Beware the incompetence of Bennetts admin...
After being insured with Bennetts for two years, I received a renewal letter from them a few weeks before the policy was due for the third years renewal. The letter was one of those "the insurance will automatically renew if you don't cancel" things. This prompted me to phone around for other quotes. By far the best quote that I had was from Ducati Insurance who quoted me £105 less than Bennetts for the same level of cover, legal cover, breakdown assistance, 3rd party insurance on any other bike and the same excess as Bennetts. So, I paid Ducati Insurance there and then using my switch card.
So, a week before my renewal was due with Bennetts, all I had left to do was phone them and cancell the renewal...and went through all the rigmarole of telling them how much I'd been quoted, and by whom, to see if they could match it - they couldn't, so I still cancelled.
A week later, I got another letter from Bennetts credit agency (Amber Credit) to say that they wanted to set up a direct debit for the credit agreement that had been set up for me with Bennetts for the renewal of my insurance
So I phoned Bennetts again and told them, once again, that I had cancelled my renewal the week before and I was now insured with somebody else. The call centre guy told me that the cancellation didn't appear to have been made after my first call, but assured me that he was cancelling it as we spoke, and that I had no further obligation. Except of course it was down to me to also call Amber Credit and tell them that I hadn't renewed with Bennetts, didn't want their credit (and wouldn't have anyway, even if I'd kept with Bennetts). They told me to sign the cancellation of the credit agreement and send it to them...which I duly did about ten minutes later.
I got a letter from Bennetts today to tell me that, and I quote, "We have been informed by Amber Credit that you have failed to comply with your credit agreement and therefore we are left with no alternative other than to invoke cancellation of your policy"
Yes, that's right...I've failed to comply with a credit agreement that I never had, still less wanted, and have cancelled in writing, for an insurance policy that, as far as I'm concerned, never existed either.
According to the letter a bit further down it says "you have defaulted on your payment of 28/06/2004". Doubtless, this "default" will also have been posted to credit reference agencies
[Edited on 8-7-2004 by Jools]