esure -

Understandable. But bear in mind it may be c*ck-up rather than conspiracy. So before you set off to sever bodily parts I suggest you check just what has happened.

First, you posted that the payment was "already taken on 10th September over one month before the renewal notice was emailed to me". Do you mean either "a month before it was due" or perhaps "before the notice was emailed"?

Second, have you checked your card account to see that they have actually taken payment?

Third, have you asked them:

a. why they took the payment in advance and b. if they will both (i) credit the amount back to you and (ii) undertake to meet any interest charges which arise as a result?

Sorry I meant that payment was taken one month before expiry of my car insurance. And one day before they emailed out their renewal notice.

They kept saying that is was because of the "Continued renewal". I kept saying that their renewal notice was worthless because they had already done it before I had any chance to react on the renewal notice, even a day before they sent out the renewal notice. So it was a stalemate.

I have never come across this audacity before with anyone with continued renewal; you are always given the opportunity to change condition, change credit card or switch to another provider if you don't like e.g. new conditions. The only thing the continued renewal does, as it says, allow you to do nothing and it gets renewed automatically.

Which is why you never, ever, sign up to auto-renew.

OK, thanks.

I agree with what you say about how continuous payment authority (CPA) usually works. And while I accept others have had problems with it, I've not; and I'm happier with it now there is legislation[1] which means companies will lose if they play fast and loose.

You problem seems to me to boil down to timing. On that, you need ideally to look at the information you were given when you took out the policy. That should have told you *when* they would take payment under the CPA. Something like:

"If you pay by credit...we will take payment up to three days before your renewal date. Please contact us at least five days before your renewal date if you don?t wish..."

Quote to them the words from your police and tell them you want to pursue the matter through their formal complaints process.

[1] the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

Three days beore - fair enough. One month before and before they actually email the renewal notice? Including a phone number and with this statement:

"If you don't want to renew your policy, please call us on 0345 603 7973 at least 4 days before your renewal date, or we may still collect your premium."

And all I wanted to do was to change the credit card used for the renewal. I think there is no excuse for this whatsover.

Many shops, especially the smaller outlets, don't accept AX. Apparently their business charges are higher.

They are, but they give excellent customer service, second to none in my experience, plus they give me cashback at up to 3 percent. £108 in the last year and no annual fee.

Which is exactly why many insurance companies won't auto-renew on it.

Tim

They can always make the auto-renewal premium high enough to cover the expected charges - they always reduce the price if you ring up anyway. But traditional American Express is a charge card, rather than a credit card (I don't know whether they allow CPA, I've never had one).

I recently had a Barclaycard (credit card) and a linked AE credit card. I could use either and have a single on-line statement for both cards.

0.5% cash back on the Barclay card and 1% from AE. However, the AE card was too much hassle as it wasn't taken by a lot of retailers and I stopped carrying it.

and that combo has now been withdrawn (I had the same account) I use amex wherever I can, which is most places I shop and most online places take it , it is a credit card, but I use it as a charge card.