'Admin' fees & cancelling car insurance policy

paddyandstumpy

You still haven't answered what job you do, and whether it can be trivialised into 'pushing a few buttons'... I don't actually care (or expect you to disclose that) but I think it's unfair to trivialise other's jobs. It's demeaning.

Insurance is a highly regulated industry and that doesn't come cheap. Contrary to popular belief insurers often lose money in the motor market; to put this in laymans terms for every £1 they receive in premium they on average pay out £1.06 in claims and expense costs in running that business.

Historically insurers have made their profits by diversifying their book of business into other lines of business (like property insurance) and by investing the premium income. As this has gotten harder over recent years insurers are now focusing on trying to make profit on the premium income, this is called Underwriting Profit.

In the race to the bottom on price, to maximise sales and Underwriting Profit for the right risk; insurers are now often charging on an explicit cost basis, rather than smoothing costs over the whole book.
If you cause them additional admin (i.e a phone call for adjustments, or cancellations) they will charge you this cost. Infact, insurers now explicitly charge the admin cost to those who create the most work; which helps smooth out the expense and cost of the whole business.

Parting thought; if you'd taken out the policy via a Broker, they may have it in their TOBA that they will be entitled to also charge an admin fee, so count yourself lucky it's only 1 fee and £50.

On a side note do you not think it hypocritical to sign up to the insurer (therefore agreeing to their wording, T's and C's) and then complain about the very same T's and C's when they work against you?

As others have alluded, by all means complain and the insurer will most likely back down as the cost of you going to the FOS far outweighs the argued about amount. Whilst you may then get the desired result now; the longer term may result in insurers not charging fees, but adding a smoothed cost of the business to prices. If that were to happen, everyone loses except the insurers.

Nate_J

AstroTurtle wrote: »

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.

Correct, when I made the payment, I would say that was me accepting the T's & C's. I think this thread has side tracked a bit. Anyhow, my question was to clarify when the cooling off period starts, as that is my bearing on this whole fiasco. As, I quote from the T's & C's, 'If at the date of cancellation your policy has not yet commenced you will receive a full refund from us'. That being within the cooling off period.

I apologise if I came across trivializing their work and I am fully aware that cancellation fees don't just apply to car insurance, but that is besides the point. Telling me to simply 'get over it' sounds to me like I should just roll over and pay them the fee, which is disappointing, as they would probably would bank on customers doing that. But quite frankly, £50 is quite a sum of money, especially when trying bag the cheapest deal for the type cover you want.

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

You still haven't answered what job you do, and whether it can be trivialised into 'pushing a few buttons'... I don't actually care (or expect you to disclose that) but I think it's unfair to trivialise other's jobs. It's demeaning.

Insurance is a highly regulated industry and that doesn't come cheap. Contrary to popular belief insurers often lose money in the motor market; to put this in laymans terms for every £1 they receive in premium they on average pay out £1.06 in claims and expense costs in running that business.

Historically insurers have made their profits by diversifying their book of business into other lines of business (like property insurance) and by investing the premium income. As this has gotten harder over recent years insurers are now focusing on trying to make profit on the premium income, this is called Underwriting Profit.

In the race to the bottom on price, to maximise sales and Underwriting Profit for the right risk; insurers are now often charging on an explicit cost basis, rather than smoothing costs over the whole book.
If you cause them additional admin (i.e a phone call for adjustments, or cancellations) they will charge you this cost. Infact, insurers now explicitly charge the admin cost to those who create the most work; which helps smooth out the expense and cost of the whole business.

Parting thought; if you'd taken out the policy via a Broker, they may have it in their TOBA that they will be entitled to also charge an admin fee, so count yourself lucky it's only 1 fee and £50.

On a side note do you not think it hypocritical to sign up to the insurer (therefore agreeing to their wording, T's and C's) and then complain about the very same T's and C's when they work against you?

As others have alluded, by all means complain and the insurer will most likely back down as the cost of you going to the FOS far outweighs the argued about amount. Whilst you may then get the desired result now; the longer term may result in insurers not charging fees, but adding a smoothed cost of the business to prices. If that were to happen, everyone loses except the insurers.

You're right, I haven't disclosed what I do for a living and neither will I ( even though you don't care ). Although, I have clicked quite a few buttons in my working life.

Can see why you'd think it would be hypocritical, but you could probably count on one hand where they've worked against the company/business.

In my case, they could actually work with me (hooray), however the explanation of the cooling off period isn't quite black and white and neither does the insurer seem to be absolute certain.

dunstonh

Anyhow, my question was to clarify when the cooling off period starts, as that is my bearing on this whole fiasco.

No its not. The cancellation rights period is not a charges free zone. They re still allowed to charge within the cancellation rights period as long as the fee is in their published tariff.

You're right, I haven't disclosed what I do for a living and neither will I ( even though you don't care ). Although, I have clicked quite a few buttons in my working life.

Cashier at McDonalds ?

Nate_J

dunstonh wrote: »

No its not. The cancellation rights period is not a charges free zone. They re still allowed to charge within the cancellation rights period as long as the fee is in their published tariff.



Cashier at McDonalds ?

They may well be however the T & C don't show this as shown in my earlier quoted post.

Did you just trivialize the work of a cashier at McDonalds as just 'clicking a few buttons'? Well well.....

Amst

Nate_J wrote: »

Not my problem if they are not able to beat/match a lower quote from elsewhere.

You're right, it's not your problem if you can buy cheaper elsewhere but likewise, it's not their problem if you agree to renew and then cancel. One of the easiest £50's they'll ever make!

:rotfl::T:money::beer: