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Car Insurance Cancellation
Comments
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You are lucky you are in a position that you don't have to "muck about" over £80 but that is not the case for everyone which you seem to be struggling to appreciate.
Can you elucidate on what exactly you mean by making things much worse for myself? I have already cancelled the policy (not the insurer) and taken our new insurance with all information disclosed.
If you are referring to 1st Central's threat to report a default to the CRA if I don't pay, perhaps you can help me understand the position based on the facts below.
- The credit agreement has been cancelled as a result of the contract of insurance to which it relates having been cancelled.
- On cancellation of the credit agreement I am liable to pay any "Outstanding Balance".
- The term "Outstanding Balance" is not defined in the credit agreement. The administration fee and cancellation fee are not referred to anywhere in the credit agreement.
- The circumstances in which the credit agreement states 1st Central can notify the CRAs of a default is where I fail to make a monthly payment. The pro-rated monthly payment for the period I was insured (£30) is covered by my £60 deposit.
Can an insurer / lender add fees to a credit agreement that are not referred to anywhere in the agreement on cancellation of the agreement and harm someone's credit record if those fees aren't paid?
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Yes but I don't just have £80 lying about to pay them. I am already down the £60 deposit for the 1st Central policy.
I am just trying to interrogate whether I am actually liable for the £80 and to understand the actual potential repercussions if I don't / can't pay it.
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They will almost certainly report to the CRA, which will impact any future financial products or services you wish to make use of, from bank accounts to mortgages and mobile phones. The fees relate to the product and will be laid out in the product's terms and conditions, not the financial agreement.
The "other action" they take will potentially be recovery action, it is not that unusual for lenders to send an LBA, then MCOL for the outstanding amount, even for an amount as low as £80.
The reason people will say "muck about" for £80 is two fold, the first is one has to place a value on time vs reward, the second is the chance of success. Investing dozens of hours into avoiding £80 is not a good use of time and the chance of success is very low, so overall it is worth accepting that you do owe the £80, which based on everything you have told us you do, and save yourself the pain of dragging it out and ending up with the same result anyway, having to pay them £80 (or more).
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This is clear and helpful and is the information / insight I was looking for.
Thank you.
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I would follow other posters advice to pay the £80.00 which will then stop any action of reporting to CRA etc
I would then make a formal complaint that their Cancelation fees are defined as below and they did not have to or indeed did cancel your policy so the fee is very clearly £15.00
Caveat I am assuming your policy details are the same as defined in
This will get it looked at by someone who actually understands the simple terms below and it is very likely you will get your £35.00 refunded
Cancellation Fees
Cancelling your policy before it starts, or within 14 days of its start date £0
After 14 days of the policy start date £15
After 14 days of the policy start date, if we have to cancel your policy because you gave us incorrect information £500 -
How did you pay for the policy.
Sounds like a monthly payment, given mention of deposit. In which case you are taking out a loan to pay them in full. So there will be interest/Payment for ending loan early.
Life in the slow lane0 -
1st Central did not cancel the policy, I did.
Cancellation Fees
Cancelling your policy before it starts, or within 14 days of its start date £0
After 14 days of the policy start date £15
After 14 days of the policy start date, if we have to cancel your policy because you gave us incorrect information £50I am still thinking the OP might be better not cancelling with 1st Central and suffering the premium uplift for the correction against the non-disclosure.
Even if the OP takes the alternative policy, with full disclosure, that might back-fire if 1st Central report that they cancelled the policy for non-disclosure.
Additionally, if the policy was cancelled by 1st Central then the OP would always have to respond to the question along the lines of "Has an insurance provider ever declined, cancelled, or voided your policy or imposed special terms?"
That status will be a status that stays with the OP for life and will result in higher premiums - insurers don't like errors. I wonder whether the cancellation has been declared to the alternative insurer?
With regard to the policy terms, it seems clear that 1st Central consider that they did cancel the policy because of non-disclosure.
The OP disagrees.
I can see that who acted first might very well come down to the nuances of the conversation:
1stC = We can see some of the data you gave appears to be incorrect, please would you clarify?
OP = Oh, sorry, I made a couple of mistakes, so here is the correct information.
1stC = In that case, instead of cancelling your policy, we have run a revised quote based on full disclosure and the extra premium is another £250.
OP = I'm not paying that.
1stC = In that case, we will cancel your policy.
OP = Yep, go ahead, cancel then.
You see, it seems very possible that the whole scenario had 1stC hitting the "cancel" button first.
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I agree with your analysis here that 1st Central seem to have recorded that they have cancelled the policy hence the £50 cancellation fee.
The conversation I had with their Policy Analysis team is as set out below. I requested a copy of the call recording at the time of cancellation and this is still awaited.
1stC = We can see some of the data you gave appears to be incorrect, please would you clarify?
OP = Oh, sorry, I made a couple of mistakes, so here is the correct information.
1stC = In that case, instead of cancelling your policy, we have run a revised quote based on full disclosure and the extra premium is another £250.
OP = I'm not willing to pay that so please cancel the policy.
1stC = Ok we will cancel the policy now.
Am I now up sh*t creek if they decide this is them cancelling the policy rather than me? They were willing to offer me cover but at a revised premium. They didn't unilaterally cancel the cover because of the non-disclosure. The policy was cancelled at my request following their revision of the premium.
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Well, the devil is in the detail, and exact wording may be important, every nuance and every fairy dancing on the head of a pin, but I would not say that 1stC are unreasonable if they determined that they cancelled the policy:
You see, the sentence by you about cancelling the policy only needed the first half to initiate an action.
1stC = In that case, instead of cancelling your policy, we have run a revised quote based on full disclosure and the extra premium is another £250.
OP = I'm not willing to pay that so please cancel the policy.
1stC = Ok we will cancel the policy now.
The part I highlighted is superfluous. The outcome would be the same regardless of whether you said that.
Certainly, 1stC think they cancelled the policy and not you.
I would not be confident of persuading them otherwise.
If 1stC did cancel the policy, you would need to disclose that (as well as your full incident history) for any other insurance. AIUI, that would need to be declared for ever (unlike claims which eventually 'expire').
@MyRealNameToo is often able to provide insight and industry-experience as to how the insurance industry will see matters. I don't have any specific knowledge greater than the average man on the Clapham omnibus.
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I am in the pay and complain camp. Paying prevents any negative consequences, complaining gives you 2 bites at getting the money back without any negative consequences.
Never associate with idiots on their own level, because, being an intelligent man, you'll try to deal with them on their level - and on their level they'll beat you every time.
Being hated by idiots is the price you pay for not being one of them.
Jean Cocteau 1889-1963
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