Unfair Cancellation Charges -what Are My Rights?

fairyloveheart

Hi there
I recently cancelled my insurance policy from elephant.co.uk due to selling my vehicle and have been told that I am subject to a £40 cancellation charge. This seems extortionate, especially when the care insured was a clapped out olf fiesta and the annual premium was only £170! Are they allowed to charge this fee? Is this not disproportionate costs and does the Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 prohibit this as in the case of excessive bank charges?

Thanks

dunstonh

Are they allowed to charge this fee?

Yes.

Is this not disproportionate costs

No.

and does the Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 prohibit this as in the case of excessive bank charges?

No.

It comes down to the bit that you are cancelling an annual contract and that is the penalty for cancelling it prior to completion.

fairyloveheart

Even if it doesn't state as such in the small print?

fairyloveheart

Even if it doesn't state as such in the small print?

Astaroth

It should have stated somewhere that fees apply - if you dont query what the fees are then that is your own fault.

The law which the bank charges are being reclaimed under are about breach of contract where as what you are doing is ending a contract early not breaching it. If for example you paid by direct debit and cancelled this thus breaching the contract and having the policy cancelled for this reason then they could only charge their costs and not an inflated figure (have no idea if the £40 would be inflated or not) however before you do this, they would also then load you to national databases saying you have had insurance cancelled for non-payment and potentially also to fraud databases for no intent to pay which you would have to declare to insurers for ever more and see your premiums triple or more.

olly300

I have just been to the elephant.co.uk website and they have various small print cancellation terms in their car insurance policies.

Have a look at the back of your certificate of insurance as their website states the charges should be there.

fairyloveheart

Thanks for this. I did see this on the website, but it is not anywhere on my policy - perhaps they sent me an amendment which never got to me.

Thanks for your help

I will have to write that cheque!

Lucy

dunstonh

None of us like the charges but in the case of car insurance (which is generally loss making or damned close) they need these fees. If the fees were removed, the actual car insurance premium would go up overnight.

I would rather have the lower premium and then pay charges on specific events rather than have a higher premium to pay for others cancelling or making amendments.

I'm_With_Stupid

What sort of amendments can they charge you for?

iceicebaby

They can charge an administration fee for anything really
Change of address, change of vehicle, changing the drivers. Anything that is a change to the original policy