One Call Insurance (car) cancelled without notice

vgunstone

Hello, my partners car insurance has been wrongly cancelled and wondering if you could give any advice. We received a letter on 3rd July saying his car insurance had been cancelled from the 29th June. So the car was illegally uninsured during this time. We contacted them immediately and they informed us it was due to a missed payment due on the 17th. We were  already aware of this and spoke to them on live chat (the only way we can contact them at the moment) and asked if the payment could be taken on the 26th June as we were awaiting a large sum refund. They did not attempt to take the payment on the 26th June and later informed us that we were supposed to contact them.

We spoke to them on live chat again and they informed us they had tried to contact us via text which we never received and an email which went into our junk folder. We received no formal written notice of the policy being cancelled. I appreciate that the payment was late but we had tried to make alternative arrangements which they never followed up on. 

It seems very unfair that the payment was due on the 17th and they cancelled the insurance just 12 days later on the 29th, without being informed and not a single person attempting to call us! This does not seem like a reasonable amount of time especially in light of everything that is going on right now!

One Call Insurance are now stating we owe them the rest of the monthly payments (£1800!) and they are saying they cannot reinstate as they are a broker and can only give a new quote (£7400!!). The cancellation is apparently in line with their "T&Cs" which state nothing about timelines, simply "they will cancel in line with the formal notice they send us" - but again we never received this!

We have started off the complaint process and informed it can take 8 weeks but in this time my partner is uninsured and needs his car for work. Are there any 'legalities' around this which I can use when filing my complaint?

Sandtree

To play devils advocate... so they did inform you by both email and letter; they cannot really be held responsible for your email company/settings deciding to flag it as junk (its always sensible to add your insurers domain to your safe sender list along with your banks, credit card companies etc).

8 weeks is the maximum time they have to resolve your complaint, after which you can go to the FOS even if One Call haven't given you a final response. Most complaints are dealt with much quicker than this, though the current situation isn't going to be helping timeline.

I think you'll be hard pushed to find an insurer, loan company, bank, credit card or anyone similar who will telephone you when a payment is missed... maybe when it gets passed to the debt collectors they then start phoning but their commercials are notably different. If you need insurance now then it'd be advisable to explain the cancellation for non-payment is being contested and ensure that the broker/insurer confirms a refund will be given for the extra premium if the decision is overturned (or go for a company without penalties for early termination). If this isn't viable for you then you will need to get your car off the road and SORN it whilst its uninsured.

vgunstone

The only letter they sent me was to say the insurance had already been cancelled, not 'X' days notice of cancellation. 

TELLIT01

What was the content of the e-mail which went to your junk mail folder?  If the text message wasn't received it's possible that the mobile number they have is incorrect.  If that is the case, there would be nothing gained by trying to phone you, the number would still be wrong.

vgunstone

The email in the junk folder also only stated the policy had be cancelled last week. There was no notice given.
They definitely have our number on file as we have also been dealing with a non fault crash with them phoning for more information regularly.

EmmyLou30

If you knew they hadn't taken payment on 26th as you agreed on the live chat, why did you not contact them to pay it on the 27th?

Fighter1986

You're going to have great difficulty with this as contractual payments weren't met.

It's the account holder's responsibility to call back and pay as soon as they're able to. 

vgunstone

I did not know they hadn't taken the payment on the 26th until I received a cancellation letter. Once I then contacted them on live chat thats when they informed me they did not take it. 

vgunstone

Fighter1986 said:

You're going to have great difficulty with this as contractual payments weren't met.

It's the account holder's responsibility to call back and pay as soon as they're able to. 

We did contact them and arranged for the payment to be taken on the 26th which they confirmed they were more than happy to do, we have not ignored them. It seems incredibly unfair that we contacted them with alternative arrangements and we are now being penalised due to them not following what was pre-agreed.