Swindler insurance vent

jull_2

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vuvuzela

I thought almost all insurance policies had charges for early cancellation ?

gordikin

You took out a 12 month contract which you cancelled. I suspect you pay monthly and still owe them money.

st999

I thought almost all insurance policies had charges for early cancellation

Why should they charge a cancellation fee for early cancellation?

They charged the OP for a years insurance, he has been insured for 7 months, and they do not need to insure him for the 5 months that he has paid for.

So now they have no risk for 5 months on a paid policy.

biggaz26

I used to work in insurance...all be it many moons agao so my memory maybe fuzzy and the details stand to be corrected but..

From what you have said I take it the insurance for the car was in it's first year....If this is the case then most insurance companies will change you a short term policy fee if you cancel within the first year and are paying by instalments. Its fair practice as your sign up for a year and have to pay say 11 months worth of premiums for 10 mnths cover if you cancel early...it varies from insurer to insurer.

Now, as you set yours up through a broker they will get commision on every policy they sell for the insurers they deal with, but this will be based on the policy stayin effective for 12 months...the likelyhood is that they have lost out on some of this as a result of you cancelling early and are looking to you to cover that....also most brokers are in the habit of charging an admin fee for cancellations now...usually around £10. Why should they do work for free just because you dont want the hassle of looking around for insurance...

I think that explains it, so far as i remember it, but i could be wrong so fell free to correct me if I am. I can take it...promise...:D

G:beer:

2sides2everystory

Why should they do work for free just because you dont want the hassle of looking around for insurance...

Because their future business will suffer if like you they don't empathise properly with their customers' insurance problems ...

The customer was cutting his losses and scrapped his car - not trying to avoid any hassle of looking around for insurance.

OP I think you should name and shame the broker.

Charging admin fees for every this that and the other on a motor policy is a fairly recent phenomenum compared to the motoring lifetimes of many MSE'ers. Some brokers just aren't humble enough to earn their living off the commissions, they eventually got bold enough to mess with fees like this.

I say if they can't keep their customers happy then slap them down with bad publicity.

vusys1

jull wrote: »

That will be right, said I, just keep it insured, and I left.

you will still be liable for any accidents, if the dealer decides to put it back on the road if he did not crush it etc.

2sides2everystory

Ah yes ... I admit that was half the reason I started looking at this thread but if you really would like to bash them (and I would given your experience) then I might edit the title to make it plain which broker it was. :money:

Looking at it again, the cashback angle is interesting - especially bearing in mind the gamble we all take in using a cashback site in the hope of the cashback getting tracked ...

As we are talking big bad Swintons, let's assume they get (say) 25% of the insurance premium anyway as a simple commission and I expect that's not far out if they send out the policies using their own computer.

The actual insurer isn't really bothered one way or the other about making a fuss about giving you back 5/12 ths of the premium and they will probably only charge Swintons 7/12ths of (say) 75% of the premium. So the cancellation malarky is really all down to Swintons.


You haven't said how much you paid up front but let's take a typical and easy number of say £360.

5/12ths of that would be £150 and you'd be rubbing your hands thanks very much. But as you originally got £90 cashback reducing your net year's cost to £270 then 5/12ths of that would be £112.50 to come back (and I bet you'd still say thankyouwerrymuch )

Now then, if you hadn't cancelled, in my example Swintons might have booked 25% of £360 in commission. What did they do with that? Well they gave it to you in cashback :rotfl: ... that was a bit reckless of them wasn't it


Now you've cancelled, if they were whiter than white, transparent even, and taking your MOT misfortunes on the chin as one of those things they might effectively have to give back 5/12ths of 25% of their booked £360 commission to the insurer. They'd reconcile that nicely by giving 5/12ths of only the net cost to you after cashback - which was only £270 so they owe you £112.50 right? - Wrong ! Nicely did I say? Who said anything about being nice? If they did that they'd end up with the same as when you bought the policy i.e. zero. Not flippin' likely !

So they play this other game of "fees" and short period scales.

Now then, Swintons never got where they are today without making a few bob from the punters now did they? So they can't let people they have enticed into their web with nefarious "cashback" deals escape again without at least a further year (renewal) with no cashback. Let's say it's a typical 33% hike so in Year 2 they get £120 commission which they keep plus they charge a renewal admin fee of £22.50. So they get £144.50 if you are mug enough to stay with them for a year without cancelling. Well they might dress up whats due back in severely adverse "short period cancellation refunds" and then offset it further with cancellation fees, but simply put it seems to me they will still make £112.50 for 7 months easy work in my example by not refunding it to you.

Whose got the cashback now, eh? Not funny I know.

I'd be interested in knowing the actual original premium.

Cashback really is the most ridiculous form of marketing and hidden fees really is the most despicable way of staying afloat as a business, and in this insurance business that ought to be based on very little other than promise and trust it seems it deliberately sets out to knock both.

Smoke and mirrors and a few hundred thousand merry go round punters to treat as mugs helps their cause ...

dacouch

Brokers normally get circa 10% commission on motor insurance, Swintons will probably get circa 15%, it will be no where near 25%. Bear in mind the receive no commission of the Insurance Tax which is 6% of the premium

2sides2everystory

Don't Swintons issue their own policy wordings on behalf of insurers (and maybe do some of the claims work) dacouch? I find it difficult to believe they only get 15% from their preferred insurers.

I didn't include IPT as although it is a simple calculation, it complicates the picture even more

But if you are right about the 15%, it might just show what a silly business it is to offer £90 cashback ... unless it was a 17 year old driver with no NCB and my example premium was 10x too small !

Freddie_Snowbits

Why cancel the policy? When you get your next car, it will be far cheaper to make a chage then go through the ropes again.