Car insurance was cancelled without my knowledge

[pelican8000]

I changed my bank account details and emailed my car insurer the new details and they acknowledged the changes in an email back to me.

Today I was stopped by the police and issued a FPN for having no insurance. Turns out that my insurers cancelled my policy as I did not reply to two letters they sent me in the post. I have been on holiday for a while and have been working in London, so was not aware they had written to me.

I asked them why they did not email me. Their just stated that this is their procedure. Really unhelpful.

Has anybody else had this problem? Is there anything I can do now to clear myself?

Thank you.

[pelican8000]

Yes, the website is askmid.com. My friend in work told me to check it this morning after I got into work.

[VHG]

>>>>Car insurance was cancelled without my knowledge

Not quite true.

What you should have said was "Car insurance cancelled because I did not bother to read the two letters the insurance company sent to me, nor did I bother to check if the direct debit was going out of my bank.

That is more accurate.

[factor-fiction]

Hi pelican8000.
In your post you said "they acknowledged the changes in an email back to me"
I was wondering exactly what they said. Did they just say " thanks for your email, we'll be in touch" or did they give a clear indication that they had acted upon your instructions and changed the direct debit?
If the latter then you may try to make a complaint to the insurer.

[pelican8000]

Yes, they emailed me back to confirm they had received my nstructions and had changed the bank details on my policy.

[Skyline D]

Yeah, I would complain to the insurer in this case and the Ombudsman if necessary. I think you have a reasonable case of believing you'd done everything necessary. If you were away from home and didn't see the letters (rather than ignored them) then you can't really be blamed for not responding to them. Regardless of policy, given they obviously had your email on file, it doesn't seem very reasonable that they didn't try to use it to contact you before they cancelled.

As for the FPN, if you've already paid it then I imagine that's done. If not, I think you should take legal advice. I suspect that in this case there may be grounds for a reasonable belief that you were insured defence.

[factor-fiction]

I was wondering whetr there had been any progress on this, pelican8000.

[cathfromsaron]

if you were uninsured - however caused - you should meekly accept a FPN and be glad you haven't killed anyone! but then kick up a big stink with the company!

[Skyline D]

"if you were uninsured - however caused - you should meekly accept a FPN and be glad you haven't killed anyone! "
He should be glad he hasn't killed anyone regardless of how insured he is, As should we all. What a ridiculous thing to say.

And no, he shouldn't meekly accept it, he should challenge it on the basis he had no reasonable cause to suspect he was uninsured.