Home Emergency Assist cancelled

Herbs09

Hi : I was with HEA since 2016 and realised recently that our bank account provided a number of the services that I’d taken insurance on through HEA, so effectively I’ve paid out monthly since 2016 for cover I’ve not really needed.  It’s not been a massive amount but when I realised I cancelled my Direct Debit to HEA.  They then started to call to query, insisting the cover is still running until I pay £35 cancellation fee and I wished them luck as I feel that’s unreasonable given they’ve had zero claims from us in the years we’ve been paying them.  I can only compare it to Green Flag, who when I advised them similarly, refunded my 12 months cover fee.  Obviously Green Flag are an honest business and I’d use them again if necessary.

My question is: am I being unreasonable refusing to pay what amounts to 4 months of cover to cancel.  I feel they should simply cancel as they aren’t getting the monthly instalment and be ethical.  I don’t want to find a black mark on my credit for this though.   I’ve had to block their phone numbers (they rang 4 times on one day) and I’ve also blocked their emails.

JGB1955

Yes, you're being unreasonable.  You agreed to their T&Cs.  £35 is cheap to get yourself out of the contract that you originally agreed and signed up for.

MorningcoffeeIV

Herbs09 said:

My question is: am I being unreasonable refusing to pay what amounts to 4 months of cover to cancel.  

Yes, massively.

It'll be much cheaper for you to simply pay what you owe, than wait for additional fees to be added on.

You owe the money. Be ethical and pay it.

DullGreyGuy

Ceasing to pay is not you cancelling... they may cancel on you for non-payment or fraud/no intent to pay.

If it's an insurance policy, not all of these things are, then you would have to declare the cancelled insurance policy forever more if you allow them to cancel it for non-payment. The impact of the black mark on your credit file will be small compared to this.

You clearly dont understand the concept of insurance... you exchange the risk of a large loss for the small loss of the premium. Insurance works because those that don't claim fund the payouts of those that do claim. It's not some kind of weird IOU where if you hit a pedestrian in your car that the insurer somehow gets the £1m payout back from you over time. Generally you should be thankful you've not been in a position to need to claim than think you are losing out because your house didn't burn down this year.