Help car insurance demanding full payment

jonnym8083

I am with elephant car insurance. I had a letter today requesting the whole years policy remaining nearly £500 for breach of contract. They state they wrote to me last week due to my direct debit being cancelled and my payment didn't go through on 31st dec (11 days ago). They wrote to me to get I touch and pay the month that ha missed. I didn't receive this letter and didn't relise the payment had not gone through. I do remember cancelling lots I old direct debits and may have cancelled the elephant one by mistake however if I had of received the first letter inwould have got in touch and sorted it. They are sayin it too late now and I can only pay full amount. They are Fsa regulated so cannot see how they can request this money when in theory I haven't been given chance to correct this issue as I never received the first letter. Can someone please help me as to what I can do.
Thank you

cte1111

AFAIK they aren't legally obliged to accept payment by installments at all. So accepting monthly payments is entirely at their discretion / good will.

I think your best bet is to try calling / writing again and hope that you speak to someone more helpful. Bear in mind that the ball is in their court so wouldn't start kicking off about FSA etc when really you are technically in the wrong.

jonnym8083

Well if I had received letter inwould of noticed error
And just paid it.

jonnym8083

They sTate I have to pay nearly £500 by 19th jan if I dnt what will they do?

cte1111

jonnym8083 wrote: »

They sTate I have to pay nearly £500 by 19th jan if I dnt what will they do?

Cancel your policy I should think, then you will be uninsured.

jonnym8083

So surely there something I can do considering I haven't received the original correspondence

bouncydog1

Telephone them again and explain patiently and politely that you did not receive the first letter. They may agree to reinstate your instalments, albeit they are not obliged to.

If they agree to reinstate you will have to pay the missed instalment plus the next and give them your details to reinstate the direct debit.

However they may also refuse to reinstate, which they are allowed to do. Insurance is an annual contract and they are entitled to demand immediate payment if you miss and instalment. Check your terms and conditions and it will all be in there.

You should also be keeping a careful eye on your bank account and ensure that it tallies with the spreadsheet you should have set up to monitor what comes in and what goes out - that way you would have seen immediately that you had "cancelled the direct debit" and could have rectified it!

If they refuse to reinstate and demand full payment you will have to find the money to pay - you will be uninsured, will have to declare a cancelled policy to any future insurers if you can find one to give you cover, and they will pursue you for the premium via the Courts.

System

It makes no difference that you did not receive the first letter. You have now been informed what you need to do.

If you do not want your insurance policy to be cancelled, you either need to pay what they have asked, or you need to phone them and speak to a supervisor to negotiate.

If the policy is cancelled by them, that will go on your insurance record permanently and you will then in future have more problems getting insured with any company, this would be on your record forever, so it is your interests to get this sorted before they cancel.

jonnym8083

I can't afford to pay it so looks like it'll b cancelled

Quentin

jonnym8083 wrote: »

I can't afford to pay it so looks like it'll b cancelled

In that case you get in first and cancel it yourself. (See all the advice above on why you don't want them cancelling!!)

david39

I can't afford to pay it so looks like it'll b cancelled

But have you phoned them again and tried to renegotiate. That is your best course of action but you need to do it ASAP (like yesterday!) before they cancel the policy at their end.