Hi,

I've been with Brightside Car Insurance for last two years, however my auto renewal wasn't a great price but I was away working and I totally forgot to cancel in time & it was renewed.

Luckily I got back within the 14 day cooling off period and called to cancel and asked how much I would be refunded from the first monthly payment taken via Direct Debit (£60)..I realised I would be charged the £25 cancellation fee & for number of days cover provided.

The advisor said he could only cancel the policy and was unable to confirm the refund amount & I would have to call back once it was cancelled (the following day) altho he estimated approx £20 ish.

However I called today and I was advised that I would actually owe them more money?...

I was baffled and asked how & he explained that they as brokers charge a £25 admin fee and also my actual insurance company charge £25 also... I've never come across that before to be honest in the many years I've been driving??

The policy was auto renewed on the 11th January upon which they took payment of £60 the policy was cancelled on the 21st January.

I have complained to Brightside & the advisor has arranged a manager to call me back (as no one was available at the time)..altho I'm not holding my breath as Brightside customer service is terrible if I'm honest..long, long waiting to be answered and the usual "robot approach" staff.

Thankfully I didn't have to call them often but I was determined upon renewal I was leaving them (just a pity I didn't realise before it auto renewed)

I've requested for Brightside to waive "one" of these charges as I really think it's ridiculous. Upon cancellation on the first call I was told I would be charged £25 cancellation & the days cover was provided ..nothing about the other cancellation charge?

Has anyone else had a similar situation with two charges? Any help or advice appreciated.

Stuff 'em

Go do a dd's guarantee reclaim from your bank

They had no valid dd's mandate

Can I do that?

I assumed they had a mandate (kinda auto renewed from previous year?..or am I wrong on that?)..

I'm tempted to just say stuff em but I don't want some debt collection letter with the usual pathetic demands.

I would rather get this resolved with them directly.

I've also checked all the documents I was provided upon renewal (I can still access them within my online account), not one mention of a cancellation charge from the actual insurer, just the one from Brightview. The actual insurer is a company called Tansar & on checking their website they have a policy words booklet (http://www.tansar.co.uk/documents/policywordings/privatecar_v2.1.PDF which I certainly never received? The only docs I received were 3 docs which one was the certificate & the other two outline the cover of insurance, no information about cancellation charges.

The last guy I spoke to at customer services said it will clearly outline that on Tansars website, but surely that should be provided to me among my docs, I shouldn't have to hunting on the insurers website? It's crazy..first I've ever heard of this with any insurance I've had.

And this Tansar seems to have terrible ratings from what I've seen online too

stop talking to fleecing people on the phone

never use the phone to discuss any debts with anyone.

look at the DD mandate you signed

it will clearly say 10 or 12 payments and a schedule of dates. ..end of!!

they cant roll it over and they cant use the old DD mandate.

cheers, yeah I'm thinking talking to these people is pointless, so I see your point.

I'll see if I can find the DD mandate but as far as I know it was electronic via Close Brothers Finance (who offer the instalments)..I've logged into my Close Brothers account & no sight of the mandate although the agreement has been cancelled showing a zero balance owing.

I won't bother with the manager, just gonna email customer relations directly & ask them to provide me with a DD mandate - if they can't I'll contact bank & reclaim

thought you said you had all the paperwork...so you don't have it.

there would not have been and agreement passed 10 or 12 month with close brothers finance the insurance provider cant see into the future

so go get them back under the DD guarantee with your bank, as the DD mandate for the finance had expired and you not signed an new finance agreement anyway!!

think about how this works, then you wont need to waste your time in the future.

All paperwork is digital, paper free within Brightside & Close Brothers.

But you are correct actually there is no new finance agreement signed (Ive only signed one ) and no record of a DD mandate.

I think I'm being to polite with this tbh and I'm contacting my bank to reimburse the full payment I've made.

Thanks again mate @dx100UK

..I'll update on what outcome is

People often misunderstand what the cooling off period provides them. It only enables a policyholder to avoid any other terms that might come into force beyond the cooling off period. For example you might have to pay the full cost of any extra add on to the policy, such as legal expenses cover.

What you are responsible for within the cooling off period, is the cost per day of the policy up to the date you cancel and the cancellation fees stated within the policy terms. So you need to check the terms very carefully and see what is stated.

See what comes back from your complaint. They should explain the contract terms and provide a breakdown of the amount they believe you owe them.

Thanks yeah I have emailed complaints (and also posted letter today) & I totally get what you mean with ref to the cooling off period.

Although upon renewal the documents provided by Brightside on behalf of the actual insurer only consisted of a certificate of insurance, Statement of information & 2 documents basically going over what my insurance covers & exclusions etc. I have read ALL the small print and it is outlined in the statement of information cancellation within cooling period £25 (no mention of the £25 the actual insurer supposedly charges on top as I was advised)

As @dx100uk stated also I'm now going to find out why I was not asked to sign a new agreement and for them to provide the Direct Debit mandate details. I certainly don't remember the direct debit I digitally signed (over 2 yrs ago) to be a continuous payment mandate. Unless I'm missing something on that one?

At the end of the day it's £25, thankfully not huge amount but better in my bank than theirs & it's the principle of the fact this "extra charge" isn't mentioned on any documentation I was provided with - yet they throw it at you out of the blue!

I'll update what the outcome to this is though. Thanks again ;-)

Just a follow up on this to confirm that Brightside eventually came back with a result to my complaint refunding both their own £25 cancellation charge & the £25 that was charged by the actual insurer.
As the insurer had not outlined any such charge in the documents I was supplied, coupled with the fact no correspondence was provided to me (as I requested via letter) of all charges & a breakdown etc they are now going to refund me my due outstanding balance I have overpaid them. 
What was just as annoying was within literally days of cancelling I receive a letter from their collections bureau team, which further added weight to my complaint especially when I was infact expecting a breakdown of their cancellation charges (which of course never arrived).
But anyway thankfully all sorted out & didn't have to pay this fictitious extra charge.
 

Well done