Car insurance cancellation nightmare...

barr182

Bit of a long story, but hopefully you'll bare with me...

So back in January I changed the car on my Coverbox insurance policy to a Daewoo, I did some searching on-line and found some very cheap premium prices that i would be happy with. I rung Coverbox to change the car details over, payed a small fee, as you do..They told me the final payment i would make to them would be £118 (A Lot I know but this included whatever fee for changing the car on the policy).

I asked the lady on the phone if she could give me a quote for next year, as my insurance only had just over a month left, which she told me she couldn't do. I told her i'd found some very cheap policies on-line and that if she couldn't give me a price then and there, that i would be purchasing one of these policies. i.e Leaving Coverbox. She couldn't do so, so i asked her to summarise again that the FINAL payment i would be making to Coverbox would be £115 on 15th of March.

In that time i bought a new policy with Churchil. Didn't think any more of Coverbox, the last payment would be made on the 15th, and my Churchill policy would start the same day at midnight.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, Im going through my online bank statements only to find money coming out of my DD for Coverbox on April 15th. I ring them up to complain. I told the lady on the phone, when i rung them back in January i was told LAST payment would be march 15th, and that I would be taking up a policy somewhere else. She apologized and told me she would cancel the policy. I asked about a refund and was told all the money that had came out my account after march 15th would be refunded within the week. Which it was. Happy days. Thought that would be the end of the situation.

Few days ago I receive a letter from coverbox demanding £217 as a cancellation fee. Never in the two previous phone calls was a cancellation fee brought up by either advisor. Despite one 15 minute phone call sorting out cancellation of a policy I was led to believe was closed.

I rung them back up yesterday, had a very long argument with the lady on the other end. £217 is simply outrageous. I believe I was misinformed over the situation. She told me she would have to listen to the phone call I made back in January, Which she did, and then explained that I had not categorically stated I was leaving Coverbox. I told her I refused to pay, she told me that I had the Ts&cs in black and white, on which it states im liable for a cancellation fee.

I believe I made clear I was leaving Coverbox. Im willing to accept this may not be the case, and I would even pay a small fee..£20? £30 even? But £217? No way. I was told FINAL payment would be on March 15th, another phone call to sort out a refund, during which there was no mention of any type of fee for cancelling.

I held on for a long time with this woman on the phone.Eventually she said she would talk about this with her manager and call me back. Unfortunatly i was called into work and missed her call, but she left me a number to ring her back on, which i will do tomorrow morning.

Any views on this? Should i be paying £217? As I said, Id give in and pay a reasonable fee if It meant this was over. Coverbox are also withholding my NCB which I need to pass over to churchhil , just to make the situation even more frustrating.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

mikey72

Tell them you are formally requesting a transcript of the telephone calls you have made, and they have recorded. They may charge up to £10 or so for this. Advise them you will be refering the complaint to the FOS, as they were informed you did not want the policy to renew, and they agreed when the last payment was to be taken. Do not accept you will pay any fees, you require a full refund. If they do not forward the proof of no claims you will be making a second complaint to the FOS that they are not treating you fairly, and preventing you from obtaining insurance elsewhere and you will be asking the FOS to ensure Coverbox forward the proof of no claims, and pay compensation to cover the increased cost of insurance with Churchill until then, and an amount of £50 to cover your costs and time.

olly300

Just to add make sure you send your letters to Coverbox by recorded signed for delivery as many insurance companies will deny they have received your letter if you don't do this. (If you have sent one already just send them another copy by this method.)

Also make sure you clearly mark your letter "Formal Complaint" at the top. Lots of companies have a trick of not assigning a letter as a complaint letter unless it states this.

Finally don't be afraid of using the FOS as while it may take 6-9 months to be assigned an adjudicator they will try and sort out your complaint.

jezzza

mikey72 wrote: »

Tell them you are formally requesting a transcript of the telephone calls you have made, and they have recorded. They may charge up to £10 or so for this. Advise them you will be refering the complaint to the FOS, as they were informed you did not want the policy to renew, and they agreed when the last payment was to be taken. Do not accept you will pay any fees, you require a full refund. If they do not forward the proof of no claims you will be making a second complaint to the FOS that they are not treating you fairly, and preventing you from obtaining insurance elsewhere and you will be asking the FOS to ensure Coverbox forward the proof of no claims, and pay compensation to cover the increased cost of insurance with Churchill until then, and an amount of £50 to cover your costs and time.

I had sort of similar problem with them. My car had been write-off beginning of Jan 2012. I was charged for the next to months.When called in Feb, gentlemen on the phone said that is everything is ok and cancelled policy, not telling that there would be cancellation fee or any fee whatsoever and yet still they want to pay £192 . Never received cancellation letter nor NCD letter. when called lady said that they need to listen to phone call recording and come back to me the same day. never did. When called again very rudely i was told that i have to pay or they send some sort of agency and take me to court. Any advice what to do?

Quentin

jezzza wrote: »

My car had been write-off beginning of Jan 2012.....

Did they deal with the write off? If they did, or there were any other claims, then the full year's premium would be payable.

If not, there would still be cancellation charges to pay (which will be set out in your policy).

jezzza

As far as i know it was another company who dealt with car. my point is that i didnt know about whole case until they send me in feb letter with £192 to pay. I would not cancel unless was sure that all is closed. And yet I have no letter(s) with regards to cancellation, NCD.
If I knew I would never choose CoverBox! Waste of time.

Quentin

Generally insurers won't co-operate over NCD proof etc if there are outstanding bills.

You need to get them to itemise what you owe, and if it's in line with the policy as far as cancellation charges are concerned, then either pay up or dispute on the grounds you were misinformed, and take it from their reply - using their complaints procedure to escalate the issue if needed.

rudekid48

something else to bear in mind - Coverbox are a telematics provider and so you will have had a box fitted in your car. I'm pretty sure that there are some charges to pay for the cost of the box if you cancel mid-term so I'd check your docs for this as it may explain the high charge..

barr182

rudekid48 wrote: »

something else to bear in mind - Coverbox are a telematics provider and so you will have had a box fitted in your car. I'm pretty sure that there are some charges to pay for the cost of the box if you cancel mid-term so I'd check your docs for this as it may explain the high charge..

Well the thing is, I had a box installed on the car I had when the policy was taken out, and my call in January was to have the car changed, which included installing a new box. We arranged for a box to be installed on my new car for mid February. The installer never showed up. I never chased it up thought as there was only about 3 weeks left on the policy.

My point is I was told the FINAL payment would be march 15th, and yet a new policy was created and money taken out of my account after that date

barr182

Quentin wrote: »

Generally insurers won't co-operate over NCD proof etc if there are outstanding bills.

You need to get them to itemise what you owe, and if it's in line with the policy as far as cancellation charges are concerned, then either pay up or dispute on the grounds you were misinformed, and take it from their reply - using their complaints procedure to escalate the issue if needed.

Can insurers withhold infomation with reguards to NCB? They're preventing me taking out insurance elsewhere untill i pay them £217? Doesnt sound right to me

dunstonh

Can insurers withhold infomation with reguards to NCB?

In certain cases, yes. Non-payment being the most common one.