'Fault' insurance claim resulting in loss of annual premium

K-Lye

[EDITED]

After some advice folks!

So I've just got off the phone to my insurance company having been told that I am not entitled to *any* refund of my insurance premium (I paid annually up front - fully comprehensive) due to an accident in which I was deemed at 'fault'.

So firstly, I'm sure there's some minor small print in the T&C's backing their position but surely they can't be allowed to get away with that? I'm only 1 month into my new policy and I fundamentally don't understand why I should be penalised more compared to someone who was 12 months into their policy?

Illustrated as thus (to avoid the confusion):

Driver A buys £600 insurance in Jan 2012.
In Feb 2012 he has an accident and cancels his policy.
He then re-buys his insurance at £500 (£600 minus 2 months carried into 2013).
Total cost for 2012: £1100
Or put another way Driver A pays £1200 for 14 months insurance.

Driver B buys £600 insurance in Jan 2012.
In Nov 2012 he has an accident and cancels his policy.
He then re-buys his insurance at £50 (£600 minus 11 months carried into 2013).
Total cost for 2012: £650
Or put another way Driver B pays £1200 for 23 months insurance.

Secondly, assuming that once again the Insurance industry has me once again utterly over a barrel.. would they not be required to tell me I would lose my premium when I called to cancel my policy a couple of weeks ago? Had I known this would be the case then I very much expect I would have just moved to re-insure another vehicle!

Torry_Quine

You pay for an annual policy and you have made a claim under that policy so there is nothing to be refunded. If you had been paying monthly they would have wanted the remainder of the money. Don't understand your surprise this is nothing new.

K-Lye

Torry_Quine wrote: »

You pay for an annual policy and you have made a claim under that policy so there is nothing to be refunded. If you had been paying monthly they would have wanted the remainder of the money. Don't understand your surprise this is nothing new.

You fail to address my question about how that's fair compared to someone claiming at the end of their policy term.

Quentin

K-Lye wrote: »

.....Secondly, assuming that once again the Insurance industry has me once again utterly over a barrel.. would they not be required to tell me I would lose my premium when I called to cancel my policy a couple of weeks ago? Had I known this would be the case then I very much expect I would have just moved to re-insure another vehicle!

They cannot be expected to go through the ts + cs with you when you are giving instructions to cancel a policy, and therefore don't want to be covered by them any more - otherwise why cancel!

Nothing to lose by playing helpless and asking them to cancel the cancellation.

Torry_Quine

K-Lye wrote: »

You fail to address my question about how that's fair compared to someone claiming at the end of their policy term.

It's not a case of fair or not it's simply the way that insurance works, surely you realise that.

K-Lye

Quentin wrote: »

They cannot be expected to go through the ts + cs with you when you are giving instructions to cancel a policy, and therefore don't want to be covered by them any more - otherwise why cancel!

Nothing to lose by playing helpless and asking them to cancel the cancellation.

Of course not but something as fundamental as "you won't get any money back" is not unreasonable!

Quentin

K-Lye wrote: »

You fail to address my question about how that's fair compared to someone claiming at the end of their policy term.

Why are you crying unfair when you are to blame! (For not bothering to read and understand your policy when you took out the policy)

And it isn't unfair, whenever you make a claim on a motor policy it means the premium is due in full.

K-Lye

Torry_Quine wrote: »

It's not a case of fair or not it's simply the way that insurance works, surely you realise that.

I'm sorry but I live in a world where as a customer I expect to be treated 'fairly'. You might be perfectly happy to let insurance companies abuse their position but I certainly am not!

Thanks at least for confirming this is common practice.

K-Lye

Quentin wrote: »

Why are you crying unfair when you are to blame! (For not bothering to read and understand your policy when you took out the policy)

And it isn't unfair, whenever you make a claim on a motor policy it means the premium is due in full.

I'd invite you to re-read my original post and when you understand it better reply with a more helpful response. Thank you.

Quentin

Pointless you shooting the messenger!

(I have given you a suggestion to try - why not put your effort into that instead of ranting here?)

K-Lye

Quentin wrote: »

Pointless you shooting the messenger!

(I have given you a suggestion to try - why not put your effort into that instead of ranting here?)

I didn't come on here asking for people to troll my thread. I was asking for people to comment on the fairness of the practice and whether it was right to neglect to mention this on policy cancellation. You've failed to respond to either of these and instead criticised my position.. so how would you expect someone to react?