Fees for cancelling car insurance

diz79

I had insurance with A choice, they then started to contact me questioning my expected mileage and job. Once this was discussed, every time I tried to ring it was a minimum 1-hour wate on the phone roughly, prob more. I always got back to them an if the call took too long I would send an email saying I can’t wait anymore I have to go to work. I eventually got a letter saying if you don’t get back to us by the 10th September they will cancel my insurance. Obviously, I got in touch, when I finally got through to a manager on Friday 8th September, I said I would pay now, he said don’t worry Ill get someone to call you. I asked him if my insurance would be cancelled, he said no don’t worry someone will call you and we can sort it out. I think they tried to call me twice both times I was at work, when I rang them back same issues with getting through. Luckily on Friday 15th September I check my email, it says my car insurance has been cancelled, I assumed this may just be an automated email, it wasn’t, so spent Saturday morning trying to get through again and they tell me theres nothing I can do and its cancelled. I didn’t receive anymore correspondence by mail, what if I had drove on the Saturday without any letter, text or phone call informing me my insurance was cancelled?

 

I wasnt too bothered as they seem like an awful company and only went with them as cheap, they are now hitting me with an extra £160 does this seem fair to you and legal, I didn’t read all of the small print when getting the insurance, does anyone?

Total insurance £593.14 I piad £88.97 at the start then I think 10 instalments of £54.08

Total ive paid I believe is £88.97 plus £54.08

This is the break down they sent below...

Vehicle Make and Model	xxxx
Registration number	xxxxx
Policy start date	26/07/2023
Policy cancellation date	15/09/2023
Time vehicle insured	51 Days
Cancellation Calculation	Amount Due
Refund from insurer	£-363.53
Balance remaining with Close Brothers Premium Finance	£ 450.09
Retained commission charge	£24.34
Administration Charge at cancellation	£50.00
OUTSTANDING BALANCE	£160.90

Thanks in advance

born_again

In effect you took out a loan to pay the insurance.
So finance cost £86.56 to pay, plus the rest.

So yes it is legal.

Even worse for you. You now have to declare a cancelled policy on ANY insurance that you take out. If they ask "Have you had any insurance cancelled"
With the increased costs that brings.

diz79

OK, so is it justifiable to charge someone that much? Also I dont think they are a great company, from what I have read anyway. Regarding the cancellation, my new insurance didnt even ask, the only qestion I got was have you ever had insurance declined. Its quite clear it wasnt cancelled for any issue on my part, I had already said I would pay the extra to sort the mileage increase it was just a time issue it seems?

forgotmyname

You need to question them and get it in writing whether the cancelled policy is on file.  Until then you need to declare it
or risk future cancelled policies.

Bigphil1474

Depends what any new insurer asks. If they ask have you had insurance cancelled, then you have to answer yes. If they don't ask, you don't have to declare it.

DullGreyGuy

If you missed two calls from them why didn't you call them back? Even the best company is only going to spend so much time trying to outbound a customer.

You need to read your policy book on the fees for cancellation, the fact you took a loan (in this case an actual loan not a pseudo loan) is naturally going to make the costs higher as you've their costs to cover as well as your broker and your insurer. 

If you cancel in the first months of a policy its not uncommon for the days on cover to be calculated at a short term insurance rate rather than the annual policy rate but again that would have to be stated in the policybook

diz79

DullGreyGuy said:

If you missed two calls from them why didn't you call them back? Even the best company is only going to spend so much time trying to outbound a customer.

You need to read your policy book on the fees for cancellation, the fact you took a loan (in this case an actual loan not a pseudo loan) is naturally going to make the costs higher as you've their costs to cover as well as your broker and your insurer. 

If you cancel in the first months of a policy its not uncommon for the days on cover to be calculated at a short term insurance rate rather than the annual policy rate but again that would have to be stated in the policybook

I had offered to pay twice over the phone, they said they would get someone to call me back, they also told me I would still be insured there was no threat of cancelation after I had rung up regarding the letter of cancelation from 10th Sep, they called me back twice I had a busy week, they called me the 11th and one other day that week. So I had about 4 days, understandbly this is enough, but I had no more info or worry regarding cacelation until the Friday 15th when I checked my emails very bizare to me. I did try to call them, its all very odd from my point of view tbh.Yes normally I pay in full, but having lost my job recently I had to go the other way.

As previously stated I dont really care about the company it wad the money, now it seems theres a larger issue regarding cancellation, if you think its quite serious and could affect me long term, id be quite happy to persue legal action, as I never tired to avoid paying and dwas always very willing apart from that week, where I only tried once, but why would I worry if ive been told theres nothing to worry about, I wasnt waitng weeks to call.

diz79

One thing I must also add, I also was emailing nthem and they never replied?

diz79

Just found this on there website.  I spoke to them on the 8th about previous cancelation letter (dated by the 10th Sep), they assured me no issure. I never recieved anything apart from the 15th an email saying it would be canceled?

"If we are required to cancel your policy, we will provide you with 7 days-notice of that intention. This will either be by telephone, sent by email and/or post to your last known email and/or postal address that we have on file."

https://www.achoiceinsurance.co.uk/terms-of-business/

Ectophile

Have you tried raising a formal complaint with them yet?

diz79

born_again said:

In effect you took out a loan to pay the insurance.
So finance cost £86.56 to pay, plus the rest.

So yes it is legal.

Even worse for you. You now have to declare a cancelled policy on ANY insurance that you take out. If they ask "Have you had any insurance cancelled"
With the increased costs that brings.

Can you confirm if this is crrect as I dont want to waste time and getting a lawyer if it isnt please as refusal is very different to cancellation?

Many thanks