Motor Insurance cancellation - with a twist

[bootie3367]

Good day to you all.

 

My wife had motor insurance with Fortis, through its4me, purchased online, etc.

 

So last August we moved to Spain, we didn't cancel then as we had not then sold the car. I was a named driver and would be going back to the UK due to my work and would need to use the car until such taime as it was sold. Eventually the car was sold some 2 months later and the proceeds of the sale were to fund a LHD spanish second hand car.

This all took place and everything was running swimmingly (surprising for Spain) When she called them up to cancel the policy (back end of Nov, policy ran out in March following) she was informed there would be a cancellation charge, plus a full months premium!!! OK, not a problem, please send the notification of amount of no claims to..... New address given, got the OK on the phone so she asked if it was possible to get that info faxed to our Spanish bank for quickness so she could go ahead and claim that discount for her spanish insurance (quoted at €230 dependant on the no claims) they informed her that because of the DPA they were not allowed to do that (WTF?) so anyway, OK just send it to (New Spanish address) waited, waited, then waited some more, now we are into December and the bank is pressing for the required info so that we can get the insurance as quoted. Much needed as we had the car and were driving it on the banks cover note. So we waited a bit more, then a bit more and still more..... The bank had no choice but to go ahead and charge the full amount for the insurance (€640 and take the money, as they do over here) so we now have the situation, its4me demanding this payment, the bank having had no choice, charging us nearly 3 times the original quote. Xmas came and went, so did the New Year and finally at the very end of the month after countless (expensive) calls to its4me and Fortis the offending document was sent by post to our previous address, despite them acknowledging the change of address, luckily we still had mail re-direction to our son. Which is where I picked the letter up. We have now presented it to the bank, but will have to wait to see if she does get the original quote, bearing in mind the time delay!

Anyway, she has also had a letter from solicitors regarding the debt, stating the usual blurb, however they have also addressed that to our former address.

 

Now what I would like to happen is,.......

 

a. write back to its4me, stating that due to their poor response to our initial request has cost us blahde blah amount. if they were willing to forgo the charges for cancellation, we would not persue the matter of the increased premium charges.

 

or

b. Just ignore them (the debt collectors) as they only have our former address.

 

Can someone from the team of super brains offer some advice please?

 

Cheers

[ab123uk]

Hi Bootie,

 

I would definitely go for the first option first, explain how unhappy you are, and that you are more than happy to make a complaint to the ombudsman (this costs THEM about £400), and see what response you get, if you still arent happy- can't see a bailiff coming to Spain for a few quid!

[Darkangelsdelite]

The new insurers should backdate any additional premium you've paid for reducing your NCD back to inception so the quote will go back to what it was originally.

 

In regards to where you go from here, i don't option b is a good idea as just ignoring a debt wont make it go away. I'm pretty sure they will track you down eventually.

 

As far as plan A goes, that's probably a good place to start, although just to point out, most insurers wont release proof of your NCD until any outstanding balance has been cleared. So they could argue that your new insurer increasing your premium for non-receipt of proof of bonus isn't their problem as you still owed them money so they had no obligation to send it to you, they may have only done it as a goodwill gesture.

 

At the end of the day, it may be best in the long run to just pay them what you owe and be done with it.

 

 

hope this helps

 

 

DA