car insurance wants £164..........

silkyuk9

This is a good one.......

my son is in the army, last week he went overseas for 4 months. just before he went he rang his insurance (swinton) to cancel his car insurance, they said ok no probs. However, a few days ago a bill came through the post wanting the insurance money that he had used, this is not suprising, but, how the hell is this going to get paid? they want this within the next 7 days otherwise further increases will be incurred.

i rang the local office and basically no joy, i said cant you take it out of his bank account the next month when the premium is due (£125 per month). No can do, they have closed the account, which is stupid as how the hell is he going to pay??

Muggins here could pay this and get it from him when he returns home, but i should not need to (however, i will if there is no other options available)

so basically this remainder of insurance needs to be paid by next friday or 'further costs will be incurred'

what should i do, is it likely an insurance company (if i ring their head office) will say ok, we will wait until your son returns home form his tour of duty.

This would not have happened if they kept the account open until the remainder was paid. then close the account, but stop the insurance when they were instructed to do so.

Lorian

Why is the account in arrears?

silkyuk9

Lorian wrote: »

Why is the account in arrears?

the account is not in arrears, when he cancelled they sent a letter saying...........

policy has now been cancelled, however, the sum of £162 owed for the period of cover you have already received remains outstanding.

we need to advise you .blar blar blar.......7 days........

dunstonh

Its not unexpected when you pay monthly.

Car insurance is an annual premium. When you monthly you are not exactly in sync with the annual premium, you also get credit charges in there and the cancellation charge. Plus, the cancellation refund on the annual is rarely exactly the same. For example, cancelling at half way in the year will not usually give you a 50% refund. It will be closer to 40%.

When you pay yearly, you get this refunded. When you pay monthly, you are behind and have to make these up if you cancel.

lisyloo

Despite the fact that you are not happy about it, I think it would be best all round if you paid it for him as long as that doesn't put you in financial difficulty.

He can be pursued and charges can be added if he doesn't pay.
It can all mount up and if it drags on then he could potentially get a bad credit record, which can have long term effects.

If you are suitably motivated you/he could write them a letter of complaint telling them that they should have advised over the phone that an amount would be owing, so he could have made arrangements.

MarkyMarkD

Indeed. Most companies would have collected the final amount due by debit card over the phone, rather than sending a request for payment after the fact.