Direct Line Cancellation Problem

[einsteincountry]

In a nutshell, I'm being shafted by Direct Line.

I applied and got car insurance from them for our 2nd car last August. I rang and cancelled the policy 7 days later as I realised my wife could drive this car 3rd party using her policy on our other car. As it's a banger and not worth much, we weren't bothered about it only being 3rd party, and while I know that this approach to car insurance is frowned on by some, it works for us as we don't have much money but need to run 2 cars due to work and child-care commitments.

Anyway, when I rang to cancel they said I needed to send in my certificate of insurance with a covering letter, which I did by recorded delivery. I checked the track and trace with Royal Mail and the letter was delivered the day after. I foolishly assumed this would be the end of it and my full years premium would be refunded to my credit card as I'd cancelled within 14 days as they stated.

I was surprised to get a policy renewal letter through saying words to the effect of "your policy is due to expire, here's what it would cost to renew for a year".

I rang them today to see if the letter was sent by mistake, or was a ploy to get me to insure with them, but it turns out they didn't cancel my policy and no refund was sent. I didn't check for the refund being credited to my credit card at the time, I assumed it had gone through as I heard nothing back from Direct Line.

Their Customer Relations team said that unless I can prove that I either sent the Certificate of Insurance to them, the car was insured elsewhere or was legally declared off the road, they won't refund. I don't have the tracking number for Royal Mail as I binned it some time ago and the car is neither insured nor is it off the road.

I've contacted Royal Mail and the Financial Ombudsman for help, but I don't see what I can do. Direct Line have records of my calling to cancel but they're adamant that they didn't receive the letter nor the certificate so therefore I was insured for the year and can't have the refund I was expecting 12 months ago.

Can anyone help? Please?!

Johnny

[PKea]

Are you saying that you drove your 2nd car for a year without it being insured??
You cant use the 3rd party clause on another vehicle policy to drive an uninsured vehicle.

Think yourslef lucky for you that DL didnt cancel the policy, otherwise if an acident happened they would be more problems.

Uninsured drivers are the bain of my life.

[einsteincountry]

Hi - I didn't want to go down this argument on this thread as I said, I was looking for advice on how to get my money back, but, just his once...

1) My wife is insured fully comp on car 1, which is in her name.
2) She, and only she, is allowed to drive any other car with 3rd party only cover as long as she has the owner's permission.
3) I am the owner of our 2nd car and I "allow" her to drive it. I never drive it.

Her FC policy with another provider explicitly states (in words to this effect):
"you can drive other cars with 3rd party cover provided you have the owner's permission and the car isn't yours"

I also know this to be legal as she was stopped by the police driving this car and given a producer. They stopped her as she was driving a car which wasn't insured and told her as much. She explained the situation to them, they were fine with it, and they were also fine at the station when she handed in her producer with the required documents.

Thanks for your input, and I'm sorry that uninsured drivers are the bain of your life, but I don't need comment, I need help. There's a big gaping loophole in my wife's insurance policy which we're exploiting and I don't hide the fact. We're both legally insured to drive our cars in the way that we drive them, at no point does one of us drive with no insurance. I just need advice on what Direct Line have said to me regarding my refund.

[PKea]

Originally Posted by einsteincountry

Their Customer Relations team said that unless I can prove that I either sent the Certificate of Insurance to them, the car was insured elsewhere or was legally declared off the road,

Originally Posted by einsteincountry

3) I am the owner of our 2nd car and I "allow" her to drive it. I never drive it.

.

You state you have insurance on this car under your name, send that to Direct Line and that should satisfy their requirement that you cancelled the other policy.

[einsteincountry]

nope, they asked if I could prove car 2 was insured elsewhere. I can't as it wasn't. This car in question is not explicitly mentioned on a certificate of insurance anywhere other than the policy which I tried to cancel. They insist that they didn't receive my cancellation so their approach is that unless I can prove that I sent the certificate back or show that the car was insured by another provider then they can't see when to backdate the cancellation to and can only cancel the policy as from today

[PKea]

I dont want to sound blunt, but if you have a car on the highway it needs to be insured.

If its parked up and their is an accident involving it, the OP would have no one to claim against, as it would be un insured.

I wont comment any further

[Darkangelsdelite]

Just to settle this! You're both half right, this is something that comes up often. The DOC (Driving other cars) cover offers minimum cover allowed under the RTA (Road Traffic Act) So, LEGALLY, yes, His wife can drive the 2nd car thats owned by him under Her DOC cover as long as she has his permission. The 2nd car doesn't even need to be insured elsewhere as if she hit a TP, her insurer would pay out on the claim. BUT, the car cannot be left on any public place as it ceases to be insuerd once she steps out of the car. I.E she can drive the car from point A to point B but cannot leave the car in a car park for example as it would be illegal. Also the car would need to be kept on a private driveway or garage and cant be on a road or path or anything.

Now i've cleared that up, onto your query.
The onus is on the customer to make sure the policy is cancelled on not on the insurer to chase you for it. Best bet is to contact the royal mail and see if they can help at all, but unless you can prove to direct line that the cover wasn't required (either by a sales invoice, a scrap yard receipt or proof of alternate cover) or can prove they received the letter then you haven't really got a leg to stand on mate, sorry.


DA.