Hello can anyone advise me please. I recently took out an insurance for my wifes car at Swintons costing£235.10 payable by 10 installments.

On checking around i found i could more than half this with another company so 7 days later i tried to cancel with Swintons. They informed my with there canncelation fees and 7 days i was insured the cost would me £181.00. This seams extortionate. Reading there key facts which came with the insurance i should have 14 days cooling off period as there is is a credit agreement involved,but they say cancellation fees are still payable.The only other charge i can see on there key facts is an administration fee of £35.00 which i would still assume only comes into effect after the 14 days.I have argued this point over the phone to Swintons and they say they will have to get a more senior member of staff to call me back. Does this appear correct that they are trying to charge me £181.00 to cancell an insurance that is only 7 days in,and first payment other than deposit has not been taken from my account?

Any feedback would be helpful,thanks.

On the Swinton terms and conditions website it says the cancellation charge is £50, plus the insurer who underwrites the policy might charge its own fee as well. That is probably why the amount is so high.

Is the new policy equivalent to the Swinton one? You need to be careful about any possible differences between the 2 policies - for example the excess might be higher on the new one. So you need to consider what level of cover you are happy with.

Swinton is a broker, so if you are not happy with the policy they sold you, you could ask them to transfer you to another one. If you tell them about the new quote you found, then they may be able to set you up a policy with that insurer. In that way, you wouldn't have to cancel your existing contract.

Thanks for reply. Looks like i,m stuck with it. The other policy does not comare,overall, with Swinton,s but money is tight. Thought i was stuck but just wondered. They are calling back Monday so i will see if they can save me a few extra £££s. Once again thanks for reply.

check their policy wording r.e paying by direct debit, i know a lot of companies have it written that if your paying by DD and the the DD is cancelled they cancel the policy pro rata (no fee no admin) some even say that they will cancel back the to last due date of the payment.

Alot of these same companies also do not follow their own policy wording and allow the policy to run & then chase the money etc.

I hope someone can help me, I'm having a similar sort of problem.

I took out insurance recently on a new car with 1 years no claims. Two days ago I received documentation from my insurers saying that the proof I provided for my no claims was insufficient and that they were increasing my cover by £300 per year, and the first direct debit came out that same day! Conveniently this is 14 days after my cancellation period.

After several phone calls to my current insurers and previous insurers it turns out I don't have 1 years no claims after all. So I retrieved some more quotes with no no claims and my current insurer was offering a price for only £185 more per year than my original policy (however I have now started a new policy with an insurer offering £100 less than that), and I've now had to pay £35 of cancellation fees plus £165 that I apparently still owed them in insurance!

Surely because it was them who changed my policy without giving me any notice and which I certainly didn't agree, I shouldn't have had to pay these fees?

I'd be grateful if someone could clarify for me and point me in the direction of some legislation which states this so I can write to them with a complaint if needs be.

Many thanks

Gem