Swinton Cancellstion fee

tonyenglish

Ok - the background. I have a new job about 200 miles from where I live. I arranged accomodation at a friends house and bought a second car to do the daily commute. This second car would stay down there until my job came to an end and it would eventualy be handed onto my daughter.

Today I embarked on the task of getting it insured. I opted for a quote from Swinton. I bought it online. I rang the local office to enquire about the no claims discount proof. I had wrongly assumed that my NCD that I had on my current car could be used - I was told that this was not the case and that having no NCD would add another £600 to the £250 policy! I said to cancel it but now they want to charge me with a £50 cancellation fee. Is it legal for them to charge a cancellation fee on a financial services product sold over the net when the product was not something that would provide the cover I needed?

Has anybody else had any issue and success in avoiding this fee? It seems I have been stung for £50 by Swinton who did nothing on their part to earn this money. Had it been a reasonable amount then I would have let it go, but £50 seems excessive!

lisyloo

Is it legal for them to charge a cancellation fee on a financial services product sold over the net when the product was not something that would provide the cover I needed?

The fact that it was not the cover you needed is YOUR responsibility if you bought directly over the net.
If you bought through a broker then it would be their responsibility but it probably would not have happened in the first place.

It seems I have been stung for £50 by Swinton who did nothing on their part to earn this money.

The have processed your policy and provided you with service over the phone. Do you go to work for free??

Had it been a reasonable amount then I would have let it go, but £50 seems excessive!

It's within accepted industry guidelines.
My only query is whether they can charge this within the cooling off period. I'm not 100% sure about that.

tonyenglish

None of this was carried out over the phone except the converstaion regarding the NCD. The time spent between accepting the quote, calling the local branch to query the NCD and cancelling the product was less than 10 mins! The NCD part was a genuine misunderstanding on my part.

Quentin

tonyenglish wrote: »

It seems I have been stung for £50 by Swinton who did nothing on their part to earn this money. Had it been a reasonable amount then I would have let it go, but £50 seems excessive!

All covered by their ts + cs which you will have accepted before being sold the policy:

If you cancel your insurance, before the end of the 'cooling off' period, you will be charged by the insurer for the service they have provided up to the point of cancellation. We will also make a cancellation charge of £50.

tonyenglish

well it's a lesson learnt today by me - and I'll never use Swinton again. Looking round on the net it seems I'm not the only one to have come a cropper on their £50 scam!

lisyloo

None of this was carried out over the phone except the converstaion regarding the NCD.

Yes.
I picked up the comment "I rang the local office" from your first post.

The time spent between accepting the quote, calling the local branch to query the NCD and cancelling the product was less than 10 mins!

Ok, but presumably you want you personal information to comply with the data protection act, be secure and get backed up in case of failure and also your personal payment information to be secure from fraud???
There are hardware and software costs assocaited with that and those need to be paid for, regardless of whether you spend 30 seconds or 30 minutes on the phone.

The NCD part was a genuine misunderstanding on my part.

Yes I understand.
You are still responsible for that though IF you chose to do it yourself and not a professional.
Why should the business carry the cost of amateur mistakes even if genuine???
That would mean other policyholders (like ME) paying.
I am very sorry you made a genuine error but why should other motorists carry the costs??

tonyenglish

The hardware and software costs are negligible. As I said, a reasonable fee I would ahve accepted, but £50 seems very excessive given the time between me making the mistake, finding out about the mistake and cancelling thye product was so short. Surrely if you are entering into any product sold over the net then there should be a time period where the customer can verify that the product was specified correctly and rejected without such a hefty financial penalty!

custardy

tonyenglish wrote: »

The hardware and software costs are negligible. As I said, a reasonable fee I would ahve accepted, but £50 seems very excessive given the time between me making the mistake, finding out about the mistake and cancelling thye product was so short. Surrely if you are entering into any product sold over the net then there should be a time period where the customer can verify that the product was specified correctly and rejected without such a hefty financial penalty!

theres is no pressure to buy on the net
you could have made the same phonecall before buying to confirm any querys you had

lisyloo

The hardware and software costs are negligible.

I beg to differ.
Do you work in software engineering?
I have for 20 years and I disagree most strongly.

There are also other costs.
Even if only 10 minutes, there are staff costs involved in pensions, training, sickness, health & safety, fire extinguishers, kitchens, maintenaince, toilets, rent, electricity, telephones, printers, paper, phone bills, underwriters, rates, insurance, tax, national insurance etc. etc.
Even if you use 0.00001% of a person, it all costs money.

As I said, a reasonable fee I would ahve accepted, but £50 seems very excessive

I believe it's within industry guidelines.
What you could do is make a formal complaint and mention you will take it to the ombudsman.
This will cost them around £500 so they MAY waive or reduce your fee (or they might stand their ground).

What you then have to consider is whether you think it's morally fair to levy a fee of £500 onto other motorists for a mistake that you accept you made (albeit geuinely).

Surrely if you are entering into any product sold over the net then there should be a time period where the customer can verify that the product was specified correctly and rejected without such a hefty financial penalty!

Yes you can spend as much time as your want BEFOREHAND.
Quotes are generally valid for 30 days, but you can certainly check out terms and conditions before that time.
So you could have verified your questions before this.
Or if you didn't have the time to do the "legwork" you could have used a broker who would helped you find a suitable policy.

You have basically taken on a task that's more complicated and required more knowledge that you envisaged and made a mistake presumably in the hope of saving a few pennies.

DCFC79

tonyenglish wrote: »

well it's a lesson learnt today by me - and I'll never use Swinton again. Looking round on the net it seems I'm not the only one to have come a cropper on their £50 scam!

All the ins co's have a cancellation policy fee, you just accept the fee pay it and move on

lisyloo

The cancellation fees and amendement e.g. change of address are also something you should check out up front.