Is policy wording supposed to use the term "cooling off period"?

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20190321
20190321 Posts: 8 Forumite
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in Insurance & life assurance
Hello,

This is my first post here. I am two months into my churchill home insurance and I just realized how poor the cover is. I cannot believe I got it, I guess that's the price for buying in a hurry. I am exploring my ways of cancelling without losing money, and I noticed the policy wording doesn't use the term "cooling off period". Does anybody know if there is a legal/regulatory requirement for policy wording to use those words? My argument would be that the term is so widely used, that the lack of it in the policy wording implies this policy does not have a cooling off period. Just to be clear, the policy wording does say all the usual bits about 14 day etc - I am just hoping to hang them on the wording if you know what I mean.

Also, I have had a look at FCA's "Insurance: Conduct of Business Chapter 7 Cancellation" and that doesn't use the term "cooling off period" in 7.1.1 - so that's not giving me much hope really.

Any thoughts?

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  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,373 Forumite
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    Is policy wording supposed to use the term "cooling off period"?

    There is no cooling off period in financial services. It is subject to different rules.
    Does anybody know if there is a legal/regulatory requirement for policy wording to use those words?
    No.

    There is a cancellation rights period which can vary from 14-30 days depending on the financial product in question.

    After that, it is up to the insurer to decide whether you have the right to cancel or not. Most will do but will charge a relatively pro-rata rate plus a cancellation charge.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • FlameCloud
    FlameCloud Posts: 1,953 Forumite
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    The Churchill wording is a fairly standard contents policy - whats the elements of it that you think are poor?
  • societys_child
    societys_child Posts: 7,110 Forumite
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    20190321 wrote: »
    I am exploring ways of cancelling without losing money . .

    the policy wording doesn't use the term "cooling off period". .

    the policy wording does say all the usual bits about 14 day etc . .


    Any thoughts?
    Yeah, grasping at straws ;)
  • 20190321
    20190321 Posts: 8 Forumite
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    FlameCloud, the quoting functionality doesn't seem to work, but I had two issues of which one is now resolved. The resolved issue is I thought bikes in the shed were not covered but it turns out they are so that's ok. The unresolved issue is that the website is not very user friendly, before you can do anything online you have to request a number which comes by snail mail - and you can't do much with it anyway. Thanks all for your responses.
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