Budget Car Insurance Thieves

disgustedwithbudget

Have just cancelled insurance with Budget 4 months before renewal date as no longer have vehicle, only to be told that am not due any refund even though I paid the full premium up front last August. Apparently there are cancellation and other fees which conveniently come to the exact amount of unused insurance premium. Told them that I consider that to be theft as it was not clearly stated when the policy was taken out. I vow never to use Budget again and would advise others to think very carefully although I guess lots of the other companies would have much the same policy as most of them are connected anyway!! It just seems like the consumer is always the one to lose out, never the big boys!!

Charliecherry

One of the reasons i always pay monthly,sometimes has a small premium,but i am in control....
sorry to here about your misfortune,but everywhere now they are just sat round desks dreaming up the next rip off for the consumer....

mattymoo

Charliecherry wrote: »

One of the reasons i always pay monthly,sometimes has a small premium,but i am in control....
sorry to here about your misfortune,but everywhere now they are just sat round desks dreaming up the next rip off for the consumer....

In that case you are labouring under a pretty big misunderstanding.
You have bought a 12 month policy via your insurer. The fact that you are paying monthly is a separate credit agreement issue that can and is likely to be enforced against you if you stop making the premium payments.

All insurance is like this unless you have bought short term cover from someone like dayinsure.

Premium refunds are due but it does not work out at 1/12th for every month remaining. Costs for insurers are front end loaded and you normally find that the full premium is payable at the 9th month. Most insurers publish the refund scale on their website or in the policy documents.

DCFC79

OP sorry but when you take out insurance you were either warned whether by the person on the phone or by the insurance docs that if you cancelled the policy early there would be fees to pay eg cancellation fees, its what happens with insurance, i dont think budget are thieves, i also thin maybe you should remove the thieves word from the title,

dunstonh

Cant see anything wrong with what has happened. So calling them thieves is rather steep.

Apparently there are cancellation and other fees which conveniently come to the exact amount of unused insurance premium.

Its almost certainly more than the outstanding premium but they are waiving those costs.

Told them that I consider that to be theft as it was not clearly stated when the policy was taken out.

For all their faults, non disclosure is not one of them. Its there if you choose to read it.

peachyprice

You obviously didn't read this:

If an annual car insurance policy is cancelled during the cover, short-term premium rates are applied. This means that customers who have paid the premium in full by a lump sum payment are only entitled to a percentage of the paid premium as a refund

Or this:

If a car insurance policy is cancelled prior to expiry, a fee will be payable. Please refer to the Policy documentation for more details of refunds and fees applicable

Before you clicked on the box confirming you agreed to it.

Seems it's not budget who are 'theives' but it's you who failed to read the terms you were agreeing to.

al12345

disgustedwithbudget wrote: »

Have just cancelled insurance with Budget 4 months before renewal date as no longer have vehicle, only to be told that am not due any refund even though I paid the full premium up front last August. Apparently there are cancellation and other fees which conveniently come to the exact amount of unused insurance premium. Told them that I consider that to be theft as it was not clearly stated when the policy was taken out. I vow never to use Budget again and would advise others to think very carefully although I guess lots of the other companies would have much the same policy as most of them are connected anyway!! It just seems like the consumer is always the one to lose out, never the big boys!!

hi, i work for the budget group, otherwise known as BISL. i can understand why you are unhappy with the cancellation charges applied to your policy when cancelling. i know it is a £35.00 cancellation fee for mid-term cancellation of the 12 month contract. the rest is a short term rate charge, e.g. you the customer pays the full premium for the year. you cancel midterm, and budget deduct the £35 charge and the remaining is the shrt term rate. they charge a % of your policy depending on when you cancel, the longer you leave this the more the charges will be. alot of insurers are doing this, and the other posts on here are correct, you should read the terms and conditions of the policy. i have come across alot of complaints like this, and in my experience customer who follow the complaints process, and go the FOS, will get the short term rate reversed and refunded. ( its how much you are willing to complain). i could bang on about you should of read you documents, but thats it gunna help. call budget, as to speak to t/leader. they will not help, then log it as complaint, that is the first step. secondly write a letter to the customer relations dept, they have upto 28days to respond, normally i used to respond to customers within 7/14days. when writing to them state you feel the short term rate charge is illegal ( its not, as budget is regulated by FSA) but make that point. there is a reason for this. the moment a customer threatens FOS action, the insurer backtracks. i has a customeer last year, short term rate charge was £360+, thats not including cancellation fee either. she fought it, and won. as if the FOS investigated the budget group, FOS now charge i believe £400/£500 per investigation. it makes sense for budget to re-imburse you your short term rate charge, rather than face a investigation fee from FOS. ( whether the insurer at fault or not, it is a customers right to go to the FOS if the customer is not happy with the outcome. sorry for long post, but hard to explain how it works. good luck.;)