Swinton Cancellstion fee

SammyS1987

Altarf wrote: »

After all, if they want to pay the £500 Financial Ombudsman case fee to justify their £50 administration fee, that is up to them.

I know for a fact* that they will refund you the £50 if you write them a letter saying you are going to take the issue up with the ombudsman.

*A 'friend' of mine used to work for the company in question.

lisyloo

Blimey, I now feel like giving tonyenglish £50 if it really is that big an issue :rotfl:

Luckily for me, I have a life to get back to

custardy

Helen_J wrote: »

£50 does seem excessive but if it's in their t+cs then there's no comeback unfortunately. What annoys me is they all charge fees for stuff like this, so although you can say 'well you don't have to take insurance out with company X' actually you don't have much choice in terms of avoiding these fees altogether.

In this case the OP did have a choice
a free call before purchase would have cost them nothing and saved £50

lisyloo

you don't have much choice in terms of avoiding these fees altogether

Yes you do.
You have the choie to do upfront reasearch and check out your queries up front, so you don't have to cancel because of basic mistakes.
Or if you don't fancy the legwork, use a broker who will guide you through the process and all your queries. This basic error would not have happened with a broker.
I think you are missing the point that the cancellation was caused by a genuine but basic error on the part of the OP, so was his lack of up front research that caused the problem in the first place.
I really don't see why others should be expected to pay for this (either the company or other consumers) so the charges should in my opinion over rather than undercharge as undercharging would be morally wrong.

dunstonh

SammyS1987 wrote: »

I know for a fact* that they will refund you the £50 if you write them a letter saying you are going to take the issue up with the ombudsman.

*A 'friend' of mine used to work for the company in question.

Although the FOS do accept fees up to £50 as being acceptable as long as they are clearly documented.

The problem is that the FOS charge £550 for a complaint to the firm so its often cheaper to refund rather than stick to your guns. Although there is meant to be some filtering in place to stop frivolous complaints like that. Cant say if its effective or not though.

SammyS1987

dunstonh wrote: »

The problem is that the FOS charge £550 for a complaint to the firm so its often cheaper to refund rather than stick to your guns. Although there is meant to be some filtering in place to stop frivolous complaints like that. Cant say if its effective or not though.

This is why they will refund the £50, they write off thousands of pounds a year in cancellation charges because of this.

Also, not trying to be a smart-!!!! lisyloo, but Swinton is a broker. You are correct in saying that if the OP had made a phone call before buying the policy they would of explained the NCD to him though.

lisyloo

You are correct in saying that if the OP had made a phone call before buying the policy they would of explained the NCD to him though.

Yes sure - no offence taken.
What I was imagining was a more traditional situation i.e. high st office, where they sit down across the table face to face and talk it all through with you, but you are right brokers can do phone or internet.
Personally I think you lose something that way.

SammyS1987

lisyloo wrote: »

Yes sure - no offence taken.
What I was imagining was a more traditional situation i.e. high st office, where they sit down across the table face to face and talk it all through with you, but you are right brokers can do phone or internet.
Personally I think you lose something that way.

Good, good. I thanked you for being nice.

Obviously going into an office you do get taken through things a lot slower and everything explained but it will work out more expensive than buying online. I guess it depends if you want to pay a premium for that service.

lisyloo

I guess it depends if you want to pay a premium for that service.

Well maybe.
But over the years (and I've been on this site since the start) I have seen so many people get into a mess because they haven't appreciated what's involved then I think for a lot of people it may be the best/safest approach.
There are loads of people had relatively minor issues e.g. cancellation fees, but there are a few who have ended up having insurance cancelled and then having to delcare it for life which means possibly being declined or loaded in future.
I am not convinced that brokers who have acess to the internet too are that much more expensive. Even if they are then you have to decide whether it's worth the premium for that service as you say.

I certainly don't think a lot of people understand the issues, complexity and the responsibilities they are taking.
I'm not saying I'm an expert. I have learnt a lot from these boards, but I think I do at least understand that I'm responsible and don't blame someone else if I get it wrong or something I didn't anticipate or research doesn't go my way.

I understand that people want discounts and cashback etc. and therefore the traditional high st broker is dying out to a degree, but I don't think many people apprecciate the complexities and only find it out when something goes wrong. hence the volume of similar issues on this boards where people have not understood the nature of their contract.

Brize

SammyS1987 wrote: »

Obviously going into an office you do get taken through things a lot slower and everything explained but it will work out more expensive than buying online. I guess it depends if you want to pay a premium for that service.

I don't know about car insurance, but that's certainly not the case with private medical insurance. There's nothing to gain by buying online - we all have access to the same products and premiums.

There are a few very large brokers with access to preferential terms but those terms are dependent on volume so the broker's independence is compromised.