Swinton Car Insurance - CON PEOPLE!!!! ADVICE!!!

Night-owl_6

I have car insurance with Swinton, which cost £150 for a years cover on fully comp, however I did have another car iinsured with them a while ago which I cancelled due to there crap service however I am in the process of having my car taken off road for good (EOL) however it has 3 weeks MOT, the TAX has been returned to DVLA and it has 5 months insurance cover remaining on it, now I need to cancel it, there will be a chnage of £45, this will be taken from the policys remaining time and a refund, if any given to me for any left over monies due, however last time I cancelled they changed me £45 and I had to pay £20 to wards it as the remaining cover didnt cover it, now this time I REFUSE to pay the sum if any needs paying, any advice?!
They have threatend me with a debt collection agency DCA used by motor insurance companies but I am told them, try it I get the FSA to carry out an investigation to see if they are allowed to charge for cancelling, are they?!
I mean, £45, its cheaper for me to stay with them, Im not going too be made to stay with an insurance company I dont want to and for a car I no longer have.
When I told them about the FSA they hanged up after saying "go ahead, we have every right to charge any fee we feel needed" !!!!!!, I will not pay, DCA or no DCA they will not get there money!

Any advice how I can make them give me ALL the remaining monies due on the policy?! it seems such a con charging to cancel, they are not providing any service and still being paid:mad: :mad: :mad:

Night-owl_6

BUMPING UP

Any advice?????

vikingaero

Insurance is an annual contract. So if you cancel after 6 months you don't get 50% back. The % refund depends on each individual company. Some will give 40% back after 6 months, some with give 30% back. After a certain number of months some will not refund any premium - say after 11 months.

What has happened is that your premium is so low that the admin charge to refund could outweigh any premium due back to you. Lets say that you are due £30 back. Then the £30 will be swallowed up by the £45 charge and you will still owe £15. It sucks but that's how most policies operate.

Incisor

vikingaero wrote: »

Insurance is an annual contract. So if you cancel after 6 months you don't get 50% back. The % refund depends on each individual company. Some will give 40% back after 6 months, some with give 30% back. After a certain number of months some will not refund any premium - say after 11 months.

So far, so good.

What has happened is that your premium is so low that the admin charge to refund could outweigh any premium due back to you. Lets say that you are due £30 back. Then the £30 will be swallowed up by the £45 charge and you will still owe £15. It sucks but that's how most policies operate.

The £15 should not be charged. If the insurance is cancelled, there is no risk left in the policy and they shouldn't be charging £45 to send nothing back. People ought to be tough with them about this sort of nonsense.

vikingaero

Incisor wrote: »

The £15 should not be charged. If the insurance is cancelled, there is no risk left in the policy and they shouldn't be charging £45 to send nothing back. People ought to be tough with them about this sort of nonsense.

If you buy insurance direct from an Insurer then they will normally refund the % of premium direct to you.

Brokers such as Swinton normally incorporate additional T&Cs when you use them and a few brokers such as Swinton do seem to have charges for additional work.

Night-owl_6

I will not be paying Swinton any fee, they can take a run and jump, I said this to their branch manager last week, they try to pass it to a DCA I will take this to the FSA and if need be, I will get a solicitor involved.
I see this as theft, charging you for a service that they are no longer providing, I will never ever go near a broker again, they never told me about theses fees till I was 2 months in!
I am going to demand a FULL refund of the remaining policy, if I dont get it then serious consideration will be taken as to if I will be getting the FSA to carry out a investigation and trading standards

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Incisor wrote: »

So far, so good.


The £15 should not be charged. If the insurance is cancelled, there is no risk left in the policy and they shouldn't be charging £45 to send nothing back. People ought to be tough with them about this sort of nonsense.

Insurance companies are there to make a profit. So long as it isn't an unfair penalty charge, I don't see why anyone would have a problem with being charged for terminating a binding contract early. Its not exactly a big charge either is it?

Night-owl_6

£45 is alot of money, when my policy is £150 for fully comp, well now £102 a year with my new car and insurance compny.
I still disagree and no way am I paying the fee

Incisor

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers! wrote: »

Insurance companies are there to make a profit. So long as it isn't an unfair penalty charge, I don't see why anyone would have a problem with being charged for terminating a binding contract early. Its not exactly a big charge either is it?

Sorry, but that is plain daft. Customer cancels, company provides LESS insurance. Company refunds customer, but charges MORE than the refund. Customer pays extra on top of his year's premium for finishing early.

OK, there must be some people around who are weak enough to pay up, but really they are just making it difficult for the rest of us. If the admin fee cuts the refund to nothing, that's hard. But to charge extra on top of the cost of the binding contract is just totally unreasonable.

If you are going to argue binding contract here, then you have shot your own case down. The customer has delivered all of the premiums and not taken all of the insurance.

flowerscotland

there would have been terms and conditions sent to you when you took out the policy, which would have given all details of cancellation fees, if you had read it then you would have been forewarned

maybe this is the reason car insurance is so high :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Thunderbird_2

I know this is not of great help to you OP, but just to share my experience with swinton.

I had taken out a policy with them once before. I was told I have 7 days cooling off period if I wanted to cancel for any reason. I called them 4 days later to cancel the policy, they said they will refund me the premium I paid minus £35 administration charge for cancelling the policy. I pointed out that when I took the policy, I wasn't told about this cancellation fee during the 7 days cooling off period. They said they will listen to the tape and call me back a day after. They called me 2 days after saying it has been mentioned to me. I had no recall of this and I asked to listen to the recording of the call myself. They said I need to write to the head office about this and then I gave up because I was a bout to move house and I didn't have time for this and I LET THEM CHARGE ME THAT BLOODY ADMINISTRATION FEE FOR CANCELLING THE POLICY WITHIN THE FIRST 7 DAYS!!!!