Car insurance cancellation

dscourtney

I want to cancel my car insurance. Admiral want to charge me a £45 cancellation fee plus pro rata payments for each month left to run. Admiral estimate this will total £80 ish. I have 3 payments left at £32 each. If I cancel my DD with the bank will admiral be able to demand their money/ take me to court/ will it affect my credit rating?

Would appreciate some advice. I dont even have a car anymore!:mad:

Quentin

THey will be able to chase you for the unpaid debt, with all the possibilities this opens up including court action, black mark on your credit record etc.

As long as the cancellation fee is calculated correctly, then you have no legal grounds to avoid payment, though you are at liberty to cancel your direct debit at any time - providing you make alternate arrangements to pay, and accept any other charges they are allowed to impose after failing to collect via the direct debit.

cheepskate_2

from the experience i have had with car ins. policys. they normally only charge the cancellation fee if you have no claim / outstanding claim for that year. If you have got outstanding claim / made a claim that year then they will charge cancellation and remainder of months.
I have previously cancelled and just had to pay the canc. fee.
phone again and querry wh you have to pay the extra months .

lisyloo

A cancellation fee of up to £50 is reasonable (there has been a ruling on it).
Basically they incurred costs in setting up your policy (not jsut cancelling it) on the expectation of 12 months of business.
Now you aren't providing that business they are entitled to recoup some of the initial set up costs and cancellation costs.

If you think it's been calculated wrongly then by all means dispute it but usually it's the case that people simply didn't read their contracts so weren't aware of these conditions.

Even if you want to dispute it I would still advise paying.

If you get a black mark on your credit record then it can last 6 years and give you difficulty in getting a loan or mortgage for years to come.

But my guess is that it's all leagal, correct and in the documentation you didn't read.

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

Even if you want to dispute it I would still advise paying.

Poor advice.

Never pay an invoice if you think it's wrong.

Ask the debtor to mark the case in dispute, and then get the dispute looked into.

Once the dispute has been investigated, and the disputed invoice ratified is the time to pay it.

luckyseven_3

How can one do that??. Sorry this could be a silly question, but I am new to this field.
Many thanks in advance

Quentin

Best way is to write to whoever issued the invoice you dispute. Include a copy of the disputed invoice.

Put in the letter that you dispute the amount on the invoice and why, and ask them to investigate and report back to you.

Also put in the letter that you don't want any money taking via any arrangement you have set up (eg direct debit or credit card) until the dispute has been resolved.

MarkyMarkD

It's entirely legitimate for insurers to charge an administration fee for cancellation, or to not fully refund un-used months of cover.

The policy is an annual policy, even if it is paid in monthly installments, and the full premium (less any refund, which may not be proportionate, less any payments made to date) is due at cancellation.

In many circumstances it is better to let the policy run and pay the DD payments as they fall due, rather than to cancel and incur penalties. This is because:

- the total amount payable may be the same;
- the payments will happen later;
- you will keep the record of a year's no claims discount, which you can rely on for 2 years after the end of the policy.

Unless the premium saving is big, and you have no intention of taking out a policy in the next 2 years, I would always suggest not cancelling for the reasons above.

I don't really agree with Quentin's view in this regard, although as general advice it's sensible not to pay disputed amounts. In this case, the amount due is contractual and can be checked in virtually no time by the OP by simply reading their policy conditions. So going into dispute mode is not necessary.

Quentin

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't really agree with Quentin's view in this regard.............

Which view are you not happy with?

I have posted 3:

1) To the op advising on the consequences of just stopping paying their dd.

2) Disagreeing with Lisyloo who advised paying a bill even if you want to dispute it.

3) To luckyseven who asked how to dispute a bill.

Let me know which gem you don't like so we can have a frank exchange!!

lisyloo

Disagreeing with Lisyloo who advised paying a bill even if you want to dispute it.

I am quite happy for people to disagree and hold different opinions.

However I would just make people aware that some posters have been unable to get late payments removed from their credit reports.
The Credit reference agencies will say that they cannot change the information unless advised by the lender.
I think the particular case I am thinking of was where someone lost the dispute.
The late payments remained on the credit report and there was nothing he could do.
I read on here (and other boards) many times about people suffering for years afterwards with attempts to get credit, so it's just a warning that there can be consequences.

Quentin

To stop a company having grounds for black marking your record with a late payment flag, you could make a payment against a disputed invoice of approximately what you feel the amount demanded should be, together with your calculation on how you reached the figure.

Then should you find they have still been black marked you can sort it out - though accepted it may involve some hassle!

But to pay up when you feel a mistake has been made just allows them to be "relaxed" about sorting out the matter, and why should they have your money in their bank account if you truly feel the invoice is wrong?