Very Unfair insurance company!

Money777

Hi

I had house insurance but in error (lots going on!) took out a policy with a second company 'e home insurance' on the 16th Dec, I paid in full £225. When I relised the error yesterday I emailed to say I wanted to cancel and they said that in charges and admin charges etc I would only get a refund of £135. Nearly £100 for 1 days cover is not reasonable!

What is even more infuriating is that the company have NO phone contact at all and when you email they just say you need to log in to make changes- but when you get in to cancel I have to aggree to the charges which I'm not happy about!

Is there not a statutory cooling off period??

Please help

td_007

What does you t&c say re cancellation/amendments?

Money777

Below is the t&c. I thought companies had to be about charges etc?

"If you are an individual or sole trader (including a partnership in England and Wales) buying or renewing a policy which provides cover for you in both a private and business capacity, you have the right to cancel your policy during a period of 14 days either from the day of purchase of the contract or the day on which you receive your policy documentation, whichever the later. When renewing an existing policy, the period applies from the date you renew the policy or the day on which you receive your policy documentation, whichever the later.

If you exercise this right and the cover has not yet commenced, you will be entitled to a full refund of the premium paid. If the insurance has commenced and provided that you have not made a claim, you will be entitled to a refund of the premium paid, subject to a deduction for the time that you have been on cover (calculated as a proportion of the annual premium) and a deduction of a proportion of the arrangement charge sufficient to cover our costs".

As the policy started and we provided insurance cover you will have been charged for the number of days the insurance is active for and the cancellation fee of £25.00, the administration fee of £42.50 is also non refundable. Please see our administration fees as detailed in our Terms of Business:

"Administrative Charges

In addition to the premiums charged the following fees will be applied to cover the administration of your Insurance:

* New business and Renewals - £42.50.
* Mid-term alterations - £15.00; Cancellations - £25.00 Refunds of less than £10 will not be allowed.
* We reserve the right to amend the level of charges at any time".

huckster

Yes ecarinsurance or ehomeinsurance appear to get a load of complaints.

You have a 14 days cooling offer period, so should be able to cancel from inception and get a refund. I think they can charge an admin fee but this must be reasonable.

Email them a complaint confirming the situation and advise that unless you receive a satifactory response you will report them to the OFT and FSA.

dunstonh

They are allowed to charge an admin fee within the cancellation period but as huckster says, it has to be reasonable. The FSA dont state what reasonable is but the FOS generally consider anything up to £50 as being reasonable.