Admiral cancellation?

Babyalmie · 7 June 2016 at 9:08PM

I decided to buy car insurance today with Admiral. The policy isn't due to start until 26 June but I bought it anyway today so I knew it was in hand. I used a comparison site and it looked to be the best value. I linked through from the site to Admiral. About 10 mins after signing up to the policy, I suddenly realised I had made a mistake in my details. I called their help centre, gave them the additional info, and they told me my premium would need to increase slightly. I stated I wanted to check whether there was a better deal - at which point I was informed that if I wanted to cancel it would cost me £25! I explained that not only had the policy not taken effect, but I was surely entitled to a cooling off period, particularly as I had not been informed at any point that there wasnt any cooling off period. I was told all of this would be explained in my policy documents - which I hadn't even received (they arrived at 8.30 pm - 8 hours after I bought the policy!) I explained that I couldn't possibly have known that as I hadn't received the documents. Then I was told that I could have gone on line through the "existing customer" portal and read them - I explained that as I hadn't been a customer, I couldn't possibly have accessed them ....
In the end, they backed down but agreed that "as a special measure" they would not charge me if I wanted to cancel. But this strikes me as ludricous. I couldn't possibly have known about the charge and the policy wasn't even in force (let alone the fact it had only existed for 10 mins). Are they allowed to do this?

Quentin · 7 June 2016 at 9:17PM

Normally once you have bought a policy you are charged a cancellation fee if you want to cancel, no matter how long you had held the policy

They look to have waived this and let you off.

You may like to check up on their reviews where you may decide you had a lucky escape!

wongataa · 8 June 2016 at 8:54AM

All Admiral's policy documents are available on their website for all to see. You don't need to be a customer.

http://www.admiral.com/existing-customers/policy-documents.php hit the button that says motor insurance books.

Babyalmie · 8 June 2016 at 10:17AM

My question is really whether buying insurance online means that there is no cooling off period? Why is it not it covered by the Consumer Contract Regulations? I was well within the 14 day period and it wasn't in force.

lizziesharples · 8 June 2016 at 10:35AM

With car insurance there is usually a fixed charge within the cooling off period to avoid people making use of the 14 days free insurance if this wasn't in place. When you buy online you usually have to agree to terms and conditions which should state how their cooling off period works.

Quentin · 8 June 2016 at 10:37AM

The "cooling off" period for cancellation conditions (which doesn't mean you can simply cancel without paying any charges) will be set out in the policy. Have a read.

You got a result when they agreed to waive the cancellation fee!

rs65 · 8 June 2016 at 7:16PM

wongataa wrote: »

All Admiral's policy documents are available on their website for all to see. You don't need to be a customer.

http://www.admiral.com/existing-customers/policy-documents.php hit the button that says motor insurance books.

From memory, the Admiral policy says there will be a charge and the amount will be shown in your docs.

I would argue that they can't charge in this instance as the OP cancelled before the docs arrived.

I think the docs say a charge will be made if you cancel within 14 days of receiving the docs or something like that. They would be struggling to impose a charge which wasn't made clear at time of purchase.

Admiral cancellation?

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