car insurance cancellation

fivele

Hi all,

cut a long story short:

renewed my insurance over the telephone only to find a much cheaper deal else where, two days later. Cancelled my direct debit, telephoned them and sent a letter to cancel.

Didnt think anything of it and went on a couple of week later, when I got back i had a letter demanding a ton of money.

contacted them and said I cancelled, sotty woman said cancelling direct debit is not a form of cancelling the insurance.

They cant find the conversation and no record of the letter so demanding the money. I stated that the amended offer I accepted on the telephone was different from the renewal notice, therefore they should have sent me new documents to sign and the renewal its a not a renewal but a new quote.

They dont care and bullying me to pay! whats new!

any ideas please?

DCFC79

Well first of all you dont cancel the DD willy nilly, you call them and/or wrote to them cancelling the policy then if you find they have taken an extra payment your covered under the DD scheme.

As to wher you go from here Im not sure.

forgotmyname

Cancelling the direct debit does not cancel the insurance.

Have they cancelled it? If so you need to declare this to the new company. Who may also ask for a bundle of money. Worse if you dont tell them and find your not insured.

Did you declare having no claims to the new company? Because this will still be attached to the old policy.

So you maybe in a bit of bother. Best to grovel...

vaio

As phone calls to them will be recorded it's an easy job for them to listen to the call and resolve the issue

fivele

I did phone to cancel, they are saying they can't find any record of the call, suprisingly!

It's a farce as they want almost £300 for being insured for only a month. The fees for setting up, cancelling and extras they added are a joke and I can't believe they are allowed to treat customers like. What happened to customer service?

They never sent me any paperwork to sign so surly it can't he s valid contract as I never got the opportunity to check any terms!

rs65

I haven't had to sign paperwork for car insurance for many years.

vaio

fivele wrote: »

I did phone to cancel, they are saying they can't find any record of the call, suprisingly! .......

presumably your mobile/land line bill will show when you phoned them to cancel in which case lodge a complaint & escalate to the FOS if they don't see sense

forgotmyname

You dont need to sign things these days. By paying them you agreed to their terms and conditions.

The original policy is for a fixed term. 1 year usually. You chose to break that agreement and end it early.

vaio

forgotmyname wrote: »

........The original policy is for a fixed term. 1 year usually. You chose to break that agreement and end it early.

Terms like "breaking the agreement" are pejorative, the policy agreement includes the right to cancel and the terms that apply in that event. Ending the policy early is not "breaking the agreement", it's ending it early as allowed by the terms of the agreement.

The dispute in this case is about WHEN the cancellation took place.

forgotmyname

Terminate the agreement early. Is that better?

Just a play on words. Means the same to me.

Do you terminate a relationship or breakup?

vaio

yep, that's better then we can keep "breaking the agreement" & similar for things which are outside or breach the terms.

As for relationships....way too long ago to remember, I guess I dumped or was dumped