OneClickDirect wanting to charge £50 to cancel a policy I set up hours before

lyle1993

Went with OneClickDirect home insurance after they gave me the best price on Quidco. It said 16.50 deposit, 9.50 per month direct debit, including legal and home emergency. Clicked through the screens and after I paid the deposit it then started asking me about adding legal and home emergency for extra cost on top.

Had several conversations with their live chat team, eventually got it so they included home emergency for no more cost. Then I checked the policy and noticed there was no valuables cover. Policy doesn't even start until 29th June, so I contacted them to cancel the policy I'd set up just hours before as wasn't happy with the confusion over the legal/home emergency and no valuables which I'd selected on Quidco. They said I can cancel but wanted £50 to cancel?!

I asked to make a complaint as that's completely disproportionate for a policy that's not began yet and was only just set up, and they basically told me there will be no point as there is no way they will cancel without me paying the £50 fee. Is there anything I can do?

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6672497/oneclickdirect-wanting-to-charge-50-to-cancel-a-policy-i-set-up-hours-before

What do the T&Cs say about cancelling?

Even though you were trying to cancel quickly, the company has aready incurred a cost in setting up the policy for you. Budget insurers are more likely to have the highest charges for cancellation or amendments, as opposed to more expensive insurers.

flaneurs_lobster

Were you able to examine the details of the cover (or lack of it) prior to agreeing to the policy?

If not then you might have grounds for a complaint.

If you just ticked the boxes without checking the details then you might be out of luck, there's a right to cancel but the insurance company are allowed to charge a fee for setting up the policy.

Fifty quid seems to be on the medium to high side of these fees but it's not out of whack, would be the same if the policy was costing £500/year rather than £120.

Worried_fool

Before cancelling… why not ask their price for adding the cover for valuables that you need?

dunstonh

They said I can cancel but wanted £50 to cancel?!

That is fair enough. You have created a cost, so this is their way of covering the costs rather than passing it on to other customers in higher premiums.

I asked to make a complaint as that's completely disproportionate for a policy that's not began yet and was only just set up, and they basically told me there will be no point as there is no way they will cancel without me paying the £50 fee. Is there anything I can do?

What evidence do you have that it is completely disproportionate? The Financial Ombudsman Service has accepted that fees up to £50 were acceptable and proportionate and that was over a decade ago. So what information do you have that the Financial Ombudsman Service doesn't?

MyRealNameToo

The cost has to be proportionate to the average cost of cancellation, not just your particular circumstances. The FSA as it was and the FCA as replaced the conduct aspect have both said this is much easier for consumers to understand than having 5 pages of terms considering all the distribution channels, timescales, current pricing of PPC advertising etc.

I worked on the response to the FSA to explain the cost of a cancellation and whilst we charged £35 at the time even back then it was accepted that up to £50 was reasonable so well over a decade ago.