Car Insurance cancelled!

soryan25

23/01/19 I got car insurance with Hasting Direct via money supermarket for £432.76 to start on 02/02/19

Today on 28/01/2019 I received an email to say Insurance was cancelled from 04/02/19 and I will receive a refund of £410.50
This is less £22.26 for 2 days insurance and £20 original Policy arrangement fee.

I rang the insight team as directed to from the online chat facility and was told that no reason was given that the policy was cancelled and I do not have to be given a reason from the underwriters!

I was concerned that this cancelled policy would affect me getting new car insurance so I was told that I could cancel the policy before it starts and it would not then be recorded as a cancelled policy by the insurer! This gravely concerns me as now if I do an insurance search for my car and answer no to the question, "Have you had Insurance cancelled", this would be a lie.!

I requested to cancel the policy as I was not interested in being insured for 2 days and then have a cancellation on my record. I also told them that I was within the cooling off period of 14 days and want a full refund. I was told that the arrangement fee of £20 would not be refunded as in the small print it says that the arrangement fee is up refundable no matter what the circumstances of the cancellation is!

I debate this again but settled for another £2.26 refund and for the policy to be cancelled immediately

An hour late, I received an email stating that they are sorry that I cancelled the policy and I need to pay the final fee of £26 that was owed. I was furious.
I call the company again and after another discussion for a half hour, i was told I would get a full refund in two payments, £410.50 and £22.26 but would have to wait 5 working days for payment.
I am so angry?

I would like to ask
How can I find out the reason why my insurance was cancelled?

I won’t know how much of an actual refund I will get for a week, if I do not get the full refund, what can I do?

I have now just opted to renew with my current insurance company, do I need to declare the original cancelled insurance although Hastings has reversed the cancellation to record it as I cancelled the policy? Got an email letter stating that I cancelled the insurance.

How can I find out if there is a record on my name that an insurance policy was cancelled by the company?

I am so distressed by this and the mar that may be left on my name

[Deleted User]

You need to determine if they consider your policy to have been cancelled by them, or if they are putting it down as cancelled by you. Unfortunately they tend to be useless at providing this information.

Best thing to do is write to them asking for clarification. Also make a formal complaint (how to do so should be explained on their web site and in the literature they sent you). If they have not resolved the complaint to your satisfaction after 8 weeks you can escalate it to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

You should probably call your current insurer and explain what happened, and especially mention the email they sent saying the policy was cancelled by you. Tell them that you have made a formal complaint and will keep them informed.

Mrs_Ryan

I think you’ll find you were told it can take 3-5 working days not it will take 5 working days.
And it depends on your bank, it can be quicker.
And if you’ve cancelled the policy then no it won’t go against you.
Keep an eye on your bank. If the refund doesn’t arrive, call them back.

bibek

Not trying to hijack your post OP but my mrs is in the exact same situation.Posted it on this forum yesterday

forums(dot)moneysavingexpert(dot)com/showthread.php?t=5957994

Having called Hastings Direct yesterday after receiving the cancellation email, they stated she would not need to disclose this cancellation to future insurers as the policy was not even active at the point of cancellation. It sounded like a BS to me so this morning called Swinton (chose a random insurer) just to get their view and the lady on the phone after confirming with her superiors explained the situation as "a refusal" rather than a cancellation as it hadn’t started so said we won’t need to disclose this.

However when you get a quote, the question is worded in a "catch all" way that it says "Have you ever been ...refused/cancelled/special term imposed" so I am still not convinced whether we need to disclose this cancellation or not to be honest. At the end of the day, if something happens, both people we’ve spoken to aren’t going to get in trouble, my mrs is.

Wondering if anyone knows more about this topic, little info on the web when a policy is cancelled by the underwriters before coming into effect.

Quentin

Ask the Swinton rep to confirm in writing that your "refusal" need not be disclosed and keep the confirmation on file throughout your time with them

bibek

Quentin wrote: »

Ask the Swinton rep to confirm in writing that your "refusal" need not be disclosed and keep the confirmation on file throughout your time with them

Swinton was just a random insurer I called to double check however after reading your comments, tried directline and got told we would need to declare a cancellation.

Mrs was on the phone again this evening to Hastings Direct and this time it was recorded on my end aswell and the lady from insight team confirmed on the record that if we want to voluntarily disclose the info, it will obviously cause issues however if we said no, and somehow the future insurer contacted them to confirm, they would reply them with a "no has not been cancelled" aswell as the policy was cancelled prior to inception date. Apparently we arent doing anything wrong by replying no to this question and also said theres no database where records are kept for cancelled insurances for this info to be shared.

She has reiterated on the record that we do not have to put it down as a cancelled insurance and when asked for written confirmation, told us they weren't able to send anything but said the call is recorded and we can save the date/time if any issues as well as putting a note on the account explaining things so someone else in future will not say it was cancelled.

Not sure if im still 100% convinced but the mrs thinks im being a bit paranoid now :rotfl:

Quentin

When the insight (??) Rep told her there is no shared database she was mistaken.

Ask them to confirm its not been put on her record and there is no necessity for disclosure when applying for quotes

[Deleted User]

Quentin wrote: »

When the insight (??) Rep told her there is no shared database she was mistaken.

Ask them to confirm its not been put on her record and there is no necessity for disclosure when applying for quotes

The database - if it holds records of all cancelled policies it must have a code to indicate the reason for cancellation. The OP should hit the providers of this database with a SAR to find out precisely what, if anything is logged against them. What is the database, and who runs it?


An insurance company cancelling, or at least refusing, a policy in the manner described is worrying. As suggested earlier, the OP should also lodge a complaint with the regulator.

bibek

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

The database - if it holds records of all cancelled policies it must have a code to indicate the reason for cancellation. The OP should hit the providers of this database with a SAR to find out precisely what, if anything is logged against them. What is the database, and who runs it?

An insurance company cancelling, or at least refusing, a policy in the manner described is worrying. As suggested earlier, the OP should also lodge a complaint with the regulator.

Thanks for this. Going to send a SAR today to MIB and see if there is a cancelled policy against her name. Even if they do not have this info, will be good to see what other info they hold!

QuagaarWarrior

Sounds like Hastings have got themselves in a mess again. Come on Hastings surely you don't want to go through all that again?

Hastings Direct fined by FSA after car insurance pricing error
One of the UK's largest direct motor insurers has been fined £735,000 after leaving thousands of its policyholders without car insurance after a pricing error.

The Financial Services Authority said Hastings Direct - which uses the 1066 number in its enquiry line - had failed to treat its customers fairly when it cancelling 4,550 policies after discovering they had been under-priced.

The problems occurred between July and September last year. Software problems meant that some customers were offered significantly lower premiums - in some cases by as much as £539.

A spokesman for the FSA said that the insurer "focused on the financial cost to itself and did not properly consider the detrimental effect on customers", many of whom had to arrange alternative cover at short notice. There was also a risk that with little notice some policyholders may have been left uninsured while the re-arranged cover.

The FSA said some customers may have had to pay higher premiums as they were obliged to declare that their last policy was cancelled.

Hastings is now contacting all customers affected, informing them that they could be entitled to compensation. Only those who complained about stress and inconvenience were previously offered any payment.

After FSA investigation Hastings also uncovered 150 cases of mis-selling where ancillary products were offered to customers when re-broking their cancelled policies.

Source: The Telegraph.co.uk - 28th July 2008

bibek

Wouldnt be surprised if theyre pulling this again. Quote for the mrs from Hastings direct were over £150+ cheaper than others!