Cancelling policy after a non fault accident Help!

Ragutherottie

Hi 

I am currently insured by Ageas, on the 25th of April my car was involved in a total loss accident when another Ageas insured driver drove into me on the wrong side of the road. 

Ive had my settlement paid and i also had paid my monthly premium on the 28th despite not having a car at this stage.  I received a letter asking if i was transferring my policy to another car or wished to cancel.   Since im being quite picky about finding the right car I decided to cancel the policy.

When i called them i was told that if i cancelled the policy I would still have to continue to pay my premiums monthly despite no longer requiring the insurance.  Based on the following line in their policy:

"If you’ve had a claim during the cover period, or something has happened which might lead you to make a claim, then you won’t receive any refund. If you pay for your insurance on a monthly basis, we’ll also ask you to pay the remainder of the year’s premiums"

More so I was informed if I chose not to cancel I only had until the 16th of the month to find another car else the system would automatically cancel my policy and the above rule would still apply,

Surely this is total madness, I through no fault of my own lost my car now im expected to not only continue to pay this policy but also pay someone else for some actual insurance if i cannot replace my car by the 16th!

Can someone advise me this is correct or i got a dodgy CSR advisor on the phone ?

born_again

If you are paying monthly, then in effect they pay the premium & you have taken out a loan to pay it back. Which of course includes interest.

This is one reason why reading the T/C before taking out is a MUST...

Arunmor

My argument would be that you haven't claimed against your policy.  You probably need advice from the ombudsman which will no doubt come with some sort of caveat.  Best get looking for a car since time is also a major factor.

The other thing to remember is any new policy may be possibly loaded because of the accident and prices are up significantly this year so its going to sting a bit.

How long left on the policy?

Car_54

I'm afraid it's correct, and comes up often on forums.

Almost without exception, motor insurance contracts are for a year. If you pay by instalments you're not buying a month's insurance at a time, but effectively paying instalments on a loan of the whole year's premium. That premium is payable, whatever happens.

MeteredOut

Car_54 said:

I'm afraid it's correct, and comes up often on forums.

Almost without exception, motor insurance contracts are for a year. If you pay by instalments you're not buying a month's insurance at a time, but effectively paying instalments on a loan of the whole year's premium. That premium is payable, whatever happens.

Whilst I'd agree with that, if the OP had paid for full annual premium, and then cancelled the policy mid-year, they'd potentially get a refund, minus the standard processing fee.

So, if the OP has not made a claim, I'd argue a calculation on that basis could be made. Of course, depending on how many months are left till renewal, the effective refund could be zero.

400ixl

If the OP used their own insurance to manage the process of recovering their losses from the accident, then they have made a claim regardless of whether it was a fault or non fault claim.

If it was done as a 3rd party claiming directly against their insurance policy then you could say there is no claim against the policy.

It would all depend how the claim was initiated, especially as they are the same insurer.

Brie

There is also the issue of how much of a refund the OP might be intitled to if any.  

If the OP was half way through the policy year and canceled due to selling the car rather than due to an accident there wouldn't be a 50% refund.  There would be admin fees and an early cancellation fee and and.  So they might end up with 20%.  So a couple of extra payments would be required before payments would stop as they actually hadn't paid the 80% of the policy cost.  And there wouldn't be a refund at all as they hadn't paid in full up front.

peter12345678910

I know where you r coming from, 4 weeks is not enough to get another car. But we have no choice in this to transfer car insurance.

Ectophile

peter12345678910 said:

I know where you r coming from, 4 weeks is not enough to get another car. But we have no choice in this to transfer car insurance.

You can buy a car in a week if you're not too fussy about make and model.  That's usually how long a dealer takes preparing a car for sale after you've put the deposit down.

cw8825

Ectophile said:

peter12345678910 said:

I know where you r coming from, 4 weeks is not enough to get another car. But we have no choice in this to transfer car insurance.

You can buy a car in a week if you're not too fussy about make and model.  That's usually how long a dealer takes preparing a car for sale after you've put the deposit down.

To be honest that’s not the insurers responsibility. 

If you agree to a settlement 
they have in theory paid out enough for you to
go and replace the car with a like for like replacement (minus excess)
there is no valid reason to take 4 weeks especially with the amount of dealers that will deliver and operate remotely. 

ontheroad1970

This is where it is win win for insurance companies.  It's not monthly insurance yet if you fail to pay a month's instalment on the loan, then your insurance is cancelled for non payment - wait I thought the policy premium was paid for by a loan?  Insurance companies get it both ways.