The Great 'Car Insurance Cancellation & Administration Fee' Hunt

olly300

gatita wrote: »

I informed HALIFAX (DON'T use them!!) that I had sold my car. The policy had two months left. The total cost of the yearly policy was £134 paid in one payment.

I received a letter informing me that I owed them £32!!!

Total cost of premium £134.41

Cancellation cost £ 55.00
Insurer return premium £ 22.09

Debt owed to THEM! £ 32.91 Thieving barstewards.

HOW are they allowed to get away with this extortion. & what price honesty? if I hadn't have told them they would be non the wiser.

Yes they are.

Personally I would write a letter to their complaints department with the title "Formal Complaint" and state good reasons why you shouldn't have to pay it. They may waive it if your reasons are good enough and you look like you are likely to cause them enough hassle over it.

gatita

Thanks for that Olly and YES I intend to cause them as much hassle as possible, I have the time lol
I am going to do as you suggest immediately. I have already sent an email to the OFT not that they will be interested in my paltry complaint! To me its a question of principle, how are they allowed to get away with it

gatita

Olly, Thanks for your suggestion! I wrote to them, and hey presto have just received a phone call telling me that they will be refunding the cancellation fee! As I said before, it was the principle of the thing that made me soooooooooooooooo mad!

jaidenslot

not got all the details as not me its my dad but jest of it s hes wanting a new car and its going to cost him £55 to change with his present insurer plus an extra £100 odd for it being a larger car. Theres less than 3 months to go on his insurance and he paid it upfront(£280 ish) so what would happen if he just cancelled it and went with someone else?

gatita

From my experience (read my previous posts) I would say DON'T cancel it! as you will be charged a cancellation fee which is outrageous! But I am sure someone else will have good sound advise for you

Jan_B

I've just paid £15 admin fee to change my daughter's policy with Yes Insurance. That's fair enough, but the real rip off is the additional charge for the amendments.

On the original policy she was a student living in a not so nice area of Brighton with the car parked in a side street where we know of at last two cars being broken into in the past few months.

The change to the policy was her occupation as she now works in an office and the risk address is now our home address which is far safer than where she was in Brighton.

Original policy = £549
New policy = £764

Thats a 40% increase just because she's got a job and the car's in a safer area !!

When we took out the policy I explained that she would only be in Brighton for a few months before moving back home and was told that it shouldn't make much difference to the premium. That obviously wasn't true :mad:

I've just asked how much we'd get back if we cancel the policy and it worked out that for less that 4 months cover it would cost £374 of the original £549 that we paid. That's the equivalent of £1200 per year.

I've just done a Go Compare and I'm getting quotes of less than £500 for the new details proving that she is now a lower risk.

gavb123

To cut a longer story shorter....

My partner is cancelling her policy for around two weeks from now. The policy was paid for upfront for the year. She had to claim as she had a bump in June. After been informed by the off shore call centre she would receive a £300 refund as her policy ends in December she has now received an email stating as she has claimed the full premium will be due!!

Is this correct? Surely not?!

Thanks Gav

dunstonh

Is this correct? Surely not?!

Surely is.

She made a claim and the policy did its job. So she is not entitled to a refund. If she had not made a claim, then she would get a refund.

hanes

Have recently taken out a new policy with tesco after my company that im with now came back with a new qoute of 1,992 thats more than last year!

so i cancelled and went with tesco at 750. thing is my insurance company sent me a letter stating that if i stay with current insururer i'll be paying 460!!

so now im in a pickle. the new policy wont start until 3/09 so is there anyway i can cancel this and not lose any of the £135 deposit that i paid?

thank you

System

hanes wrote: »

Have recently taken out a new policy with tesco after my company that im with now came back with a new qoute of 1,992 thats more than last year!

so i cancelled and went with tesco at 750. thing is my insurance company sent me a letter stating that if i stay with current insururer i'll be paying 460!!

so now im in a pickle. the new policy wont start until 3/09 so is there anyway i can cancel this and not lose any of the £135 deposit that i paid?

thank you

So your existing car insurance company sent you a quote for renewal of £1,992, then some time later they send you another quote for £460 - I would say that there is something badly wrong with one of these two quotes
First thing to do is check that the level of cover is the same as your existing policy (on both quotes)

Then, ask yourself the question : "Do I want to deal with a company that is so incompetant that they can send two quotes with such a wide difference in cost"

If you still want to cancel the new tesco policy, check the T&Cs, you will see the following:

14 day cooling off:
You have 14 days from the receipt of your Policy Booklet to cancel cover subject to you having not made any claims under the policy. To exercise your right to cancel please contact Tesco Bank
on 0845 673 0000, who will also arrange a full refund of your premium.