ensleigh wont cancel my insurance that I've only had for 18 days

[LarissaJ]

Hiya all. I'm absolutely fuming with endsleigh insurance.

 

I had my car stolen in january and I am still going through the claim process. Unfortunately for me, the car had finance on it and the payout will only cover that. However, I have bought a cheap 'runaround' car and did a ''go compare'' search for the best insurance.

 

I went with Endsleigh, but then realised that I could change my car on the current policy with runs for a few more months. So I contacted Ensleigh who said that I cant cancel until I prove that I have insurance for the car. It took me a week to get this proof and then asked them again to cancel.

 

I have paid almost £140 already by debit card but they want a further £22.48 to cancel it!!!

 

Here is their reply:_

I am writing following your recent e mail to our Customer Service Department. You asked for your motor insurance policy to be cancelled from 08 March 2011 and have requested a breakdown as to how your additional premium is calculated. Please find below a breakdown of your premium, payments and time on risk charges.

Insurer Premium £542.12

Optional Legal Cover £27.20

Optional Add-on Products £16.80

Full Annual Premium £586.12

The above shows how the annual premium of £586.12 is broken down into various cover sections. Please note we also retain the commission that we receive from your purchase of the policy, in this case this amount is £66.49. As you would like your policy to be cancelled from 08 March 2011, the policy only provided cover for 19 days. Each cover section is calculated as a time on risk charge on a pro rata basis. For example, the insurer premium is divided by 365 to get the charge per day and then multiplied by 19 to get the actual charge required. Any optional cover is non-refundable after the first 14 days. The breakdown below shows the premium actually required.

Insurer Premium £28.2

Endsleigh Retained Commission £63.03

Optional Legal Cover £27.20

Optional Add-on Products £16.80

19 days on cover charge £135.25

Adding up all the time on cover charges makes the total amount required for 19 days cover £135.25. As the policy is being cancelled there is also a cancellation fee due of £25.00, making the total amount due £160.25.

However so far you have paid £137.77 (net of fees) towards your insurance. This means the outstanding amount on the policy is only £22.48.

I hope you find this explanation to your satisfaction, however if you would like to discuss this any further please contact our Customer Service Department on 0844 472 2592. Your policy started on 17 February 2011 and the cancellation is from the 08 March 2011, therefore your policy is no longer in the cooling off period.

 

I think this is disgusting and I feel like I've been ripped off once again by a corporate company, who think that they can bully the little people. If I had £160.00 to give away willy nilly for nothing, I can assure you it wouldn't be to these sharks!!

 

Does anyone know if I have any rights to dispute this and try to get my money back?

[unclebulgaria67]

You had to make the cancellation request within 14 days of receiving the policy documents or start date whatever is the later, to limit charges to the time on risk only.

 

Endsleigh believe your cancellation request was outside of the 14 day cooling off period, so unless you can prove otherwise, then they are correct. Very annoying and costly if this is the case.

 

Check the dates as to when the policy docs were received, to see if within 14 days. Make a complaint in writing, sending a copy of the other Insurance. Threaten to take this to the FOS, if not resolved. If you went to the FOS, Endsleigh would be charged a £500 case fee.

[rebel11]

Hi lar

 

So basically you informed that you wanted to cancel within 14 days, but they wanted proof that you had insurance for your car.

 

Uncle has provided good advice.

[LarissaJ]

thanks for your replies. this is what has happened so far :

 

the first email to them from me was asking for the start date to be suspended until April they replied saying that it can't be suspended only cancelled when I provided proof of insurance. which I sent to them on 8th March.

 

After posting on here, I sent them a further email, here it is:-

 

Dear ******

Thank you for your email dated 11th March.

Please note that I contacted you on 21st February to inform you that I no longer need this car insurance from 17th February, I asked if it could be suspended until April and this was your reply:

From: Endsleigh Customer Service

Dear *********

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately as the policy has already started we would be unable to change the inception date and in addition to this as the date you require is more than 30 days in advance you would need to cancel the policy you have at the moment and start a new one within 30 days of the desired inception date.

If you are able to provide us with confirmation of alternative insurance for the Renault Megane, registration MJ51NHD, we would be able to backdate your cancellation to the 17th February. Please send this to us either by return email or by posting it to:

Endsleigh Insurance Services Limited

Customer Service Department

Shurdington Road

Cheltenham Spa

Glos

GL51 4BF

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

As you clearly stated that it could not be suspended and also stated that cancellation was the only option, I contacted my current insurance company but was only able to produce the confirmation from them on 8th March. The 8th of March is not the date I wanted the insurance cancelled from as you state in your email, I wanted the insurance cancelled completely and I informed you of this within the cooling off period.

I await your immediate response in this matter. If I do not hear from you within 7 days with a suitable resolve, I shall have no option other than to report Endsleigh Insurance Services Limited to The Financial Ombudsman Service.

Yours sincerely

This is the reply I got today:-

Thank you for your e mail.

I can confirm you first contacted us on 21 February asking us to change the inception date, we emailed you on 22 February saying we were not able to do this. In your first e mail on 21 February you did not ask us to cancel the policy. You did not contact us again from this date until 09 March 2011 when you sent us proof of alternative insurance, this started on 08 March 2011, therefore this would be the cancellation date as we were covering the car up until you took out the policy with swift cover. This date is not in your 14 day cooling off period.

I am sorry this is not the outcome you were looking for.

Yours sincerely

 

I already had insurance with swiftcover, but because my old car was stolen, my new one was still insured under that policy, it just needed changing over and I couldn't do this until 8th march due to a discrprancy on the policy. My car was off the road with no tax as it is a bit of an old banger and needed fixing, so the time before 8th march it was sat on my drive with no tax, so I didn't actuallyneed insurance anyway!

Is my only option to complain to the fos now? They did give me an option to suspend the insurance but to continue with the direct debit payments, I might do this and complain at the same time but I'm not sure if that would create problems, I'm not too hot on the idea of giving them any more money to be honest!!

Any ideas what I should do??

[unclebulgaria67]

Just stand your ground. Tell them that you remain unhappy and will ask the FOS to take on the complaint unless they look to resolve this. Endsleigh have 8 weeks from the date of your complaint to resolve. If they don't want to resolve, they will issue a final response before the 8 weeks are up and at that point you can just refer to the FOS.

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

[LarissaJ]

thank uncle b!

 

I've just sent this email:-

Dear *****

Thank you for your email dated 14.3.11.

As your reply email to me on the 22nd February stated that the account could not be suspended, only cancelled, I took this as being the truth and therefore took the necessary steps you had requested to cancel the insurance. It is only now that you are stating the insurance cannot be cancelled.

As I have stated in a previous email, the car was not on the road nor taxed until 8th March 2011. Therefore no insurance was needed at all before that time. I did not take out any new insurance with swiftcover, it was an existing policy in my partner’s name for another car which was stolen and hence the car on this policy was changed to the *********. Nobody needs two insurance policies for the same vehicle and I would expect any reputable company to understand this situation.

 

It is quite straightforward really, I took out insurance with you, informed you within a few days that it was no longer required, you told me the steps needed to cancel, I did those steps, now you are stating it is not possible to cancel. Furthermore, it is extremely unreasonable for any company to charge £160.25 for a service which is not and never has been required and to also add such a high amount of money for administration costs is extortionate.

 

Taking all of the above into account, I hereby inform you that I am making a formal complaint. If this complaint is not resolved with 8 weeks of the date of this email (15.3.11) I shall pass this complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service with immediate effect. Such action will result in Endsleigh Insurance Services Limited being charged £500.00 for the case fee. Therefore it is in your interest to come to a satisfactory resolve in this matter.

 

Yours sincerely