Insurance cancellation (rant)
Discussion
Within the last couple of weeks I've had to cancel 2 policies with the same insurer, (not naming) the first because they simply couldn't offer a competitive quote when I switched cars and the second because they couldn't find their arse with both hands on the other!
Why am I having a rant? Cancellation fees!
Policy 1 was around £620
Policy 2 was around £590
In both cases they wanted to charge/retain roughly £300 to cancel the policy.
In the first instance I was able to haggle this down to "just" losing £140, but in the second instance after a lot of back of forth they have still retained over £250.
The policies hadn't been in force for even a month yet; policy 1 I'm happy to suck up the loss because I guess it's on me for changing cars, but it still stings.
Policy 2 has boiled my piss - the reason for cancellation is that they have failed to agree a value for the vehicle on a policy that was paid for in early March and came into force on the 1st of April, despite lots of back and forth they couldn't even give an SLA for it after 6 weeks! Given the rarity and value of that vehicle it simply cannot be used without that protection in place, so based on the above requested a policy cancellation and returned to Footman James, who despite the much higher premiums, at least get this cover in place from day 1 with a few conditions.
During the cancellation process the incumbent insurers representative basically called me out as a liar stating no one would cover in the way Footman James have... worth bearing in mind that the incumbent claims to be a specialist classic and modified firm that "understands all customers are unique and treats them this way".
I've raised a complaint as I think this falls foul of TCF and is general poor practice, how on earth can it be fair to try and retain so much money when you fundamentally haven't offered the service paid for. (I've no quibble on the pro-rata cover provided so far on the policy to date vis overall cover, but that hardly comes to hundreds of pounds after a few weeks)
TL;DR - am I right to feel shafted over this, or should I just accept the T&C's and let them and the underwriters keep their fees?
Why am I having a rant? Cancellation fees!
Policy 1 was around £620
Policy 2 was around £590
In both cases they wanted to charge/retain roughly £300 to cancel the policy.
In the first instance I was able to haggle this down to "just" losing £140, but in the second instance after a lot of back of forth they have still retained over £250.
The policies hadn't been in force for even a month yet; policy 1 I'm happy to suck up the loss because I guess it's on me for changing cars, but it still stings.
Policy 2 has boiled my piss - the reason for cancellation is that they have failed to agree a value for the vehicle on a policy that was paid for in early March and came into force on the 1st of April, despite lots of back and forth they couldn't even give an SLA for it after 6 weeks! Given the rarity and value of that vehicle it simply cannot be used without that protection in place, so based on the above requested a policy cancellation and returned to Footman James, who despite the much higher premiums, at least get this cover in place from day 1 with a few conditions.
During the cancellation process the incumbent insurers representative basically called me out as a liar stating no one would cover in the way Footman James have... worth bearing in mind that the incumbent claims to be a specialist classic and modified firm that "understands all customers are unique and treats them this way".
I've raised a complaint as I think this falls foul of TCF and is general poor practice, how on earth can it be fair to try and retain so much money when you fundamentally haven't offered the service paid for. (I've no quibble on the pro-rata cover provided so far on the policy to date vis overall cover, but that hardly comes to hundreds of pounds after a few weeks)
TL;DR - am I right to feel shafted over this, or should I just accept the T&C's and let them and the underwriters keep their fees?
kambites said:
I think this sort of thing is an inevitable consequence of the race to the bottom in the industry caused by people using comparison sites to hunt down the cheapest deal without bothering to read the small-print on things like cancellation/modification fees.
100% this. Despite insurance increases of late, a quick read of the thread about insurance prices still shows many people paying sub £200 for some high performance cars. People are only concerned about the headline price, so the only way to compete is to offer a stupid price upfront and then hope to make some proper money on the people who have mid term changes. Either with admin or cancellation fees. "Years " ago Insurers used a variety of ways to calculate cancellation terms but usually this boiled down to either short rate or pro rata calculation's.
Short rate I think was stopped because it was definitely slanted towards their favour and was against TCF or whatever its now known as.
Today pro rata can still mean on a days basis or month ( bit like car tax refunds ) but either way the share of the premium retained should reflect the time on risk less the ubiquitous cancellation or admin fee.
If your premium was circa £600 pa and you cancelled after a month the refund would be normally in the region of £ 500 all things being equal.
T and C within the policy would spell out the specific fee deducted for cancellation.
Short rate I think was stopped because it was definitely slanted towards their favour and was against TCF or whatever its now known as.
Today pro rata can still mean on a days basis or month ( bit like car tax refunds ) but either way the share of the premium retained should reflect the time on risk less the ubiquitous cancellation or admin fee.
If your premium was circa £600 pa and you cancelled after a month the refund would be normally in the region of £ 500 all things being equal.
T and C within the policy would spell out the specific fee deducted for cancellation.
Policy 1 is annoying but is the downside of changing car shortly into a new policy and presumably their charges are in line with the terms agreed.
Policy 2, however, is a different situation - the provider seems to have failed to provide the service paid for, as the 'agreed value' has not been confirmed in a reasonable time. As such, I would certainly be arguing that the standard cancellation terms should not be applied, and they should be returning everything other than a pro-rata charge for time on risk.
Policy 2, however, is a different situation - the provider seems to have failed to provide the service paid for, as the 'agreed value' has not been confirmed in a reasonable time. As such, I would certainly be arguing that the standard cancellation terms should not be applied, and they should be returning everything other than a pro-rata charge for time on risk.
BrettMRC said:
All fair points, but in the instance of policy 2 I do feel a bit justified in being miffed! 
Indeed and I would too.Definitely worth a complaint as you have done - I assume you have sent that directly to their complaints department as opposed to asking whomever you spoke to to raise it ?
phil4 said:
I think many misunderstand, TCF - treating customers fairly. All that means is treating them the same. Not as people seem to think, resulting in their favour.
Whilst I know what you are saying it is worth saying it is still worth quoting TCF though. Customer's still have a right to be treated properly and in individual cases if they feel they haven't been the complaint raised is often taken more seriously.Does this mean you now have to answer yes to the "have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled" question? My daughter had her learner policy cancelled as it typical teenager fashion she just ignored all the text messages, emails and calls from the insurance company as she hadn't sent them a certain document and the insurance company then cancelled it.
Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
Does this mean you now have to answer yes to the "have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled" question? My daughter had her learner policy cancelled as it typical teenager fashion she just ignored all the text messages, emails and calls from the insurance company as she hadn't sent them a certain document and the insurance company then cancelled it.
Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
Given the cancellation was customer lead and not from the insurer, no.Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
Does this mean you now have to answer yes to the "have you ever had an insurance policy cancelled" question? My daughter had her learner policy cancelled as it typical teenager fashion she just ignored all the text messages, emails and calls from the insurance company as she hadn't sent them a certain document and the insurance company then cancelled it.
Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
In the OP's case both policies were cancelled by him and for good reason so he can answer no honestly.Now when we try and get quotes it doubles when you say yes to having insurance cancelled.
In your Daughters case the Insurer cancelled as she hadn't done what was asked so unfortunately yes would be correct.
It might be worthwhile trying a broker to get quotes and explaining to a real person why it was cancelled though.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff