Kwik Fit car insurance - cant afford, cant cancel!!

jojonic

My car insurance policy auto renewed on 31st August 2012. I knew it was around this time (but am a little bit slack) so when I saw a payment for almost £90(!!!) coming out of my bank I was a little shocked. I called them today and this is what Im told.

* No they cant get the premiums down, the least they can do is just short of £60 per month (when other insurers are quoting around £25 per month)

* They cant even match the £40 per month quote that they gave me on GoCompare last night!

* They CAN cancel the policy but it will cost me.... £174.77 (which is £70 cancellation fee, the cost of insuring me since the end of Aug, £40.99 for excess cover (which I thought I paid in parts over the year?) £40.99 for breakdown cover (again, paid in installments usually) plus their £35 arrangement fee, minus the amount they took on my DD this month)

* There is no 'cooling off period'.

* They didnt write to tell me they were auto renewing because it was in my T&C's (which I last saw over a year ago)

I know this is probably my fault, but it seems awfully unfair. They want me to pay almost £200 right now so I can leave, or sign up to an insurance policy that is twice what any other insurer would charge me.

They also said that if I cancel the policy they would withold my NCB until I paid the balance.

Help! Please!

InsideInsurance

They will have written to you with your renewal quote and it will have said something like "you dont need to do anything and your policy will continue" which means you need to do something if you dont want it to continue.

There is a cooling off period but you are well outside of it now hence why you have to pay for the breakdown cover (and legal expenses if you had it) in full rather than it being a pro rata refund.

Ultimately you have admitted that you were slack, they will have fulfilled their requirements to post you the renewal notice and so really it is one that you have to chalk up to experience and ensure you dont make the same mistake with any other insurances that come up for renewal.

It really could have been worse though, if you werent on auto renewal then you would have been driving around without insurance for the best part of a month!

custardy

have you taken out another policy?

jojonic

Not yet. I was hoping to take advantage of the generous offer from Sheilas Wheels. I guess its another year of Kwik Fit then.

jojonic

What if I cancel it and don't pay them?

As far as driving around with no insurance... I thought I was - haha! Not driving around though because the car broke and we only just bought a new one yesterday.

Quentin

jojonic wrote: »

What if I cancel it and don't pay them?....

They will chase you for any money you owe them, just like any other debt!

(And won't assist you over any NCD proof )

k3lvc

custardy wrote: »

have you taken out another policy?

jojonic wrote: »

Not yet. I was hoping to take advantage of the generous offer from Sheilas Wheels. I guess its another year of Kwik Fit then.

So who's been insuring you in the meantime if you didn't think Kwik-Fit were ?

InsideInsurance

jojonic wrote: »

What if I cancel it and don't pay them?

As far as driving around with no insurance... I thought I was - haha! Not driving around though because the car broke and we only just bought a new one yesterday.

It would still be an offence not to have insurance on it even if you werent driving it unless you have submitted a SORN declaration on it.

If you cancel and dont pay either they just sell it to debt collectors and they will decide how far they are willing to go for the money or they will do that and void the policy meaning you must inform all future insurers (car, home, travel etc) that you have had insurance cancelled and see them either (a) run for the hills (b) point and laugh at the idea theyll insurer you or (c) triple the price - for life!

jojonic

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It would still be an offence not to have insurance on it even if you werent driving it unless you have submitted a SORN declaration on it.

It is SORN. Its broke!!

InsideInsurance wrote: »

If you cancel and dont pay either they just sell it to debt collectors and they will decide how far they are willing to go for the money or they will do that and void the policy meaning you must inform all future insurers (car, home, travel etc) that you have had insurance cancelled and see them either (a) run for the hills (b) point and laugh at the idea theyll insurer you or (c) triple the price - for life!

How can they 'void' the policy if I've already cancelled it?

It all smacks of very underhand tactics to retain customers even though their prices are not competitive. I did NOT get a renewal quote, I havent had a letter from them since I changed the policy onto the broken car back in April (I might be slack but Im good at keeping paperwork). Back then I noted that I needed to shop around for a quote in September - in error, I should have noted August.

I dont even know what the renewal price would have been for the old car... I can only assume that with £89 per month DD taken last week that, including all extras and interest, it was at least £800 - £900 per annum... you cant tell me thats competitive on a 1.9 diesel car worth £500 which is a group 21... esp when I have 7 years NCB and no points or anything.

And another thing... last night I got a price comparison quote on the new car, a 1.8 petrol, group 26, and Kwik Fit quoted £525 (going up to £589 with interest over the 12 months) - significantly more than the £244 I got quoted by Sheilas Wheels, but thats beside the point. My issue is that they couldnt match this price on the phone. The nearest they could get was £655 plus interest which took it to over £700.

I just cant believe that this is legal, honest or good practice. Yes, I could have done more, but to trap consumers in a higher than average insurance policy unless they stump up close to £200 just seems a little underhand.

I will be cancelling my policy, I'll think about paying them (they can go into my DMP with the rest of my bloody creditors) and they can just try and 'void' a non existent policy. I wont be going back to them thats for sure.

Last time I was with Sheilas wheels, they emailed me at the renewal time and also called me to make sure I was OK to go ahead with the renewal and see if any details needed updating - now thats good customer service.

InsideInsurance

Ultimately you can try and argue the fact you didnt receive a renewal notification which they must send but of cause (a) it may have been sent and Royal Mail lost it or (b) it did arrive and was binned/ put to one side assumed to be junk mail etc by you or someone else in your property

I remember a long time ago a former client did a survey of customer and circa 20% claimed not to have received renewal notices though 100% of them were manually sent them and so no doubt they were handed over to RM. Either RM is very wrong over its lost post rate or people are bad at dealing/ remembering their mail

They can refuse the cancellation as you havent paid for it but instead void the policy for non-payment.

Auto-renewal is not only legal but actively encouraged. If your vehicle had not been broken then you would have been illegally driving it around were it not for auto renewal.

Everyone knows from the constant bombardment on TV about all the new customer deals that are available and it doesnt take a genius to guess that if I got a 30% new customer discount last year that my renewal as an existing customer is going to be notably higher.

Certainly insurers dont make a song and dance and remind you constantly that your insurance is up for renewal because they legally only must send you a single notification. It is up to you to remember and the notification is there for you as a prompter.

Of cause we could ask the law to be changed to say insurers must send everyone 20 renewal notices but firstly you'll see that reflected in your premium and secondly you will get more people on here complaining about all the stupid notifications they are being sent and the trees being cut down when they dealt with the renewal even before receiving the first notification

x1x1

Sounds like sour grapes to me!

YES we all agree it is expensive and the way they usually at least double the previous years premium is borderline morally questionable.

Ultimately you're the one at fault here, you'll have to chalk this one up to experience.