The Great 'Car Insurance Cancellation & Administration Fee' Hunt

dunstonh

Very unfair on a newbie.

How the FOS is funded is hardly anything to do with the policyholder, and where is your evidence he did "effectively" say this "blackmail" anyway?

I never said he used the term. I said that what he did (even though he didnt realise it) was effectively blackmail.

How else do you describe giving two options; one saying refund me (costing £47.50) or I go to the FOS (costing £500)?

And don't try and kid on that the insurer has to find £500 out of his own pocket, it is of course the policyholders who end up paying this, just as we pay all their other overheads too!

Which of course doesnt help anyone in the long term.

Anyway, I came here to share my experience, job done, despite a slightly Troll-ey response.

I'm not trolling. I am just saying the reason they refunded you was because you effectively blackmailed them into paying you the lesser amount. I didnt say you did it knowingly. I was trying to explain why they refunded you. I personally think it helps to understand why these things happen.

face-t

I totally support blackmailing insurers into paying fees back even [or mainly because] if the cost is going to be transferred onto another customers.

This way admin, cancellation charges will eventually not be hidden any-more, you will get them in your quote that you will be able to compare with other insurers quote without checking every hecking additional fee hidden in 50 pages of T&C.

Britain need more strict government on how information is being handled.

Compulsory table with all the possible costs at the beginning of the T&C document should suffice.


And now admin costs with:

Co-Operative Insurance
admin fee: 15 quid
cancellation fee: in a first year 35 +premium pro rata, after a year no charge

link below

BossTheSector

I'm looking for advice if anyone can offer....

I was involved in an accident in May this year & my car was written off. I need a car for my work so I had to buy a stop-gap banger as I couldn't get the new car I actually wanted. I got charged £26 admin charge from esure to update my insurance.

My insurance is now due for renewal with several companies significant cheaper than esure so I would like to change company. However, I know I will be changing my car in the next few weeks. In other words, am I effectively 'locked in' to paying a cancellation/admin charge when I get my new car?

dunstonh

BossTheSector wrote: »

I'm looking for advice if anyone can offer....

I was involved in an accident in May this year & my car was written off. I need a car for my work so I had to buy a stop-gap banger as I couldn't get the new car I actually wanted. I got charged £26 admin charge from esure to update my insurance.

My insurance is now due for renewal with several companies significant cheaper than esure so I would like to change company. However, I know I will be changing my car in the next few weeks. In other words, am I effectively 'locked in' to paying a cancellation/admin charge when I get my new car?

If you choose a company that has lower premiums but explicit service charges on certain events then yes, you will get charged. If you choose one that factors admin and service charges into a higher premium instead then you wont.

BossTheSector

dunstonh wrote: »

If you choose a company that has lower premiums but explicit service charges on certain events then yes, you will get charged. If you choose one that factors admin and service charges into a higher premium instead then you wont.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. However, I've yet to find an insurer that doesn't charge a cancellation fee, so it seems I'll have to pay this if I wish to change insurer in a few weeks time. Or hope they can offer me a competitive quote for my new car & have a low admin/no admin fee to change details.

The alternative I looked at was short-term cover but this was too expensive.

munkee

I got refunded from More Than.

It took a couple of letters to their customer service centre - but if you ask me it was worth the outcome.

The below information was correct for me, it might not be for you, but might help you get a refund, if your policy doesn't mention anything about the cancellation fee in the 'important notes' section

I wrote the following to
Customer Relations Team
Bowling Mill
Dean Clough
Halifax
HX3 5WA:

To whom it may concern;

This is a formal complaint about the cancellation of my policy **********
I cancelled my policy on the **/**/2012 after the sale of my car, only to find that the remaining £48.47 would be taken by yourselves as an ‘administration’ charge.

For this to be explained to me by saying that I have been made fully aware of this administration fee/cancellation fee before and after the purchase of my policy is just nonsense, you’re assuming that I've read all the fine print in the documentation, which I hadn’t, most people never do this. I have now read this and quote from your ‘Everything explained’, ‘Your policy wording’ document page 25, section C:
“If you cancel the policy we may charge an administration fee of up to £55, which accounts for our costs in providing the policy. If this applies to you details will appear in the Important Notes on your policy schedule.”

Nothing applying this appears in the ‘Important Notes’ section on my policy schedule, therefore this charge does not apply to me & I require the return of my £48.47.

As you can imagine I’m not a happy customer, I have been with MoreThan insurance since 2008 & to be treated this way is terrible.

If you do not return the outstanding amount I will have no choice other than report this to the Financial Ombudsman.

Your faithfully

Me.

You won't get anywhere if you try arguing your case on the phone!

Hope it helps

vaio

Allianz can be added to the list of none chargers but only if you buy through their direct channel www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk.

If you buy via a broker then Allianz have a cancellation fee of £50 in the first year and £25 subsequently and the broker will probably add their own cancellation fee too

Quentin

vaio wrote: »

Allianz can be added to the list of none chargers but only if you buy through their direct channel www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk.

If you buy via a broker then Allianz have a cancellation fee of £50 in the first year and £25 subsequently and the broker will probably add their own cancellation fee too

Allianz (direct) do also charge cancellation fees now - see their website:

http://askaquestion.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk/askaquestion/car/car-what-if-cancel

If you choose to cancel in the first year the refund will be
reduced by £50 to allow for costs in providing the policy. If you cancel after the first year the refund will be reduced by £25.

vaio

Quentin wrote: »

Allianz (direct) do also charge cancellation fees now - see their website:

http://askaquestion.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk/askaquestion/car/car-what-if-cancel

I was thinking they looked quite good as a company but not so sure now....

your link says £50

http://www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk/en/existing_customers/cancelling_your_policy.html says £10

and the online policy documents at http://www.yourcoverinsurance.co.uk/content/dam/allianz_yc/documents/car_policy_documents/Your_Cover-Car_insurance_policy.pdf says no cancellation fee.

Three different amounts depending which part of the site you look at doesn't exactly inspire confidence does it

Cluaranone

Automatic annual renewal charges without consent: (£35) Dial Direct