I don't believe I got one in the mail and couldn't find any correspondence by email either.

  • EightImmortals on 13/10/2023 - 08:17
    +1

    "I only realised when I looked up my policy online and it's no longer there."

    So you didn't notice the premium not coming out of your CC?
    Pretty strange they didn't send you some kind of failed payment notice?

  • Muzeeb on 13/10/2023 - 08:22
    +1

    My daughter recently got a new card that her direct debits came out of. She said she got both an email and SMS from RACV that the direct debit failed and she needs to update her details or her policy will expire at midnight on xx/xx/2023.

  • Ocker on 13/10/2023 - 08:24
    +6

    Look on the positive side - you have saved 6 months premiums.

    • bobbified on 13/10/2023 - 10:49

      Not anymore - OP is looking to make a claim. If they accept his claim (ie agree to cover him for the past 6 months), they'll deduct what he's "saved" from whatever payment they'll make. The premium for the remaining period also gets deducted.

      • Seraphin7 on 13/10/2023 - 11:38
        +1

        It's a very generous insurance company that will overlook the cancellation of your policy six months prior..

        • bobbified on 13/10/2023 - 11:47

          It's definitely not their "generosity"… that word and insurance companies does not go together.

          They have to look at whether or not they've met their obligations (ie, issue the relevant correspondence, etc.) set out in accordance with the industry rules and make an educated decision around how likely they are to "win" if it went to AFCA. Nothing to do with how nice they are. haha

          • Seraphin7 on 13/10/2023 - 11:49
            +1

            @bobbified: Yes, indeed, if they've have erred then reinstating the policy may the requirement.

            If they've not, I can't see them overlooking six months of non-payment.

  • try2bhelpful on 13/10/2023 - 08:41

    The trouble is it might’ve ended up in your spam folder. However, I would expect they would send you a snail mail letter. Ring them to discuss and best of luck.

  • GordonD on 13/10/2023 - 09:11

    I just had a similarly stupid screwup of a situation.

    Tried to do a transanction that involved by credit card being charged. It was denied. Repeatedly.

    After wasting 2 hours trying to find out why, it turned out that the card was due for renewal by the end of next month. So Visa had pre-notified PayPal of the new card's expiry date, PayPal updated their records immediately, then tried to do a transaction with the new expiry date, and Visa denied it because the expiry date didn't match the current card which at that point in time was still the current card.

    The "apology" I got was "yes, we've noticed that sometimes happens".

    • azero on 13/10/2023 - 09:57

      ah.. that is how my cards keep working google pay even after the expiry. I noticed that g pay continued to work although I did not update the old card after receiving the new one0

      So then what is the purpose of the expiry it if gets auto updated ??

  • deme on 13/10/2023 - 15:06

    OP use this opportunity to check all your other insurance too

  • miwahni on 14/10/2023 - 01:20
    -1

    Mate they didn't cancel your insurance, it expired. Bit of a difference there. All the same I'd have expected an email at least to say that the payment method failed at renewal. Have you changed your email address?

  • avoidfullprice on 14/10/2023 - 14:37
    -1

    It happened to me once (in over a decade) where I didn’t get an email from NRMA about renewal. I called up to renew before it expired and asked about missing renewal. The lady on the phone was like “our system said we sent you renewal to [email protected] on <this exact date>”, and i said you having sent an email doesn’t mean shit if I haven’t received it. I got renewal the following years. 🤷

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