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If it's because you cancelled early, it's a penalty charge: unlawful.
If it's to "cover their admin costs", you want to see a Breakdown of the costs. If it's not a genuine pre-estimate: unlawful.
If it's one of the above, or a "just because", you tell them you want a refund or you'll see them in court.
Apologies to people who I was in the process of helping, I may be gone some time.
I've just made enquires to cancel my home/buildings insurance early and been told I will be charged a months payment as a 'cancellation'fee. Does it make any differencve that i pay monthly. Sorry to butt in, if it goes any further i'll start my own post. Ta
Could you have a look at the T&Cs to see whether or not it is included there.
If it isn't then the problem becomes very easy.
If it is included then we have to go down the penalty charge route which is a bit trickier but quite do-able
Please don't pm me about specific questions unless you have posted and it has not been dealt with or unless the matter is confidential. Please include a link to the post you want me to look at. If you have received a defence, contact me.
Advice & opinions of BankFodder, The Consumer Action Group and The Bank Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
Thanks all. Have checked T and C. It is printed on the bottom of the policy schedule
CANCELLATION CHARGE Our current cancellation charge is one month's premium.
I think for home insurance this should/could be classes as a penalty.
motor insurance gets a little tricky, as regardless of wether or not you pay monthly, or if you cancel - the policy is still legally in force (at least as far as thrid-party goes) for the full term.
So to aska cancellation fee is not even covering their costs of the risk involved, so it probably wouldn't be seen as a penalty.
Home insurance is cancelled as and when you cancel it and the risk is no longer carried by the insurer, and therefore I would say that it's a penalty.
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Advice & opinions of Dave, The Bank Action Group and The Consumer Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability.
Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
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If you pay monthly they cannot enforce the charge as the agreement is to pay per month (unless you have defaulted and not paid for the amount of cover you have had).
Also, Insurance companies Breakdown a policy into monthly segments not equally in the first year of insurance as to recoup the admin costs of setting up the policy.
If I remember rightly - 89% of first year insurance costs for motor policies goes on admin and agout 65% on Household.
Not saying they are right or lawful, just what the insurance industries stand might be.
Just had the very same problem re car insurance. Although they say I will have to pay all future monthly payments (up to November, about £200.00 ) because I have had a claim in this insurance year. The thing that annoys me is that I bought a new car (group 8) and asked them for a new quote to cover it, replacing my existing group 14 car. They quoted the same premium for the group 8 as the group 14. (Part of the reason for buying the new car was to reduce costs.) When I asked why, they said it was because I had had a claim in this insurance year. I did then ask if there was a penalty for cancelling the policy and was told no. So I went and insured the new car with Direct Line at a reduced cost. Have just attempted to cancel my old policy and been told to pay up. Of course they have your notification of no claims bonus which you need for the new insurers.
Banks, insurance companies, I hate them all!!
Yes, financial institutions in this country need a bloody good shake up.
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Advice & opinions of Dave, The Bank Action Group and The Consumer Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability.
Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
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I would like to cancel my insurance policy, which is with Diamond. On the back of my certificate of motor insurance it says there is an admin fee of £45 for all cancellations, I fthink this is a really high amount! What should I do? Should I write to them saying I will not pay the admin fee until they post me a Breakdown, should I just pay the total amount, and also if I cancel my policy (Iam fully comp) will my car still be insured to me as thirs party fire and theft until the end of the policy term?
I would like to cancel my insurance policy, which is with Diamond. On the back of my certificate of motor insurance it says there is an admin fee of £45 for all cancellations, I fthink this is a really high amount! What should I do? Should I write to them saying I will not pay the admin fee until they post me a Breakdown, should I just pay the total amount, and also if I cancel my policy (Iam fully comp) will my car still be insured to me as thirs party fire and theft until the end of the policy term?
I would appreciate advise on this!
I don't quite understand your last question - if you cancelled your policy, then all cover would stop from the date of the cancellation and you would then be uninsured. If you only want 3rd party fire and theft cover, you should call Diamond and ask them to downgrade your policy from Comprehensive.
Just had the very same problem re car insurance. Although they say I will have to pay all future monthly payments (up to November, about £200.00 ) because I have had a claim in this insurance year. The thing that annoys me is that I bought a new car (group 8) and asked them for a new quote to cover it, replacing my existing group 14 car. They quoted the same premium for the group 8 as the group 14. (Part of the reason for buying the new car was to reduce costs.) When I asked why, they said it was because I had had a claim in this insurance year. I did then ask if there was a penalty for cancelling the policy and was told no. So I went and insured the new car with Direct Line at a reduced cost. Have just attempted to cancel my old policy and been told to pay up. Of course they have your notification of no claims bonus which you need for the new insurers.
Banks, insurance companies, I hate them all!!
Is this a serious post? When you pay your motor insurance by DD it does not mean that it is a monthly policy. There is an annual premium due and you are simply opting to spread the cost. If you have had a claim paid out on the policy then you still have to cover the annual premium.
I understand that people get upset when they are hit with unreasonable charges but lets not get carried away. If you took out a loan for 5k over 5 years to buy a car, then sold the car after 2 years, would you therefore expect not to have to pay the rest of the loan because you no longer had the car?
I have read through the posts and think I may have got confused. Can anyone advise me about my problem, please.
I have been with 1st Quote for over two years and recently sold my bike. When I cancelled my policy which I paid by monthly instalment I was not told that I would have to pay nearly 5 months premiums !!. I think this is a bit steep so I rang, partly to advise that I had shredded my certificate and also to query this charge. I was told that it is because paying monthly involves, essentially, taking a loan over 12 months to pay the premium to the insurers. They want £16 for this privilege and 1st Quote want £30 admin fee for cancelling the policy- Total £46. Apparently it is in the Terms & Conditions that they send out.
What do we think about this then and have I got any chance of reducing the amount (preferably to Zero) ? They are sending out new Terms so I can read it for myself, but it just doesn't seem right to me. I will be asking for a Breakdown of the admin charge so I can see what is involved too.
What if somebody dies? Are these charges still payable then? Knowing these companies they probably are.
And people wonder why consumers don't trust the financial services industry...
I understand your upset indebt, but please be realistic!! I don't believe any company would charge for cancelling a policy for a deceased client.
( certainly not the one i work for!)
I understand your upset indebt, but please be realistic!! I don't believe any company would charge for cancelling a policy for a deceased client.
( certainly not the one i work for!)
Neither would we.
Indebt, your feelings towards financial institutions are well documented on here, but what you fail to realise is that we are still human and do have compassion you know.
DA
If you find the advice I give is useful, then please feel free to click the scales
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt"
But the same costs are incurred if somebody dies... So in essence I'm subsidising them...
This comment is very tongue in cheek but yes I have become very cynical recently, it began when I discovered that insurance providers actually tell people they have the wrong type of cancer.
Anyway back on topic I personally would challenge these charges, I guess it depends what you want to achieve. I am prepared for the possibility that I will get nothing back but I'm gambling that the costs in replying to me, dealing with the Ombudsmen and going to court will mean they make efforts to come to some agreement.
I think the reason people feel so annoyed by these charges is that, like bank charges, they vary a great deal. The first insurance policy I ever had for my contents bore the mark of the plain english campaign and I knew exactly what I was covered for. I do think that companies take a calculated risk in relation to such charges and possibly even claims, if 7 out of ten people give up then this is a positive result in terms of revenue.
Cancellation Charges
policy with Admiral. How can they warrant this?
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Re: Cancellation Charges
Originally Posted by UNIQLO1087
