Masterquote home insurance - cancel after cooling off

misterpaul

I took out an Asda home contents insurance policy around 8 years ago as it was a quite a low price and provided all the cover I needed. At some point over the years, this became a 'Masterquote' policy and the price has gradually crept up. My policy just automatically renewed itself at the start of the month but last night on reading through my documents, I realised why the price has been getting higher - they have added legal cover and key cover and are charging me around 30% interest APR on my monthly payments!

I immediately had a quick look online and found that I can get the same or better cover for less than half of the price elsewhere so I called up Masterquote today to ask to cancel. They told me that because I had gone over the 2 week cooling off period for this year (6 days over), I would need to pay an early termination fee. Fair enough I thought.. until they told me the fee. Essentially, having already made one month's payment and being less than three weeks in to my policy, they want to charge me around £150 to end the policy. Almost the entire year's premium!

I am more than willing to pay a sensible early termination fee if I have to but this seems ridiculous. I have raised a complaint and will push it as far as I can but if they stick to their guns, do I have any way out of this? I have lost all faith in their company and even if they were to give me the policy for free I think I'd rather cancel now!

Any advice would be highly appreciated (other than the obvious to check documents before renewals kick in )

Quentin

As long as they are acting in line with their ts + cs (which you will have agreed to accept), then you are relying on either a goodwill gesture or them deciding to "pay you off" rather than dealing with your complaint should you escalate it to the FOS.


If they are acting outside their ts + cs then obviously fight them all the way!

paddyandstumpy

The cost of the fee has to be justifiable (to the FCA), so you could ask them to break down how they got to that number.

However; it wouldn't surprise me if the it broke down to a fee for cancelling (perhaps between £25 and £75), charge for the 20 days cover (perhaps they charge short terms rates, so it's not 20/365 of the annual premium, but perhaps 1 or two months cover?), a full commission clawback (why should the broker work for free just because you have cancelled) and if paying monthly, a "loss of interest" to the credit provider, again; why should they work for free?

Whilst it's perceived as not right, and I don't agree with it, I can see how it's feasible to get to that number. A lot of fees seem disproportionate to premium, you'd be grateful they are fixed fees if your premium was far higher!

I'm not condoning it, and I don't work for this Broker (or any Broker for that matter), I can see how it could be that much.