One Call Insurance - BEWARE BEFORE BUYING!!

micky007

Hey Ladies & Gents,


I need some advice, i took out a car insurance policy with One Call Insurance, i only needed the insurance for 4 months because i have a leased car and it ends tonight so the car is being collected tomorrow. I've contacted them today on live chat since their call centre closes at at 5:30pm and told the guy i was chatting to i wanted to cancel the policy as i no longer have the car from tomorrow.



He then tells me:

[FONT=&quot]To cancel the policy there will be an outstanding balance of £153.00, this is subject to no claims being made prior to the cancellation of the policy.[/FONT]

So i asked him what's the outstanding balance as I've never missed a payment and i don't owe anything. He tells me:

[FONT=&quot]The calculations of the cancellations are as follows: You are charged for any time on the cover as calculated by your insurer, this is the amount of the insurance you have used from day 1 of the policy until the cancellation date. We will then include any broker fees and any additional products you have taken within this policy term. In addition you will be charged the cancellation fee of £55.99.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The time on risk being charged by the insurer is £318.80, additional products including fees within the policy is £99.00. Discounts applied to the policy £5.00 + the £59.99 cancellation charge means the total cost to cancel the policy is £473.79. As you have paid £320.79 this leaves you with an outstanding balance of £153.00.[/FONT]

I didn't really fully understand what all that meant, he then tells me the following and please note, I've never paid for insurance monthly before, i only did it this time because i didn't see there being any point in me paying the whole year when i knew I'd only have the car for a few more months.

the direct debits are a loan which you are paying back for your insurance premium. The cancellation fees/charges are applied in our terms and conditions which you must agree to when taking out this policy and these are stipulated to you. The cancellation fee of £55.99 is a charged by ourselves for cancelling the policy, the amount of time on cover is charged by your underwriter which we have no control over. When paying monthly this does not cover your cancellation fees, time on cover etc. This is to pay back your loan in manageable payments which you have chosen to as this is a loan.
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[FONT=&quot]That is how you incur interest, sir. You are paying an insurance back monthly with 12% interest as this is a finance agreement with yourself to pay this back which you have chosen to take out, whichever broker/insurer you was to go with and choose monthly payments you would be paying back a loan in direct debits as this is to pay for your premium quotes. The price as calculated stands at £153.00 and we are unable to reduce this, if you do not wish to pay this in full we can look into setting up an interest free direct debit for you regarding this amount.[/FONT]

I never even knew i was taking a loan out, if i knew that i would NEVER of done this. So there now wanting me to pay the rest of the interest off and pay a cancellation fee.


I told the guy I'm not paying that as i didnt even know about the so called loan, i told him I'm more than happy to pay the cancellation fee but I'm not paying for anything else. I then went ahead and cancelled my direct debit with them since i didn't want them to charge me £153 and would pay the cancellation fee by card or bank transfer. We go back and forth during the chat and in the end i told him to cancel my policy (again). He then tells me that a direct debit payment of £98 will still come out of my bank tomorrow, i told him it wont as I've cancelled my direct debit since I'm cancelling, he then says to me that ill be charged a £30 fee because of a failed payment even though im cancelling my insurance.


Where does this leave me, i dont know what to do regarding the so called loan i have with them that i never even knew about and they want me to pay the interest.


Plus are they allowed to charge me a £30 fee for a missed payment even though I've cancelled the insurance and the payment shouldn't really be taken out of my account anyway? The payment he is talking about is my monthly insurance price, so as I've told them to cancel my policy and they have acknowledged i want the policy cancelled and he has email the cancellation team to do just that surely they cant charge me £30 for a missed payment even though I've cancelled, right?


Any advice would be great.


Thank you.

Ms_Chocaholic

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/articles/cancelling-car-insurance-what-to-expect/

Zorillo

You didn't buy a monthly insurance policy. You bought an annual one, and borrowed the money to pay it with monthly repayments.

The explanation they've given you is very thorough. They must be used to explaining it.

Complain if you like, but you may not get anywhere. The time to read your insurance documents is before you commit to buying it.

Quentin

Whenever you are not happy with your insurance company the route to go down is a complaint in line with their complaints procedure

Then if you are not happy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

Strategem

One Call Insurance and OCL solicitors are a hideous company. I rue the day I ever took out a policy with them. I'm not answering any communication from them. Thank God the policy ends this month. If you have a legitimate challenge they seem to back off but I shouldn't bank on it. Commiserations and hope you manage to shake them off. There is another forum on here that has 291 posts about them which I'm trying to find again. They still came up on my Moneysupermarket car insurance on MSE today so more poor suckers will be having to deal with them soon.

Willducks

I had such a bad experience with One Call that I've cancelled my car insurance immediately - I just don't trust them - and gone with the AA. The problem is that they have auto-renewal conditions written in to any insurance you buy with them. And It's just about impossible to contact them if you want to cancel an insurance up for renewal or especially if you want to make a claim. They have an endless series of Option loops which keep you trapped and when you finally get through it's not the right department. They either pretend they can connect you or not, but whatever, nothing happens. One advisor gave me a number and said press option 1 then option 5. As I found out there is no Option 5. I feel the whole customer services system has been set up to fail, that is you will not get through and will have great difficulty making a claim.