Car Insurance cancellation

freddiefalco

Not sure if anyone can help with this - all contributions gratefully received!
We are currently changing my wife's car - insurance for current car is with Rias (never again!) with about 3 months to run. Turns out it's cheaper to re - insure for new car with Aviva and just 'lose' the remaining part of Rias insurance on old car. So far, so good. However, Rias will charge £35 to cancel insurance and provide only £7 odd in premium return for remaining part of insurance period. Seems crazy to me that we are going to have to pay £28 odd for the privilege of Rias not providing insurance for the next 3 months, but I know that it does have to be cancelled or suspended once old car goes to a new owner.
Not so much the money- more the principle, but any ideas on how to avoid paying for not having the insurance?

Justice13075

Cancellation fees are legal and the fact it is going to cost you £28 seem's reasonable. You can challenge this amount but for £28 probably not worth it. For your new insurance use a site that gives you lots of options like go compare etc. Do you have a cashback account for Topcashback or Quidco you can make good money from using those sites. What I do is find the 3 lowest quotes from a comparison site and then use a cashback site. I have made £100's over the years.

Goodluck

David_InsDef

Does your wife have full no claims bonus under the RIAS policy? i.e. if she has less than maximum NCB, it may be beneficial to the let the policy run for its full term to earn an extra year (assuming she has had no fault claims in the current year)?

freddiefalco

Thanks for both these responses - yes, £28 not a lot of money, but just seems daft that we have to pay for the privilege of not receiving the last 3 months of the insurance! Have very good deal with new car and gone through Quidco, so happy with that (presuming it pays!)
In terms of NCB - my wife has full amount, and I don't think we should continue insurance for car for car which will be sold to another person - read online horror story of person doing this and then being pursued for insurance payout relating to new owner's accident through their insurance being allowed to run on car they had sold.
So, will have to swallow the payment to Rias - unless anyone has any other ideas......

forgotmyname

Transfer the new car to the old policy, how much will that cost?

freddiefalco

Already looked at the transfer of new car to old policy - with cheaper deal through Aviva, still works out cheaper to go with cancel/ set up new - thanks though

Quentin

freddiefalco wrote: »

Thanks for both these responses - yes, £28 not a lot of money, but just seems daft that we have to pay for the privilege of not receiving the last 3 months of the insurance!

No.


You are having to pay because you want to change the goalposts (ie replace the vehicle you asked them to insure for 12 months) and don't like their new premium for the new car.


So you have chosen your right to cancel the policy - which is subject to cancellation charges which you accepted when taking out the policy!


Next time if you don't want to pay anything swap cars at renewal!

freddiefalco

Thanks Quentin - Yes, I understand that, simply wondering if there was a way to avoid paying out for effectively not receiving last 3 months of insurance (if they refunded anything near the value of 3 months insurance - about £50, it wouldn't be an issue).


thanks for all contributions - will go ahead and cancel Rias and collect savings of new policy

Quentin

You can always raise a complaint that you aren't being treated fairly as far as the refund goes.


Then if you are unhappy with their reply you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you.


There have been a number of posts where insurers have made goodwill gestures over similar complaints to kill them off rather than get involved with an (expensive for them) FOS adjudication.

freddiefalco

Thanks again Quentin - will chew this one over - may just leave it as relatively small amount


all the best