The Great 'Car Insurance Cancellation & Administration Fee' Hunt

iNath

Thanks Saeed, updated the first post

Centium5000

Surely you can't be charged a cancellation fee if you cancel within 14 days and you bought at a distance (internet, phone, post)? I know insurance is excluded under normal distance selling regs but I believe it does come under Financial Services (Distance Marketing) Regulations: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2004/20042095.htm

I reckon that you should only be liable to the premium pro-rata'd over the number of days since inception, plus any setup fee you were charged.

I've got the same issue with my home contents insurance and I intend to stick to my guns on this one: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=973701

Do you think this is a fair reading of the rules? If so, perhaps Martin could make this his next quest! (;))

lollipinkpop

hi can someone help. >? i fell behind with kwik fit car insurance premiums. couldnt afford the payments and car went offroad (no mot or tax). subesequently kwik fit cancelled policy. heard nothing else from them. then rang other day to ask them to send on my proof no claims to new insurer. told me i owed em £60 in unpaid premiums and debt had gone to wescott.? but they still gave me proof of no claims. now somewhere i read that PNC wont be issued unless premiums are up to date? i need to know if they can just pass on the debt without warning and only when i ring to ask for PNC that they have now sent ?? im disputing it and i want some help ?? anyone ??... please?..... thanks

smashed

http://www.elephant.co.uk/Policy/eleKeyFacts.pdf
Elephant charge a £22.50 admin fee

losgiganteskid

For all motorists who would prefer NOT to pay an administration fee (or call it what you like fee) if you insure with NFU (Nation Farmers Mutual) they don't make a charge for adjustments. As for how competitive they will be for you - I know not. www.nfumutual.co.uk

:wave: :wave:

BoboFrett

I've just left endsleigh and they have charged me a £50 cancellation fee and only a £3 fee to cancel my breakdown! Brilliant.

I did speak to a manager, who was very nice but completely unconcerned. £50 quite clearly will cover all admin costs. Wish I got £50 for all the admin I do!

JDMYOFAN

swiftcover did not charge me.

Quinn_Turpin

Hello all,

I wonder if someone could offer some advice regarding a cancelled insurance policy within 14 days...

Policy was purchased online on the 3/04/08 approx 5:00pm and a £170 deposit was paid on my credit card. I decided to cancel the policy on the 16/04/08 as the car was no longer needed and placed off road. As instructed by a phone operator at Quinn, "just send the documentation and a signed letter asking for the policy to be cancelled and a refund will be issued minus a £35 administartion fee". This was completed on the same day and the letter posted (I am in England, so 1st class airmail).

I phoned up on the 18th and was assured everything was in order and the letter had arrived. Anyway I have been monitoring my credit card statement for the refund and nothing has ever shown from Quinn, so I decided to phone them today and this is what happened:

Me: Hello, please could find out what has happened to my refund for the policy I cancelled, policy number blah blah blah..

Op: Please let me call up the details on the computer:

Op: OK, we received your letter on the 18/04/08 which is 15 days after your policy started, therefore you're not eligible for a refund:

Me: Are you completely serious about this??

Op: Yes we received your postdated (16/04/2008) and signed letter stating that you wanted to cancel your policy on the 16/04/2008, but as we only received this on the 18/04 we cannot do anything about it.

Me: (Trying to be reasonable) Look, I phoned up and was told to send this document before the 14 days, not have the document delivered by the 14 days.

Op: Sorry this is on our policy and there is nothing we can do about it.

Me: Ok, listen I don't care about your company policies, I care about real law and I signed a legally binding document on the 16/04 stating I wanted to cancel my policy on THAT DAY!! Your precious certificate of insurance was included in the leter. I have no interest in your Country's postal system or when you received the letter. The fact is you're admitting to me that you received my letter POSTDATED AND WITH A SIGNED STATEMENT FOR THE 16th APRIL.

Op: Look we can only go by the date on the letter

Me: Urm excuse me that is what I am trying to say.

Op: Oh no, we can only go by when the letter arrived.

Me: (completely irrelevant comment) So if I was still driving the car and crashed on 17/04 and then you received my signed and post dated letter of the 16th, I suppose I would have still been insured.

Op: Yes

Me: Ok look, just put a manager on the phone.

Op: A manager will tell you the same thing

Me: Yes, but I want to hear that from a manager before I contact my credit card company & the trading standards to dispute the transaction,

Instructs me to hold whilst she finds a manager

Op: A manager will call you back in 10 minutes

Me: ok, bye

3 hours later no phone call from them. I phone again to be greeted by an answer phone informing me the office is closed.

I will phone them tomorrow. Maybe someone can give me some advice before I call.

Sorry about the lengthy post, but I think this is absolutely mind boggling that they would even try this. The difference in receiving nothing and receiving my refund is £135.00

Many thanks

raskazz

Oh dear. They are probably legally correct in saying that cancellation takes effect from receipt of the documents, not the date the letter was written (otherwise you could set up a policy, have the cover for a year, but then cancel it back to the day after inception and get a large refund by simply writing a letter with an earlier date on it and claiming that the letter was delayed in the post).

However, they are making one rather glaring error, which is this:

The 14-day right of cancellation begins from the commencement of the policy or from the receipt of policy documents by the insured, whichever is the later.

I presume that as the policy was set up at 17:00 on the 3rd, the documents would have been sent on the 4th, and been received by you on the 5th at the earliest.

Thus the 14-day cancellation period would run from the 5th to the 19th. The 18th clearly falls into this period. Let them get out of that one!

Quinn_Turpin

Hi Raskazz,

Many thanks for your help with this.

Is this 14 days from receipt of documentation applicable to companies outside the UK? I just wondered, as Quinn are located in Ireland, but as they sell policies within the UK, do they have to abide by UK insurance regulations or are there different regulations for companies based in Ireland.

I take it this 14 days from receiving the documentation is linked to the distance selling laws, as all UK insurance companies appear to include this in their policy outline online - Quinn doesn't include the statement on their policy outline.

Anyway, again many thanks for the great tip. At least it gives me more ammo to fire at them (which I did this afternoon, only to be told there was no manager there), but I told the operator that Quinn were also wrong on that point, only to be told that it's 14 days from the policy start, I again insisted it was 14 days from receiving the documentation under the distance selling regulations and that was applicable to all insurance companies selling online to the UK, the operator didn't say anything and a manager will apparently phone me on Monday, but I won't hold my breath.

One thing for sure, I will never go to Quinn direct again. In future I will stay with a reputable company within the UK.

Thanks a lot :beer:

P.s I will update this thread on Monday, as it may help someone in the future.