'Admin' fees & cancelling car insurance policy

Nate_J

FlameCloud wrote: »

You have created work for them. Why should other customers have to pay for your admin work?

Seems quite the contrary to me. I'm being penalised for taking them up on their quote.

We've found that I'm not paying the 'fee' for the work done to get the quote, I'm being charged to have an inactive policy cancelled.

Sure, I'm not denying that there may be some work involved to have it cancelled. But a 10-15 min job (being very generous here!) should not equate to a £50+ fee! That's ludicrous.

Should it not reflect the actual work cost implications of the cancellation for the business, so they are not at a total loss? And what would that be, a fiver/tenner absolute tops?

Quentin

Nate_J wrote: »

Sure, I'm not denying that there may be some work involved to have it cancelled. But a 10-15 min job (being very generous here!) should not equate to a £50+ fee! That's ludicrous.

You are on a loser here with this campaign - see #8 - £50 was OK with FOS way back in 2005


But always worth making a formal complaint to the insurer- some companies will make a goodwill gesture to get rid of the complaint rather than spend time/money dealing with it

Nate_J

Quentin wrote: »

You are on a loser here with this campaign - see #8 - £50 was OK with FOS way back in 2005


But always worth making a formal complaint to the insurer- some companies will make a goodwill gesture to get rid of the complaint rather than spend time/money dealing with it

Maybe, but how come the insurer has threatened an 'up to' £100 fee for this if the cap is £50?

I have been in touch with a formal complaint, awaiting a response as to why they think the fee is proportionate to the work involved.

Cheers for the responses

:beer:

dunstonh

Maybe, but how come the insurer has threatened an 'up to' £100 fee for this if the cap is £50?

There is no cap. The FOS ruling was about someone complaining that the £50 was unfair (this was in 2005 so inflation needs to be considered). The FOS found it was fair and reasonable.

I have been in touch with a formal complaint, awaiting a response as to why they think the fee is proportionate to the work involved.

They are not required to tell you why. They will either decide to stick to their guns or waive it as a goodwill gesture because they cant be arsed to deal with you. It will largely depend on their current workload.

Weighty1

Nate_J wrote: »

Seems quite the contrary to me. I'm being penalised for taking them up on their quote.

We've found that I'm not paying the 'fee' for the work done to get the quote, I'm being charged to have an inactive policy cancelled.

Sure, I'm not denying that there may be some work involved to have it cancelled. But a 10-15 min job (being very generous here!) should not equate to a £50+ fee! That's ludicrous.

Should it not reflect the actual work cost implications of the cancellation for the business, so they are not at a total loss? And what would that be, a fiver/tenner absolute tops?

So they aren't allowed to make a profit on the cancellation process? Imagine a business spends a full week cancelling policies and doesn't have time doing anything else. Should all money that business takes that week only cover their costs and NOTHING else?

Businesses are in business to make money, not be charities and work for nothing.

keith1950

Nate J.....the insurance premiums aren't "incredibly high" if your a low risk and have earned a decent NCD by "safe" driving.
I have two 4x4 vehicles, one with 2.2L engine and one with 2.0L and my annual premium is below £250 on both with breakdown cover and protected NCD. By running two cars I don't need to bother with courtesy car or hire car cover.

Quentin

Nate_J wrote: »

Maybe, but how come the insurer has threatened an 'up to' £100 fee for this if the cap is £50?

I have been in touch with a formal complaint, awaiting a response as to why they think the fee is proportionate to the work involved.

You have misunderstood about there being a cap of £50

No-one said that

£50 will be at the lower end of the spectrum for cancellation fees

But good luck on the complaints getting a result.

It often does result in a pay off as previously mentioned

lisyloo

The pragmatic answer is quite simple.
Make a complaint and cause them some work.
It's possible but not guaranteed that they will give in at some point because it's quite easy to cost them more than £50 in admin answering your points/letters.

Nate_J

Weighty1 wrote: »

So they aren't allowed to make a profit on the cancellation process? Imagine a business spends a full week cancelling policies and doesn't have time doing anything else. Should all money that business takes that week only cover their costs and NOTHING else?

Businesses are in business to make money, not be charities and work for nothing.

Why should they? They will no longer be providing me the service that I paid for. Even if they do make a profit from it, how can they justify adding a zero or two onto the actual cost of work to the business.

If a business spent the full week doing cancellations, it looks as though they'd be quids in at this rate! Plus, that wouldn't be all down to the customers fault, as clearly there is something wrong with their business model.

keith1950 wrote: »

Nate J.....the insurance premiums aren't "incredibly high" if your a low risk and have earned a decent NCD by "safe" driving.
I have two 4x4 vehicles, one with 2.2L engine and one with 2.0L and my annual premium is below £250 on both with breakdown cover and protected NCD. By running two cars I don't need to bother with courtesy car or hire car cover.

They may well not be for you Keith, but unfortunately you can't just choose to be low risk to an insurer without proving it via experience.

I guess I fall into a young driver category, however still have 6 years NCD.

dunstonh wrote: »

There is no cap. The FOS ruling was about someone complaining that the £50 was unfair (this was in 2005 so inflation needs to be considered). The FOS found it was fair and reasonable.

They are not required to tell you why. They will either decide to stick to their guns or waive it as a goodwill gesture because they cant be arsed to deal with you. It will largely depend on their current workload.

Sure, it would most likely down to a case by case basis. The fee must be proportionate to the work carried out. Which in my case, cannot be worth £50+, not far off a whole days pay for a task that could take them a negligible amount of time.

If they can't tell me or the FOS why, then they could simply charge £1000 for the cancellation then? No, because it wouldn't be justified.

AstroTurtle

Nate_J wrote: »

Why should they? They will no longer be providing me the service that I paid for. Even if they do make a profit from it, how can they justify adding a zero or two onto the actual cost of work to the business.

If a business spent the full week doing cancellations, it looks as though they'd be quids in at this rate! Plus, that wouldn't be all down to the customers fault, as clearly there is something wrong with their business model.



They may well not be for you Keith, but unfortunately you can't just choose to be low risk to an insurer without proving it via experience.

I guess I fall into a young driver category, however still have 6 years NCD.



Sure, it would most likely down to a case by case basis. The fee must be proportionate to the work carried out. Which in my case, cannot be worth £50+, not far off a whole days pay for a task that could take them a negligible amount of time.

If they can't tell me or the FOS why, then they could simply charge £1000 for the cancellation then? No, because it wouldn't be justified.

You're wrong and can argue all you like, your still looking at a £50 admin fee. When you first accepted the policy you agreed to their TOBA (Terms of Business Agreement) which meant you accepted these terms and conditions if you were to leave. You had a chance to say no to the quote BEFORE telling them to go ahead.


Unfortunately it's not 10 minutes of clicking buttons at a brokerage nor is it generating a renewal. Thanks to new FCA guidelines and the Insurance Act it's alot more than just "heres your renewal all dandy?"


When you told them to renew the policy wheels were set in motion involving generation of documents, renewal pack preps, letters typed ready to go out, systems updated with renewal information, Informing the insurer that your going to renew. Then you told them to reverse it all and hey ho! a £50 admin charge.

Get over it... and stop trivialising other peoples work to "clicking a few buttons" if you don't actually understand the processes. Cancellation fee's apply to a lot more than insurance - hotel rooms, car rentals, flight bookings, insurance, mortgage applications, cancelled appointments, loans, car finance etc etc etc.