Automatic Insurance Cover

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a company from whom I had taken out an annual travel insurance policy last year.  The email said something along the lines of;  'Your policy is due for renewal on xxxx date.'  I ignored it.  I deleted it.  I didn't want to renew my travel insurance with this particular company.

Today I got another email saying, 'We have attempted to take payment through the automatic renewal process.  Unfortunately the payment has been refused by your bank.'

Thank God for that?!!

Fortunately the credit card that I used to pay for this last year has now expired.

...................BUT here comes the RANT.............................

Why is it, that every time one buys something like insurance (whether it be travel insurance or any other kind of insurance or anything that needs renewing on an annual basis).................. companies just seem to think that once they've got all your 'card' details they can go on a spending spree on an annual basis?

WHY?

It's hard enough trying to find the 'best deal' around, without companies deciding that they can take money off ones credit/debit card every year just because they think people will be too lazy to look for the best deal.

And the other thing...........................  I actually thought that it was illegal, these days, to keep a customers payment details on file.  No doubt there's a load of blurb in the 'small print' that means that they're exempt from this.  Grrrrr.............

Anyway, once I'd received this email this morning, I phoned 'annoying travel insurance company' (even though I knew they couldn't take any money off my credit card because it had expired). 

I was in 'very nice customer mode'.  After listening to at least 2 mins of 'blurb' I actually got to speak to a real life person.................  Kay/Katie?  I don't know?   Whoever it was, they obviously weren't very interested in what I had to say?!!

Everyone is just reading from a 'script' these days.

Soooooo......................... Kay/Katie, after listening to my RANT about not wanting to renew my annual travel insurance, (and just to clarify here; didn't ask me why or try to persuade me to reconsider - probably on minimum wage and couldn't care less about 'making the customer happy'.) said that they'd delete everything from my account????

Apparently I won't be getting any more emails from this company, I won't be getting any more promotional stuff, I won't be getting anything???

Time will tell???!!!

.........................BUT I'm still really angry that I actually had to go to the trouble of phoning these people to make sure that I'm not on any of there stupid mailing lists.  Grrrrrr...............