Just cancelled my car insurance - money will be back on 12th December!?!?!?

jamesmartin77

Hi all.. I have just asked my aunt and she said this is normal - but i cannot get my head around it...

I paid a £50 cancellation fee to M&S to cancel my car insurance as I have a cheaper price elsewhere I have already paid up front annually for, and am due £1098 to be refunded from Marks and Spencers - but they have told me to expect it around the 12th of December!?

Thats 12 working days, or 16 days in total surely that cannot be fair or reasonable?? I want to write an email to the FCA and demand the cancellation fee back as an interest payment on them holding £1000 back for 2 weeks+

What do you think?

bigisi

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

Hi all.. I have just asked my aunt and she said this is normal - but i cannot get my head around it...

I just paid a £50 cancellation fee to M&S to cancel my carinsurance as I have a cheaper price elsewhere I have already paid up front annually for, and am due £1098 to be refunded from Marks and Spencers - but they have told me to expect it around the 12th of December!?

Thats 12 working days, or 16 days in total surely that cannot be fair or reasonable?? I want to write an email to the FCA and demand the cancellation fee back as an interest payment on them holding £1000 back for 2 weeks+

What do you think?

What do the terms and conditions you agreed to when you bought the insurance say about it?

FCA won't entertain you if this is covered in the T&Cs and definitely not if you haven't exhausted M&S's internal complaints perocedure first.

Take a breath, count to ten then read your T&Cs. You're going all gung ho about this when you probably (most likely) don't have any cause to be angry.

Quentin

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

.....I want to write an email to the FCA and demand the cancellation fee back as an interest payment on them holding £1000 back for 2 weeks+

What do you think?

Waste of time


Just await their payment. If it's late then start banging on at them

[Deleted User]

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

What do you think?

Madness on every level.

dunstonh

I want to write an email to the FCA and demand the cancellation fee back as an interest payment on them holding £1000 back for 2 weeks+

The FCA do not handle consumer complaints. So contacting them is pointless. They will just forward your letter to M&S.
The FOS consider £50 reasonable as a fee.

And the time to refund is not unreasonable and quoting maximum service standard doesn't mean it will take that long. Plus, 5 of those days are probably being allowed for clearing (whilst 3 days is the norm, payments to some (ex) building societies can take a further 2 days.

What do you think?

I think you are being silly and unreasonable. Especially as its only around 2p per day being lost in interest.

trailingspouse

I'd put my money on you getting your money sooner than that.

Most sensible companies will 'Under promise and over perform'. Which means they tell you it will take a bit longer than it actually will. This gives them a bit of wriggle room if things do go a bit wrong, but means that most of the time their customers are pleasantly surprised.

jamesmartin77

for a forum of people who are supposed to champion consumer rights, you are all suprisingly willing to lay down and take a beating. i hope none of you are the man of the house. i agree this is no war crime, but surely it is still unneccessarry and unfair to keep £1000 for 16 days.. ?

some would suggest it is a tactic to reduce market competition- which the FCA would have great interest in... luckily i have enough in the bank to pay for insurance elsewhere whilst i wait for this refund, most consumers would not

Comms69

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

for a forum of people who are supposed to champion consumer rights, you are all suprisingly willing to lay down and take a beating. i hope none of you are the man of the house. - what has that got to do with anything? i agree this is no war crime, but surely it is still unneccessarry and unfair to keep £1000 for 16 days.. ? - cool, go to court - that will only take 6-8 weeks

some would suggest it is a tactic to reduce market competition- which the FCA would have great interest in... luckily i have enough in the bank to pay for insurance elsewhere whilst i wait for this refund, most consumers would not

There is little to be gained listening to idiots..

trailingspouse

I'm hoping the OP will come back when he's received the money...

Kynthia

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

for a forum of people who are supposed to champion consumer rights, you are all suprisingly willing to lay down and take a beating. i hope none of you are the man of the house. i agree this is no war crime, but surely it is still unneccessarry and unfair to keep £1000 for 16 days.. ?

some would suggest it is a tactic to reduce market competition- which the FCA would have great interest in... luckily i have enough in the bank to pay for insurance elsewhere whilst i wait for this refund, most consumers would not

What kind is sexist claptrap is that?

Some might say a it's a tactic to reduce market competition. Others might say that's nonsense as generally people wouldn't know how long it would take to get their money after cancelling so it would have no effect on their decision. Plus most people don't cancel as they usually find the best deal before buying or not at all so again it would have little effect.

Complain to who you like. You might even get a goodwill gesture. However throwing a fit because people on this site didn't agree with you doesn't seem her grown-up.

antrobus

jamesmartin77 wrote: »

...

Thats 12 working days, or 16 days in total surely that cannot be fair or reasonable?? I want to write an email to the FCA and demand the cancellation fee back as an interest payment on them holding £1000 back for 2 weeks+

Best buy instant access rate is 1.5%. The loss of interest on £1,098 for two weeks would be about 63p.

The FCA does not deal with complaints.