The premium does not change the terms and conditions of the policy. It changes the amount you are paying for the same cover. Any amendments to the terms and conditions of your policy will have been sent directly to you with a letter stating that if you do not agree with the new terms and conditions then you are within your right to cancel the agreement. A renewal price is a price given for a new time period (1 year) under the terms and conditions you have agreed to by either not cancelling your policy if the term and conditions chnaged or not wanting to continue with the renewal price.

My animals are all insured through one olicy and have been for four years. I have read the renewal price every single time, agreed to it and the Ts&Cs and just let the direct debit amount change. If the Ts&Cs for any of my insurance policies from pets to house to valuable individual itmes then I always receive the new Ts&Cs and have the option to cancel if I don't agree with them.

Unless they are bit of a one man band wheeler dealer circus show then they will be part of the ABI and if they are then they HAVE to follow stringent policy law and terms or the ABI come down ont hem like a ton of bricks and can shut them down.

It is not down tot he insuranc company to manage your financies and direct debits, they send you the information they are required to inform you about by government and trade law and if they do not receive notification from you to state otherwise they will continue the insurance.

What if you were driving, forgot to renew your insurance and got pulled by the police or even worse hit something/someone?
If the insurance company sends you notification fo renewal and does not hear anything back from you to state otherwise then they will continue the policy becasue if they were to cancel it due to non-notificaion of renewal from yourself and soemthing happened to you or whatever was supposed to be insured then they would be shafted good and proper by you, the trading standards, ABI, underwriters and their share holders.

If premium increases provided sent renewal notice you don't have to agree, by not contacting to say no don't want that you have agreed? Presumably monthly premiums so it must have gone on for a while to take £500 in which case will say its up to you to have checked your bank statemetns afraid

How much have you paid in vets bills, if you have cover then should be able to claim it back.

This sounds like how it works with the pet insurance I have, if I pay monthly by direct debit then when it's time for it to be renewed it will happen automatically. If I pay in one lump sum then I will have to phone up to renew. This is clearly stated in the paperwork I got when I first took the insurance out.

How much have you paid in vets bills, if you have cover then should be able to claim it back.


With my insurers (not sure whether they all work the same) you can only make a claim within 3 months of the vets visit! So if you have had any big vet bills within the last 3 months you should be able to make a claim.

I have to agree with what others are saying on here. I pay my pet insuracne by monthly direct debit and over the years have used several different insurance companies - and each and every one has operated in the same way. When the insurance is up for renewal, they write to tell you what the new premiums will be and what the new terms and conditions will be. Without exception, they always say to do nothing if you want to continue, but to contact them if you do not agree with the new premiums/terms and conditions. Over the years, I have done both - sometimes I have continued, but sometimes I have cancelled because better deals were available elsewhere.

I wish you luck with trying to get a solicitor involved but I really don't think you have a leg to stand on - unless of course you told them you wanted to cancel the policy and they have ignored your instruction. If you did not tell them you wanted to cancel the policy then that, in effect, is your agreement to the new terms/conditions/premiums and the company would have been well within their rights to continue to take the premiums out of your account.

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Bergies and borders - what more could anyone want? Siamese and maine coons, of course!

From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,
Moves on, nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
(But you can always edit your post, of course )

And, thats why you pay by direct debit because it allows various amounts to be collected on demand of the payee. If you paid by standing order that cannot be increased, you have to do a new standing order.

Even if you phoned to say cancel but they carried on collecting in error you may still struggle by allowing it to carry on paying for so long

i do have insurance because i had this problem in the past and also have tried to claim in the past when one of my cats was hit by a car but they said it was our fault and wouldn't pay out but it wasn't, so now i put money away each week just in case, i have more than enough to cover hip replacments/car accidents etc so i know that it will get aid

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What about public liability cover if your pet causes an injury to a member of the public? In this day and age you'd better have well over £50K put away as they will go litigation capital on your behind.

it's been going for 2 years (and i realised this only today, silly me) and not monthly it was a one off for the whole year and not even the insurance for life scheme...(that would make sense to me)
in my defense i can only say that i have been in and out of the country these last few years + change of circumstances etc etc ... the renewal post have been mixed up with advertisements they sent (i think)... even if i was sure that i cancelled it when they propose me extortionate premium to insure the whole pack....hence i did a dogs' fund that i have been using in emergencies (not there have been many...but any emergency with my girls costs a fortune given their size: 4 girls ranging from 56kg to 74kg)

how much i paid in vet costs? the first time round 1k for my big mama was attacked and had a bad infection even if she was visited soon after the fact and the second time a bloat operation 750 (the big mama is getting a bit on...and got caught by bloat) both times paid from the fund... the 1k is now not refundable by the insurance because it's been over 1 year and for the operation i am getting the money back because my girl was in the care of another person (insured also against these kind of events).
and in any case that is not really the point...

so sorry if i stated something so obvious to most of you...i think this is really dodgy practice, it's only fair that if one takes insurance for one year then the insurance needs ones approval to renew it (as i said above everything else i have got insured - even the laptop - works this way by law)
anyway....will wait a few days, just to understand a bit more...we'll see...

edited just to add: for public liability i will take my chances, if accidents happens on mine - or on other folks's premises, fields etc where i take them - then they are fully covered by the policies in place, while in public places they are always on the lead. though this country is following on the "litigation culture" footsteps of the States, i believe that being reasonable in cases of accidents still is currently the mainstream way of thinking...so i hope i will not have to incur in 50k litigations....