1st Central - Cancelling scam

mys1234

I am having an issue with 1st Central car insurance, spending all today trying to resolve it. 

I thought that I had removed the auto-renewal, but after several months I have discovered through bank statements I am still paying for my insurance even after selling the car. 

Therefore I went on the website of 1st Central to try and cancel and could not find how to do this in any way. I ended up calling 1st Central 5 times today without success to try and cancel this policy and backdate the cancellation to the date when I sold my car. 

The sales assistants are unhelpful and asked me to send an email to confirm my cancellation. When I called back in 30 minutes as requested they then advisled I needed to include a PDF of the confirmation of sale. Recent sales confirmations sent by DVLA are online and by email  so I included this. When I sent this I was first told after 1 hour of waiting as their systems "take a long time to process emails" that they did not receive the email. I then sent the email multiple times again and was told by a customer service staff that the email confirmation with all of the tramsaction id, model, make and registration plate was not enough. I was told to send a V5C logbook or VQ7.

I told them I have no idea what a VQ7 is and tried searching online and can find no mention of this. I also said how can I provide a V5C when DVLA advised me to destroy this when I sold the car on their confirmation of sale email. I was given a phone number which their manager advised was for DVLA customer service I need to speak with, when I tried the number I found out it was out of service. 

At this stage I feel I am being scammed by 1st Central and do not know what to do. Should I take them to small claims court and force cancel my direct debt? I do not know how else to escalate this. 

Thanks 

Keep_pedalling

Unfortunately you seem to have actually failed to cancel the auto renewal, this is not a scam. The big worry here is that 1st Central still have your old car covered and if it is involved in an accident you could be in serious trouble if the new owner does not have their own insurance policy.

I also have no idea what VQ7 is (a Google search only comes up with a potato peeler), and don’t really know why they won’t just cancel the policy. 

mys1234

Thanks for the comment. I definitely edited my policy on their website portal but it doesn't work for me. 

In the end I called up my bank and performed direct debit indemnity claim. Following this I actually called DVLA and mentioned what they say they required and the person laughed out loud and said they never heard anything so ridiculous in 5 years working for DVLA. It's a ridiculous company.

They have passed my now "unpaid payments" to a debt collector, after I mentioned the DVLA is sending me a postal version of the sale of car. Look forward to seeing them in court and counterclaiming for waste of time through financial ombudsman. Not the first company I have won compensation from for poor malpractices 

DullGreyGuy

mys1234 said:

Thanks for the comment. I definitely edited my policy on their website portal but it doesn't work for me. 

In the end I called up my bank and performed direct debit indemnity claim. Following this I actually called DVLA and mentioned what they say they required and the person laughed out loud and said they never heard anything so ridiculous in 5 years working for DVLA. It's a ridiculous company.

They have passed my now "unpaid payments" to a debt collector, after I mentioned the DVLA is sending me a postal version of the sale of car. Look forward to seeing them in court and counterclaiming for waste of time through financial ombudsman. Not the first company I have won compensation from for poor malpractices 

They may also void your policy for non-payment which you will need to declare for life. 

dunstonh

In the end I called up my bank and performed direct debit indemnity claim. Following this I actually called DVLA and mentioned what they say they required and the person laughed out loud and said they never heard anything so ridiculous in 5 years working for DVLA. It's a ridiculous company.

The DD indemnity scheme is not meant to be used for something like this.   All you have done now is put yourself in debt to the insurer, who can record that as an unpaid debt on your credit file and log it so other insurers can see that you have a policy voided for non-payment.

They have passed my now "unpaid payments" to a debt collector, after I mentioned the DVLA is sending me a postal version of the sale of car. Look forward to seeing them in court and counterclaiming for waste of time through financial ombudsman. Not the first company I have won compensation from for poor malpractices 

As it stands, you are digging holes for yourself.

There are ways to do these things.   You are choosing the hard way.