Cancelling Adrian Flux Car Insurance Problem

mrsthomas

Hi

Can anyone advise me please, my husband has his off road car insurance with adrian flux, he sold the vehicle yesterday and called them today to cancel, the total of the policy was £321.50 it was renewed on the 3rd November 2012 and they have turned around and said yes we will cancell but you need to pay us £282 to cancel and that it is stated in the T&C's I have read through them and this is all it says

Cancellations
If you wish to cancel your policy, you must first call our customer service team. DO NOT CANCEL YOUR DIRECT DEBIT PAYMENTS. You may be due a refund for your premium as long as no claims have occurred during your time on cover. You must return your certificate of insurance or a lost certificate declaration together with a letter confirming your cancellation request before we can cancel your policy.

Upon cancellation of the contract, it should be noted that insurance companies apply short term cancellation charges which are not proportinate to the anual premium and these form part of the contact offered, we would ask clients to realise such charges upon cancellation are applied by the underwriters and not ourselves.

Please note the prmiums paid for supplimentary covers are not refundable following cancellation.

Anyone else had this when wishing to cancel a vehicle insurance?

Thanks in advance.

wealdroam

Yes, it is normal practice to charge a cancellation fee and of course you will need to pay for the approx three months cover provided.

I do think that the outstanding amount seems a rather large proportion of the annual premium though.

Have a read of what the FOS has to say on the subject...
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/54/insurance.htm

halibut2209

It's more than just a large proportion! It costs more to cancel than it does to keep it.

wealdroam

halibut2209 wrote: »

It's more than just a large proportion! It costs more to cancel than it does to keep it.

You may be right, but I read it as it would only cost £282 instead of £321 if they cancelled.

dalesrider

wealdroam wrote: »

I do think that the outstanding amount seems a rather large proportion of the annual premium though.

Bet that is because the OP has been paying monthly.

Many of these are actually loans that you take out to pay the insurance in full.
Not just the policy split into 12 payments. Then of course there is then interest to add.

Its not uncommon, that as most ins policies after 9 months have no refund value. That cancelling after that point means you end up paying more than the actuall full cost :mad:

wealdroam

dalesrider wrote: »

Bet that is because the OP has been paying monthly.

Many of these are actually loans that you take out to pay the insurance in full.
Not just the policy split into 12 payments. Then of course there is then interest to add.

Its not uncommon, that as most ins policies after 9 months have no refund value. That cancelling after that point means you end up paying more than the actuall full cost :mad:

I understand all that, thanks.

But we are told the policy has been running for less than three months.

dalesrider

wealdroam wrote: »

I understand all that, thanks.

But we are told the policy has been running for less than three months.

I thought you might

That was just a example, as I wonder is the OP does.

So in this case we are looking at refund on policy running
3 months can be a 75% refund = £241.12
+ cancelation charge. ?
What is left to pay on the loan. £241.25
They are asking for £282

So that does not actually seem a bad deal

mrsthomas

Hi

Thank you for your replys, husband going to call them to discuss the payment today, we had just never come across this before as our car insurance on our daily use vehicles have been running for years so never cancelled one before mid term.

dacouch

Ask AF for a full breakdown of all the costs involved, they are obliged to provide this which will allow you to go through it properly. It may be a case when they type the document out they've made a mistake.

You will need to compare the fees AF have levied against their Terms and Conditions which you should have been given along with any cancellation charges the Insurer makes which are generally shown in the policy booklet. You will also need to look at what charges the third party finance company have made for cancelling the loan they provided for your instalments.

mrsthomas

Hi

Husband just spoken to adrian Flux and asked for a breakdown of the costs involved in this cancellation they came back and said they would reduce the payment by £90, he then asked again for the breakdown of costs as when we got the insurance all documents were emailed to us and there is no guide to cancellation charge costs.

They said a manager would call him back which they did and have now waivered the whole payment as they could not provide him with the exact breakdown, all they have asked for now is proof that the vehicle has been sold (not sure why they need this)

dacouch

mrsthomas wrote: »

Hi

Husband just spoken to adrian Flux and asked for a breakdown of the costs involved in this cancellation they came back and said they would reduce the payment by £90, he then asked again for the breakdown of costs as when we got the insurance all documents were emailed to us and there is no guide to cancellation charge costs.

They said a manager would call him back which they did and have now waivered the whole payment as they could not provide him with the exact breakdown, all they have asked for now is proof that the vehicle has been sold (not sure why they need this)

That's good news, they cannot enforce fees if they did not provide you with their T&Cs.

I'm not sure why they want this as I assume you had no certificate of insurance being an off road insurance. If you arranged alternative road risks insurance send them a photocopy of the new certificate, or a photocopy of a bill of sale or if none of these send them an officialish letter confirming you did not require the insurance as of what date