Car Insurance - Cancelling after Death

Pinkpig74

We are just in the process of working through my mother in laws affairs after she passed away in December 2016. We've sold her car and have today cancelled the insurance.

However, something is niggling but I'm not sure if there is anything we can do about it.

The car is 26 years old. She's owned it from new and the value on the insurance policy is £400. She has used the same broker for a number of years and in August 2016 they sold her a fully comprehensive policy for £128. On top of this there was a £32 administration fee, so £160 in total.

This seemed a little excessive to us, so we've looked this evening and can get a third party, fire and theft policy for less than £100. So, my question is, should the broker have recommended this to her - bearing in mind the car is only worth £400 and the excess is £100. Also, the admin fee seems a lot as it was just renewal, nothing had changed so not a huge amount of work involved, we can't understand how these costs have been determined.

Obviously, she's not here to ask and she may well have been offered some alternatives but when we've spoken to the broker today they didn't offer any explanation about why they made these recommendations nor can they tell us what discussions were had, so I'm just wondering if it's worth pursuing through an official complaint.

It just feels like she was taken advantage of a little bit and we may not have a leg to stand on, but if some correspondence helps to change a process or two to stop others being out of pocket then it seems worthwhile.

agrinnall

Many older people refuse to change service providers, I have tried and failed to get my mum to change her energy suppliers, although my sister did manage to get her to change her home insurance. If your MiL was of sound mind then she made her own decisions on what insurance she took out and it's really not your place to attempt to challenge that now.

Pinkpig74

Thanks - I'm sure it's a bit of frustration on our part that we didn't think to ask her about these kind of things before. However, we still have opportunities with gas/electric and other insurances with my FiL!

I appreciate the quick response. Thanks again.

gycraig_2

I know it's a hard time for you but you aren't the account holder I can't see a complaint being worth the time or effort at a time like this

paddedjohn

Third party insurance would only cover the third parties losses in the event of an accident caused by your mil, for the extra £60 she was covered for her own car and self in the event of an accident caused by her. Not a bad price tbf.

Quentin

paddedjohn wrote: »

Third party insurance would only cover the third parties losses in the event of an accident caused by your mil, for the extra £60 she was covered for her own car and self in the event of an accident caused by her. Not a bad price tbf.

The comprehensive "cover" you might get included for yourself getting injured/dying in a car incident will be very small (max is around £5k), and whilst worth having isn't much use (injuries that are covered are limited)


So if you want proper cover for injuries/death in a road incident you are to blame for, then you need proper insurance cover separate from relying on comprehensive motor insurance

mattk_180

The broker can't recommend anything. They can give options based on the request of the insured and it is then down to said insured to choose what type of policy they want.


If she originally asked/wanted fully comp then they would have just continued on that basis until such time that she asked for it to be different. They certainly wouldn't be in the game of offering less coverage unless it is specifically asked for.

molerat

In many cases fully comp can be cheaper than TPF&T, in my case it has been for the past several years.