Car Insurance Cancellation - Swiftcover

skintstudent21

Hi

I'm after some advice on where to go from here. My partner took out car insurance online with swiftcover, just over a month ago. Annoyingly he didn't check his paper work correctly and his date of birth on the policy was incorrect, it said 1984 when he was actually born in 1987. We think the was probably our mistake of which we are happy to admit too and because he has had a claim in the last three years, Swiftcover have said they cannot cover him. So we canceled the policy.

The policy was on cover for 33 days however from what I can read online it was never technically on cover and should have been back dated and void from the beginning.

I have read Swiftcover's cancellation process and can see they charge a £25 cancellation fee. However the annual premium was £469. We were planning on paying for direct debits and have paid an £89 deposit, when we took the policy out, which was 2 months cover, they then after the 30 days, went in and took the 2nd months payment of £44, and then we canceled took a £25 cancellation fee. So we have now paid a considerable amount of the annual premium.

This is the link to their cancellation process

http://www.swiftcover.com/carinsurance/policy/cancellation/

From what I can work out I think we have paid too much, but Swiftcover say we are not owed any money.

Does anyone on here know any different? or see something I've missed.

We appreciate it was probably our mistake, however this is human error, we never made a claim. Do you think its worth writing a complaint? To see if we can get a gesture of goodwill? Having just had to take out new insurance we are now completely skint.

Has anyone got any advice on where we could go from here?

Many Thanks

L.

Valli

Who got the DoB wrong? - if you (or he) gave them the correct DoB then it's their mistake, surely.

McKneff

if Swiftcover say they cannot cover him then surely you would have not had to cancel the policy, they should havedone so?

raskazz

Firstly, the policy isn't void from inception. The insurer can void a policy at its option in certain circumstances - but they do not have to, and they have not done so here. There is no reason for them to do so.

Secondly, the cancellation fee of £25 only applies where the policy has been cancelled under the 14 day cooling-off period.

If the policy is cancelled after that period then the total sum to be paid for the cover is calculated according to the cancellation scale on their website.

Your policy was on cover for 33 days - so this means that you must pay 30% of the annual premium. 30% of £469 is £140.70. From what I can gather, you have paid £89 + £44 which is £133. However, cancellation terms are often made more complex by having to take account of the service charge on any instalments, and any premiums for additional products (legal cover, personal accident cover) which may be non-refundable.

As another poster has mentioned - who actually cancelled the policy? If Swiftcover exercised their right of cancellation then the total amount payable is proportionate to the period on cover - about 9% for 33 days, which would come to £42.

dunstonh

It sounds like Swiftcover have cancelled the policy from that point onwards. Not voided it from inception. So, some payment to them would be expected.

skintstudent21

Thank you for the replies. Swiftcover canceled the policy, as they could not cover that risk.

I expect some payment to have been taken, I appreciate that. But it just seems excessive, when it was human error.

I guess it maybe one of these times when we learn from our mistake, just damn annoying.

McKneff

If they have taken more money than they should have done I would get back to them armed with the information you have gathered here. I would do it all in writing. Good luck, let us know how you get on if you decide to go ahead with it.

dunstonh

When you cancel a policy mid term you dont get an exact pro-rata adjustment. You may find that after 1 month you have to pay for 2-3 months equivalent.