Marshmallow car insurance!

AConcernedMotorist

Just wanted to post a warning for anyone considering Marshmallow for car insurance.

I’ve had a genuinely worrying experience with them over the past couple of weeks, and after digging through reviews it seems I’m far from the only one.

1. My renewal email said my “policy number and plan will stay the same.”
In reality, my premium tripled.
This wasn’t highlighted anywhere in the email – no mention of an increase at all.
I only found out by going into the app and checking the documents.

To me, that’s misleading renewal communication and definitely not in the spirit of “clear, fair and not misleading”.

2. Their “Marshmallow Fee” (a huge portion of the cost) is not explained.
When I queried it, support couldn’t tell me:

• how much of what I’d paid was premium vs fee

• why the fee was being treated as “used premium”

• where in the policy wording it says the fee is non-refundable

If the staff can’t explain the pricing, consumers don’t stand a chance.

3. The most serious part: they attempted to take a payment I had formally disputed.
I wrote to them saying the instalment was disputed and formed part of an active complaint, and that they must not take it until the complaint was resolved.

They tried to take it anyway.
This is during an FCA-regulated complaint process.

4. Complaint handling has been very poor.
Frontline agents gave incorrect information about my obligations during a complaint, and after I reported the unauthorised collection attempt, they largely went silent.

Given the seriousness of it, I’ve now:
– escalated to the Financial Ombudsman
– filed an intelligence report with the FCA
– frozen all further payments via my bank

Posting here because I know others rely on MSE for checking insurers before renewal.
If you’re thinking about Marshmallow, please approach with caution. The renewal accuracy, transparency around fees, and complaint handling have been extremely poor in my experience.

Happy to answer any questions if helpful to anyone else.