Cancelling car insurance

chrisfreelander54

AlSelley wrote: »

Chrisfreelander dear these monthly policies are such a shame. I only hope that someone reading this thread takes note, and makes a monthly no obligation insurance company. I mean, they attract some profits, but they give so little regard to us users. I for example am a woman with 20 years clean driving history, but they haven't reduced my rates in 13 years!! so mean!

This is my wife's car, as we decided to change or Meriva 120 BHP to a mondeo 140 BHP they decided to increase the premium from just over £400 to almost £700, their explanation was its a diesel car with more power, I sure wish I had not been in work when she rang to change the car over that day. :mad:

Buzby

vaio wrote: »

yep, and any unfair terms that breach the "treat the punter fairly" rules will be overturned by the FOS.

Their view on mid term cancellation is broadly as outlined in my previous post, I'd suggest anything that isn't generally in line with that should be referred to the FOS and they will assess if it is fair, irrespective of what the company T&C says

Actually most is based on common sense - not a seemingly unending tirade of 'its unfair' and expecting firms to bend over!

Please be specific - what is unfair in the provided scenario? Especially when the OP appears to hope for a short-term cover cancellation, at standard rates.

InsideInsurance

chrisfreelander54 wrote: »

please could you explain the the following as not sure what the mean, FOS, RTO and I assume that TPO is third party only?

As for claims, none have been made on the policy so far this year, would this make any difference?

I asked the insurer if it was possible to pay extra to cover me fully comp while in France and was told that they don't offer it as an extra but could quote me again with someone that does, but will still have to pay for the remainder of the policy I have at present.

TPO = Third Party Only

RTO = Road Traffic act Only - almost none existent but is lower than TPO cover as it only provides cover for incidents that happen where the Road Traffic Act applies so if you were on a 100% private land and had an accident then no cover

FOS = Financial Ombudsman Service - the independent body that you can escalate complaints to

Claims would make a difference because once a claims made the policy becomes non-refundable

From what you say you are dealing with a broker not an insurer

You could always look at a short term policy to add on top of your existing one as I think some of them do cover european travel

stynesruss

McKneff wrote: »

Do you have anything else lumped in with your insurance ie
RAC or AA, these cannot be cancelled and youwould have to pay for the whole year for them

RAC Insurance - avoid RAC insurance policy's

I have paid a full year in advance RAC Bike Insurance and not claimed at all on the policy in that period or ever claimed.
God forbid it I sold my bike as I needed the money RAC Insurance to cancel the policy that I am not going to use, charge £50, yes you heard it here they charge £50 to really annoy you and do their upmost to make you never return to using their company ever again.
Can you tell I might be slightly annoyed with this joke of an organisation !!!!!
I have never been charged a cancellation fee before when I have paid in full at the start.
DONT USE RAC

Please share, don't get ripped off by RAC Insurance.

monyman

stynesruss I'm confused - if you have paid for the year in advance why would you need to cancel the insurance if you sold the bike? Just let it run and expire at the end of twelve months?

Buzby

RAC fully disclose that cancellations are provided with a 50% reduction. The have done so yo years, so if you didn't know - then you had to have ignored the cancellation terms of your policy. So that wasn't the RAC's fault.

You seem to have wanted to realise money quickly from the sale of your asset, so it would have been very naive to believe the insurance would have been refunded pro-rata, and I do not believe there is a single provider anywhere who would do this without levying any charge.

thenudeone

monyman wrote: »

stynesruss I'm confused - if you have paid for the year in advance why would you need to cancel the insurance if you sold the bike? Just let it run and expire at the end of twelve months?

You MUST NOT allow a policy to continue after you've sold a vehicle.

If someone has an accident in it and isn't insured, YOUR insurer will probably be forced to pay out to any third parties under a little-known part of the law, since they have issued a policy on the vehicle, and that policy is still valid.

The law which forces them to pay is here: s151 (2) b)
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/151

Your insurer will then come after YOU to repay them, because they have only had to pay because you would have broken a fairly reasonable term of the insurance contract, which is to inform them if you no longer own the vehicle.

So it is essential to cancel (or pause if possible) a policy once you sell any vehicle.

AlSelley

Oh my!! I'm so sorry to hear, what a sneaky company!! You see, this is the continued style of insurance companies. If anyone has every encountered a good willed and ethical insurance company I would love to hear about it. A new business model is needed in insurance, and can be afforded. These guys make such huge money, that there IS room for the ethical players!!

InsideInsurance

AlSelley wrote: »

Oh my!! I'm so sorry to hear, what a sneaky company!! You see, this is the continued style of insurance companies. If anyone has every encountered a good willed and ethical insurance company I would love to hear about it. A new business model is needed in insurance, and can be afforded. These guys make such huge money, that there IS room for the ethical players!!

Insurers dont make huge money, particularly not in Motor. For many Motor is almost a loss leader for their other products.

The problem is that "ethical" is something that is very difficult for people to agree on. Take auto renewal for example, you get plenty of people on here complaining about it but in a good proportion of those cases they'd have been driving without insurance if it werent for auto renewal because they'd filled the paperwork and forgotten about it. So would an ethical insurer use auto renewals or not?

There was an interesting article presented by the Post Office insurance a few years ago too as they are seen as an "ethical" company and they found that on aggregators the overwelming majority of customers will only buy from them if they are the cheapest which would suggest people arent willing to pay anything for the "benefits" of being with an ethical company.

In this case the OP simply bought the cheapest product he could on a non-advised sale and then has come to realise the cheapest wasnt the best for them. A non-advised sale means its your responsibility to check its going to meet your needs not the sellers responsibility to ask probing questions to find out if you are likely to want european cover etc.

Of cause you could buy a full fat product from the likes of Hiscox or Chubb or any of the other HNW providers and you will find that the cover is massively wider, that everything is so much less of a problem for them but you are paying 2-3 times the premium of a budget insurer.