The Great 'Car Insurance Cancellation & Administration Fee' Hunt

chelle39_2

This is a long one folks, sorry in advance but any help would be appreciated. I took out a policy with the post office on 4/8/09. The total price was £814.47 which was monthly payments of £66.36. A couple of days later i had to go up to the highlands in scotland (i live in northern ireland) I was away for about 5 weeks nursing my sick father. On my return home i had one letter from the post office asking me to submit proof of my 1 years no claims, obviously i couldn't reply to this as i was in scotland, a second letter had also arrived stating as they had not received proof of my no claims entitlement they would be changing the policy to a total of £1324.16 with monthly payments being £117.33. On the 15th september (the day after i got back from scotland) i sent them proof of my no claims. They took a payment of £117.33 out of my account on the 18th september then another £117.33 on the 1st october. When i phoned them asking why the second payment had been taken early they said it was an error but couldn't refund the payment to me. I then asked if they had received my proof of no claims and what adjustments would be made to my car insurance. I expected to have to pay the first month at £117.33 and then further payments would go back down to the original £66.36. I was told as they had received my proof of no claims after 28 days that they would have to start a new policy taking my proof of no claims into account but then told me the new policy was going to cost me £81 a month. I lost the plot then and told them to just cancel the policy as i could get it cheaper elsewhere and i was sick of all the hassle with them. I was then told i would be charged a cancellation fee of £35 plus a further charge of £284.23 for what they called 'short term cover' So in total i'm being charged £319.23 to cancel this policy. Surely they breached their contract by taking out that payment on the 1/10/09 when it wasn't due until 18/10/09. Taking into account the payments i've already made this would be a total of £553.99 for just short of 2 months insurance. Anyone have any advice???

tabitha73

I foolishly bought car insurance from Swinton via Money Supermarket today for my son, three weeks before it becomes due :embarasse ( mainly due to being pressurised by the salesperson ). :doh:

Does anyone know if a cancellation fee applies under these circumstances?

Swinton charge £50.

Thanks.

doubletiger

Hi

My exist car insurance with post office has about 3 months left, I phoned in to cancel it as I am not longer own the car. I was asked to use the reminder of 3 months to cover a new car with £20 administration fee and extra premium to cover the different. When the documents arrived I found out my wife is not in the policy, I called in within 14 days and told them it was the post office's mistake and they denied it and asked me to pay £20 administration fee to add my wife's name. I told them I wanted to cancel it as it is within "14 Day cancellation cooling period", but they argued that it is only apply to the new policy and my new cover (3 months car insurance) is not a new policy.

My question is -- does "14 Day cancellation cooling period" also apply to my case? surely, the car is complete different than previous car and the policy also changed from 3rd party only to full comprehensive. Any help will be very much appreciated!

What is my legal right on this case?

thank you in advance!

Henry

dunstonh

My question is -- does "14 Day cancellation cooling period" also apply to my case? surely, the car is complete different than previous car and the policy also changed from 3rd party only to full comprehensive. Any help will be very much appreciated!

There is no 14 day cancellation period on amendments. Only on new policies and some renewals.

What is my legal right on this case?

none whatsoever.

Your wife wasnt on the policy to begin with so to expect her to be on the policy after the change of vehicle is not logical. If you had added her at the same time then you would have had just one amendment charge but two separate amendments means two charges

whitham2

We have just moved house so had to do the usual change of address letters etc AND to comply with the insurance rules to keep policies valid of course I informed our vehicle insurers.
My partner has his motorbike insurance through A QUOTE, and I sent them (obviously should have gone direct to the insurer but what with move etc!) the change of address details.
Today I have received a letter from them charging £25.89 ADMIN FEE!!!!!!!!!!!! That is nothing to do with the premium going up due to different location, IS JUST FOR CHANGING THE ADDRESS!
I am disgusted that they can get away with this! At least for the future I will always check to see if the company I intend to go with charges for such a small change again.
Very very annoyed - so be warned everyone, check before you renew anywhere just in case you move house or something else that incurs 'ADMIN'!

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

dunstonh

Today I have received a letter from them charging £25.89 ADMIN FEE!!!!!!!!!!!! That is nothing to do with the premium going up due to different location, IS JUST FOR CHANGING THE ADDRESS!

Seems quite fair.

am disgusted that they can get away with this!

Why?

At least for the future I will always check to see if the company I intend to go with charges for such a small change again.

Companies that dont charge an admin fee but factor the cost of admin into the main premium do exist but unless you make frequent changes, that would probably work out more expensive.

Very very annoyed - so be warned everyone, check before you renew anywhere just in case you move house or something else that incurs 'ADMIN'!

Explicit charging is considered fairer as you only pay when you use that service. Rather than paying for it each and every year on the premium.

crank_girl

Just cancelled a policy with provident through swinton. Charged £75 - £19 administration from Swinton, the rest from the insurer.

neilvw

1st Central - £30 cancellation fee, £25 for mid-term adjustments

Barebare

Hey - just recieved a letter from kwik Fit asking for an extra premium of £188 because the date of purchase of my car is different from the date of ownership - I have been driving the car for 10 years, but only took ownership from my parents when I moved out and onto my own insurance.

Anyways, they agreed that if I proved I was driving the car back in '02 they would leave the premium as it is. Fair enough, but when I said I wanted to cancel and return to my previous insurer they wanted £100 in cancellation fees.

Do I have any standing since it took 23 days for them to decide upon this extra premium? If they had of told me within the first two weeks I might have been able to cancel without such a heavy proce to pay.

1645j

I just cancelled my insurance with Hasting Direct because I had to scrap my car due to MOT failure and they charged me £40 to cancel as I had 7 months left on my insurance. Reading some of these threads it seem this could be the next big rip off like the bank charges. I refuse to believe it cost all this money to cancel a policy, everything is done electronically now and must only take a 10-15 minutes it's a complete rip off. I don't mind paying something maybe £10 but £40 for me and other £50+ it's time this was looked into by the authorities.