Insurance Refund

[111Robin]

Any opinions on this ?
I insured my car mid January but have now sold it therefore assumed that after only 5 weeks I would be entitled to a pro-rata refund. Well apparently not. Infact when they totalled it up they actually said that I owed them, but that they would reduce the cancellation fee such that it equated to the full one years premium. I don't think I've ever come across this before, but I could be wrong. Has anyone else had this ?. I feel like making a complaint to someone, just not sure who.

[jj]

Had the same when I sold a classic car on a classic policy and called to cancel. I think I had to pay them £55. Was fuming, but it was buried in the T&Cs.

[111Robin]

No doubt it will be in the small print. Lesson learned anyway, I'll check next time. What hacked me off is them making out they were doing me a favour by reducing the cancellation fee. Thieving b'ds.

[j2 lot]

Had similar - cancelled with 4 months to run and they agreed to waive the charge, when I was expecting a refund. Said it before, insurance companies are for the most part thieving low life

[111Robin]

I'll just take it on the chin then. I have another car insured with them unfortunately, perhaps they're all the same but next time I renew I'll be asking about cancellation fees.

[campbell]

Henderson Taylor will refund pro rata. May depend on Underwriter of course.

[mxvx]

Same issue recently when cancelling with footman James £40/50 quid AS PER Ts and Cs sir

[Corranga]

Crazy idea that will just lead to people leaving policies open rather than cancelling them, and certainly something that will lead to new policies not being taken with those companies.

Chris

[111Robin]

Just a ploy to prevent you chopping and changing policies I guess. It cost me a full years premium for 6 weeks though, seriously taking the piss. Talking to a robot didn't help, absolutely no discussion when I raised my concerns, no reaction at all. "Is there anything else I can help you with today ?" F'in joke.

[robin]

Depending on how much is involved you could contest this as an unfair contract term of which you weren't made aware - I assume like most people you bought the policy over the net/phone, so if you weren't made aware of that term then, explicitly, then I think you have a chance. Of course it is your responsibility to read the T&Cs, which you didn't, but that doesn't mean they can bury ludicrous terms in there.

If it's less than £500 involved I wouldn't bother, because you'll chew that up in time/advice/etc.

For some people, though, the policies are in the £1000 and up range (because of their increased risk). For a £200 policy you can see why the broker/underwriter wouldn't want to issue any sort of refund; but when the policy cost £2000 it's hard to argue that all £2000 is consumed by admin, etc. (especially when they can and do sell cheaper policies), so their decision not to offer a refund along the lines of (£2000-admin cost)xdays-on-cover/365 is completely arbitrary.

You could say, in fact, that the policy was missold if it had such an unreasonable term and they didn't tell you at the point of selling it that you should consider this case. E.g. something like "this policy is not suitable for people that might sell their car in the next 6 months as there is no refund".

So depending on how much money is involved, go give them a kicking. Look at the banks - they are "taking it in the shorts", as our American friends like to say, simply because they had the audacity to sell people (useless) insurance along with credit.

Cheers,
Robin

[111Robin]

Thanks Robin. The premium is less than £500 so as you say probably not worth pursuing. I will however go through the terms just to make sure this aspect is clearly described. Like most others I simply searched for the best premium but didn't look any further into the terms so have to hold my hands up. That said if they want to retain my business in future I would hope that they would put in a bit of effort but I guess they got what they wanted soarent that bothered.

[Dominic]

The only insurance I have cancelled in the past has been on my "weekend" cars, so has usually been with the likes of Competition Car Insurance. They have historically refunded most of the remaining period. Not something I have ever thought about, but will be aware of in the future... thieving barstewards!

[rossybee]

Likewise, I've been blissfully unaware of this, always worked on the assumption it'd be a pro rata refund minus a pre-agreed admin fee.

ISTR back in the "phone around" days, you got given this verbally amongst all the legal jargon. We're all now guilty of ticking a box agreeing to T&Cs without even clicking on the link to read them...

[Kelvin]

Same issue with our house insurance. Due to the listed status and the fact that it was classed as a new house (inside a 150 year old barn) I couldn't get any of the normal big insurers to quote us so had to use a specialist at £1000. Due to the timing of the purchase and mortgage etc I had little choice but to go with them. At the time I asked them if I would be able to cancel the policy and go elsewhere and would it be charged on a pro-rata basis which they said yes so all good. Ginny's house was insured with NFUM and part of that policy allows us to insure our many animals as well at a good rate however, only if you take their house insurance. At time we were buying our house NFUM wouldn't insure it at first then quoted £1600. However, since then they've said we can insure the contents with them (at a more reasonable rate) and still include the animals and we can insure the buildings with our current insurer to whit they reduced the price from £1000 to £800...or in effect I need to pay for the whole insurance for the year despite them saying otherwise on the phone. And all that we record telephone conversations for training purposes stuff well it seems you can have IT failures and lose all the audio...lol.

[robin]

Hi Kelvin,

If they say the record the conversations and then cannot produce the tape, they have to take your word for what was said - just sayin'

Cheers,
Robin