Please help I’m worried car insurance

billiepiper14

I bought a car insurance policy through a comparison site on the 15th May and it was due to start on the 3rd June.

My circumstances changed before the policy started, due to the fact I was purchasing a property, and the property I was living in had been sold, so I needed to move out. I contacted the Insurer on the 25th of May by live chat to enquire about the cancellation charge within the cooling off period and how I could go about cancelling it as it no longer met my needs. The reason for that was my new temporary address details. I had inputted the new details to the insurer,  ahead of my policy starting and they had calculated that it would be an additional charge of £175 on top of the £522 I had already paid. At this point we were 9 days away from the policy start date. I explained my circumstances to the agent and the agent offered to refer my set of circumstances to the underwriter to see if they could look to cover me for a brief temporary address before the sale of my property completed and I could look to finally make a permanent move. The agent persuaded me to wait to see what the underwriters came back with and stated I had until 17/6/26 in my cooling off period. I was next contacted on the 27th and asked about the temporary addresses and how long they would be for. As I didnt know how long the  property I am buying will take to complete the sale I couldn't really give the underwriter anything too certain but replied with an answer on the 28th May the best I could. This policy was due to start on the 3rd June and on 29th May I received a text from insurer saying - "IMPORTANT your policy may be cancelled please click link and speak to live chat agents". I also got an email at 11.32 on 29th May stating "Following our recent communications, your policy is now at risk of cancellation. We've sent you a letter which provides more detail of why and when we are cancelling your policy and what you need to do next". I spoke on  live chat who stated "I do apologise you have received this, as explained previously the cancellation has been removed and therefore your policy is no longer going to cancel as we are currently referring the change of address over to your insurer". I again stated that I wished to cancel as the policy no longer met my needs. Cancellation was put through and I was told I was due a refund of £473 which was what I had paid minus the £49.99 fee which the insurer charge to cancel in the cooling off period. The agent said "I have now completed the cancellation of your policy for you. You will be sent confirmation of this to your customer portal, along with a breakdown of the cost of cancellation for you" I checked the portal 4 hours later and it was still showing as a live policy so I went on live chat and the agent stated "Yes I can confirm this has been set to cancel for you we will issue you all the details in the next 24 hours for you"

I then tried to take out a quote from another insurer which had quoted a couple of days earlier through Go Compare,  however I received a message when I tried to purchase the policy staing "Your insurance quote- On this occasion, our panel of insurers hasnt been able to provide a quote based on the details your provided. We're sorry we can't help, and thankyou for visiting the AA. If you can't find affordable car insurance, the British Insurance Brokers Association has a service to help you. Please visit BIBA here.

Am I right to feel concerned ? I’m just hoping they havnt marked this is them cancelling the policy rather than me doing it. I would welcome any advise Thankyou for reading

Brie

It may be that you are simply not their target market. They may not want to insure people who are older, live in a certain neighbourhood, have a particular occupation, don't have off road parking, whatever.

I think your only option is to try somewhere else.

billiepiper14

Thankyou for your reply I was thinking because I got a quote through comparison site a week before and they quoted that it was odd when I clicked to buy it they couldn’t insure me

Frozen_up_north

Beware that insurance can be difficult if you have had a policy cancelled by the insurance company, maybe they have put you down as defaulting on payments?

You can check your credit history with Equifax for free, download the "My Equifax" app, it even gives details of any car PCP finance taken out since 2010.

billiepiper14

hi Thankyou for the reply it was paid for in full so they are refunding me less the cancellation fee

Arunmor

Have you got the refund? Do you have the cancelation in writing?

billiepiper14

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82018833#Comment_82018833

Hi Thankyou for the reply. I have asked on live chat for a letter confirming I cancelled rather than them cancelling and they said they cannot do that but to save a copy of the chat transcript as proof that I cancelled. I’ve also emailed them similar but because I didn’t get a reply I then went on live chat where they confirmed I cancelled the policy

billiepiper14

not got refund as yet