Insurance company ripped me. Any Suggesstions?

harryuk1

I bought Car insurance, through broker MYMOTORQUOTE. Which is actually part of ALLEN & ALLEN Group.

Insurance start date 01/11/2010. I paid 3 months premium in advance and rest was agreed to pay in 9 equal installments.

Any how I sold my car, when I entered 8th month of insurance. 7th installment was gone by the time. I was under impression that if I cancel my insurance now I can save 2 remaining installments and on top I will get refund also.

When I called insurance to cancel the insurance the advisor said pay remaining 2 installments and insurance will be cancelled.

In an argument with the advisor that why shall I pay when I am not driving the car. Avisor said if you cancel the insurance in 8th month or after, then you are liable to pay full premium. I got annoyed and in the conversation I said cancel the insurance but I won't pay you anything. Time of this call was 5:40pm when the offices were just about to close for the day.

Very next day in the morning at about 9:30 am I called them up again to check the status of my insurance. They again said that we will charge you remaining premium. This conversation lasted about 35 minutes. "I then realised that if I don't cancel the insurance and continue paying the remaining installments, atleast I will get the NCB for this year."
I then said to the advisor leave the insurance as it is. Don't change anything as I want to continue the insurance.
Advisor said, Insurance is cancelled and you have to pay the remaining. I said I don't want to cancel it. Advisor said it is cancelled and now can't anything be done.
I was so much frustrated at that time I said reinstate the insurance as nothing was final yet because it was just an argument.

Then again long argument but nothing happened. Case went to the Manager.

I said if I will only pay the remaining premium if you will send me NCB for this year.
Manager said she can't because you are not driving the car. I said exactly, if I am not driving the car then why shall I pay. She said your insurance is cancelled and debt collector will start the chase soon.

I tried every possible way to get my insurance reinstated. They did not do that.
I also said you can cancel the insurance without charging remaining premium. They did not do anything.

At last to avoid hasstle and to get rid of this fraud company I paid them remaining premium and I did not get NCB even.

I just came across this forum and decided to post here.

Any suggesstions? If anything can be done now.

shaun_from_Africa

The problem is that you made a couple of wrong assumptions.

Any how I sold my car, when I entered 8th month of insurance. 7th installment was gone by the time. I was under impression that if I cancel my insurance now I can save 2 remaining installments and on top I will get refund also

.
You took out an insurance policy and the quote that you were given was for a 1 year policy but with split payments.
Even though you sold the car before the year was up, you still have to pay the full premium. You may have been entitled to a refund for the remaining months, but the insurance company can make an admin charge for this which may be more than the actual refund.
In reality this is no different to buying a TV from Comet and agreeing to pay monthly over 1 year.
Even if you sell the TV mid way through the year you still have to pay the remaining balance.

I then said to the advisor leave the insurance as it is. Don't change anything as I want to continue the insurance.
Advisor said, Insurance is cancelled and you have to pay the remaining. I said I don't want to cancel it. Advisor said it is cancelled and now can't anything be done.
I was so much frustrated at that time I said reinstate the insurance as nothing was final yet because it was just an argument

.

The advisor was correct.
you can't legally insure anything that you don't have any legal title or obligation for.
If this was possible, any 17 year old could insure themselves for any cheap motor that they didn't own in order to build up a NCB.

I paid them remaining premium and I did not get NCB even.

Again this is correct.
You can only get a full years NCB if you have had insurance for a full year without a claim.

harryuk1

Again this is correct.
You can only get a full years NCB if you have had insurance for a full year without a claim.[/QUOTE]

The whole conversation was about "WHY"
1. Why would I pay if I want to early terminate the insurance?

I understood that I have to pay full premium even though I am selling the car. (agreed)

2. Why I am not getting NCB as I am paying full premium.

Because I am not driving the car for the rest of the year. (agreed)


Why I can't reinstate the insurance when I want to continue it? (as I told them while the argument was going on that I have sold the car to my friend just to save some money and I can get that car back if I have to pay the full premium.)
Note: There was no terms or clause in the agreement that if it is cancelled by any means at any point of time, It can't be reinstated.
And in this case I did not agree to cancel it on their terms but they cancelled it.

Please throw some light on it.

pinkshoes

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

The advisor was correct.
you can't legally insure anything that you don't have any legal title or obligation for.

Really? So you have to own a car to insure it??

I'm quite sure you don't, as I once took out insurance to drive a car owned by someone else, and it wasn't a problem...

OP, I'd write to the insurance people, stating that on <date> you phoned to query about cancelling your insurance, but were told that you'd still have to pay the final two instalments, so phoned back the next day to confirm that you didn't want to cancel if you couldn't stop the payments, but are most annoyed to see that they cancelled it anyway, and ask them to re-instate your insurance.

shaun_from_Africa

Why I can't reinstate the insurance when I want to continue it? (as I told them while the argument was going on that I have sold the car to my friend just to save some money and I can get that car back if I have to pay the full premium.)

I'm not 100% sure, but I would think that as you've now sold the car, you would need a new policy if you bought it back from your friend. This would be because one of the questions on the policy application is "when did you purchase the vehicle", so you would have to give the date that you bought it back, hence any insurance in your name could only apply from that date.
You can't reinstate it it because as explained earlier, when you no longer owned or had any obligations for the car, legally the policy had to be cancelled.

Why would I pay if I want to early terminate the insurance?

Say the policy was £200 and paid over 12 months (£16.60 per month.)
Of that £200, £100 of it may be what the company pays to their insurance overwriter, and the other £100 would be their commission and expenses.

If you had paid 8 months at £16.60, you would have paid a total of £133, which once the commission and expenses had been taken into account, wouldn't cover the payment to the overwriter for the period of 8 months that you were driving.
This is why insurance companies either have a a minimum policy period, or if they do short term cover, the cost is far more than the pro rata period of a years cover.

Really? So you have to own a car to insure it??

That's not exactly what I stated.

you can't legally insure anything that you don't have any legal title or obligation for.

You don't own a hire car but you can get insurance for it simply because it is your responsibility.

arcon5

Op, you say....

harryuk1 wrote: »

I was under impression that if I cancel my insurance now I can save 2 remaining installments and on top I will get refund also.

Then you say:

The whole conversation was about "WHY"
1. Why would I pay if I want to early terminate the insurance?

I understood that I have to pay full premium even though I am selling the car. (agreed)

Maybe i'm wrong..

but i'm thinking what actually happened is you was rude and angry with the telephone person when corrected on this and now you have realised they are infact correct they aren't willing to do you any favours.

(?)

PZH

arcon5 wrote: »

.. but i'm thinking what actually happened is you was rude and angry with the telephone person when corrected on this and now you have realised they are infact correct they aren't willing to do you any favours.

harryuk1 wrote: »

In an argument with the advisor... I got annoyed and in the conversation I said cancel the insurance but I won't pay you anything...

Very next day in the morning... I said I don't want to cancel it. Advisor said it is cancelled...

I agree with arcon. I think you let your emotions and mouth run away with you and now claim that your instruction to cancel was purely an argument.

harryuk1

phoodless wrote: »

I agree with arcon. I think you let your emotions and mouth run away with you and now claim that your instruction to cancel was purely an argument.

I was not rude at all but Yes! I was bit annoyed, Rather the advisor was bit rude as he was threatning me on the first day of my call that debt collector will chase you in 1 week if you will not pay now from you bank card. He did not try to help me out on the first day even.

When I am saying, "I realised" I did not realise it while the call was going on the next day. I had already realised and decided it the day before, after my first call was ended that they are going to give me a hastle.

I know I wrote this sentence " I realised" in the next day's conversation. Thats just to explain the whole story.

I am telling you, try to understand the whole situation not just quote sentences to prove me wrong.

I have just explained my situation in breif.

PZH

I understand the annoyance and I'm not trying to prove you wrong at all.

Write to the broker expressing you concerns about how you were treated (but be factual and not emotional) and ask what they can do.

But the fact still remains that you instructed the Broker to cancel your insurance. Whether this was in the heat of the moment or not is only your take on it - however, the instruction was carried out.


There is a specific "Insurance" board the forum - so the question about reinstatement of the policy may be better off asked on that board?