Post office - car insurance rip off - dont get caught!

dp52

If you are thinking of going with the Post Office for car insurance think again! Check your policy cancellation/change terms before signing up. Read on...

I have changed my car from a 1994 Volvo to a 2002 Volvo. Same engine, same specification. I have 5 months remaining on my policy, which is with the Post Office.

I spoke to the Post Office on the phone and they quoted me £491.33. I thought that was quite expensive given that my current insurance with them cost £224. I obtained quotes from moneysupermarket.com and there were buckets of comanies offering significantly cheaper insurance including, believe it or not the Post Office at £343.04. That's a considerable difference of £148.29 so I phoned them to get the lower quote. They told me that I cannot have the online quote and the only quote they can give me is the expensive one at £491.33.

They say I can cancel my existing policy and then take out the cheaper on-line policy. To do so they say my existing policy which cost £224.48 has to have three deductions as follows:

Deduct £123.67 for the 7 months used up since the policy was taken out last November.
Deduct £60.04 for their percentage penalty for cancelling the policy (I believe this is 80% but they cannot confirm this).
Deduct £35 for admin costs.

That leaves a total refund of £5.77 but to add insult to injury they tell me because it is under £10 they refuse to pay it back.

Now you could say I should have checked this sort of detail before taking out the policy. Quite right I should have. My point here is don't get caught out like this. Make sure you check the small print and rest assured if you change your policy part way through the term the Post Office will take you to the cleaners, several times over.

dacouch

The Post Office are not an Insurance Company and currently the policies are provided by BISL who are an broker and have a panel of Insurers. The quote you have got for the new car will include their "New Customer Discount" BUT is also probably with a different Insurance Company through BISL hence why they cannot offer you this price without cancelling.

Virtually all Insurers have a cancellation penalty if you cancel your policy before the policy expires.

Batchy

you have changed your car from a 94 to a 2002...

so you have gone from a94' -> 500-1000 car to a
02' -> 4000 - 6000 car...

I assume nothing has changed like points, claims, convictions, moving house, additional named drivers...

with the extra risk... have you gone from third party to Comprehensive as well... as having comprehensive on a 500 quid car sounds daft, yet you would be daft if you didnt have is on an 02 expensive car?

once they have you they know they have you over a barrel... shame about that dude... next time ... time the change better :-)

mattymoo

If it were me, I'd swallow the increased premium for the remaining 5 months and then look to move at renewal time. This gives you an extra years NCD as well.

Just remember to positively lapse the current policy at renewal time otherwise it will probably auto-renew.

ianrberts

Have you had the policy for less than a year?

if so then some of the cancellation charges may in fact be them calculating your period of cover based on short period rates.

I think if the policy is over a year then they would have refunded more, based in proportion to the period of cover you used, though there would still be the admin fee.

Shame they wouldn't match their own quote though.

Inactive

mattymoo wrote: »

Just remember to positively lapse the current policy at renewal time otherwise it will probably auto-renew.

Indeed, they certainly will, they tried that one on with mine, I am surprised that the PO are linked with this outfit. ( BISL ).