Changing car insurance while claim open

Manxman_in_exile

I was involved in a collision while driving my wife’s car. The other driver’s insurers have accepted liability for the collision and we’ve received a cheque in settlement of the write-off.
Throughout the period of making a claim we’ve not found our insurers particularly helpful and my wife is seriously considering changing to another insurer. However, the problem is that the policy was less than a month old when the collision occurred and my wife is worried about how much (if anything) she will get refunded back to her if she cancels the current policy. (She paid up front, not in instalments).
Today I have spoken to our insurers and had the good luck to speak to someone who was really helpful. He explained that although we’d received a settlement cheque the claim was still open on their files and would remain open until their underwriters and the third party insurers had finally settled any outstanding issues re things like car hire charges etc. This could take several weeks or even months.
He explained to me that so long as the claim was technically open it was not in our interests to cancel the policy as we wouldn’t be entitled to a refund (or at most very little refund). However, once the claim was closed on their books we might be entitled to some refund.
We’re getting a new car and we’re not sure what to about insurance. Do people on this forum think we should simply put the new car on the existing policy (for the reason above) and consider cancelling once the claim is closed, or should we cancel and go through the hassle of getting quotes from others, and lose any chance of a refund while the claim is still open?
We’re not looking at cancelling the existing policy on grounds of cost or anything – it’s just that we’ve had so much difficulty dealing with our insurers (until today that is) that we don’t want to go through it again. But then we don’t want to lose the premium we’ve already paid and then spend ages comparing policy details etc from other providers.

[Deleted User]

On the one hand you would be very unlucky to have another accident in your new car right away, so it might now matter if your current insurers suck. On the other hand I can understand you wanting to get away from them.

Any refund will be pro-rata, less tax and less some ridiculous "admin" fee they decide to charge you. Your new policy is likely to be higher priced too due to the accident, even if it isn't your fault. Might be best to just wait it out.

InsideInsurance

The OP has claimed off of their own insurance and so whilst the claim is open and a full recovery hasnt been made it is a "fault" claim and as such the policy would be payable in full if cancelled.

If they had claimed off the other party directly or the claim had already been fully settled then the above comment from Mojo would be true in terms of a pro-rata refund less cancellation fee (its not an admin fee and tax isnt deducted)

Most insurers will allow you to transfer the remainder of a policy onto a new vehicle after a total loss and so you need to compare the cost of doing this -v- the cost of waiting for the claim to settle and cancel after that + buying elsewhere -v- the principle of the matter

Smithers37

As above from InsideInsurance ^

If you do decide to go with a new insurer while your claim is open, it might be worth a telephone call to them to see whether they will backdate your policy once the claim when the costs have been recovered and it becomes 'Non-fault'. For the time being however, you will need to disclose it as a fault claim.