Car insurance - Dual insurance

Jamessparrey

Hi,
Last night my girlfriend was wondering when her car insurance was up on her car - she is currently with the post office!! (budget) she rang them up and they said they had automatically renewed it. (she had not recieved the documents in the post as we had moved and changed the address - something they had not updated on their system even though they had been told )- at £668 so she did a trawl through the sites and found marks and sparks the cheapest at £333 so she bought it - She then rang up the post office today and they want £198 to cancel it even though it's second year and only started on march 7th. I got on the phone and challanged this with them -but they would not budge.

I got on the phone to M + S for her and went to cancel (within the 14 days) even though it was half the price. They told me that it fell under the dual insurance and to ring the post office back up. I did this and mentioned dual insurance in my first sentance and the woman straight away put me on hold - came back and said they would cancel the insurance when i sent proof of the new policy.

Can someone please confirm if this is true or if there is something i have missed - i don't want a nasty surprise and my girlfriend having to pay two car inurance's or another cancellation fee!!

Also the requote from the post office was - £668 but a brand new one from them (on their web site) was £335!!! and they won't match it - how is that possible!!!

tinkerbell84

Yes, they should cancel the policy when sent proof of the new policy. Whether they will charge a cancellation fee or not is unclear.

New customer quotes are always lower than renewal prices - they apply very heavy discounts to attract new customers.

Perhaps you should get your mail redirected, then you would get your post if it was sent to your old address.

Jamessparrey

Ok Thanks - thats what i had though - their cancellation fee is £35 but thats alot cheaper than the £198 they want!!

I didn't even think about re-directing it as we'd rung every company up and changed. Guess the Post office (the irony that it is the post office) didn't update their system!!

tinkerbell84

I've re-read your first post. Your girlfriend actually used almost a month's worth of insurance, so she's liable to pay for that on top of any cancellation charge. This does not have to be pro-rata (look at the cancellation scales - if you cancel in the first month you might only get 9 months refund, if you see what I mean).

They would only cancel for free (or £35 cancellation) if she'd taken out cover on the day her policy renewed.

Lucky they do auto-renew, or she'd have been uninsured :eek:

Jamessparrey

Yeah - it is lucky they auto re-new on that side of things. I've been on the phone to my insurance and asked them to take me off auto renewall to avoid this cancellation charge. ( i know when my insurance is up though!)

Marks and spencer did say there should be no charge from the post office (they both get their insurance from the fortis group or BSl i think it is so i'm assuming they know what they are talking about.).

Anyway bottom line i think is my girlfriend needs to learn a lesson and know when her insurance is due! - Also that it can be cancelled under the dual insurance.

Thanks for the replies.

tinkerbell84

I doubt M&S can backdate cover, so she is going to have to pay (at least) for the cover she had from the Post Office form 7th March until yesterday.

raskazz

Jamessparrey wrote: »

Marks and spencer did say there should be no charge from the post office

I cannot see how they have possibly come to this conclusion. They are entitled to, and almost certainly will, charge for the few weeks of cover that was provided.