RAC Motor Insurance Excessive Cancelling Charges

[mcdiddler]

Hello,

 

I recently tried to cancel my motor insurance poilcy with the RAC. I was shocked to learn that I now face a cancellation of charge of nealry £200 (£35 cancellation fee and the remainder a 'short-term' rate fee). Clearly I only have myself to blame for not reading the small print (but then who does?!) but a short-term rate fee of nearly £165 seems excessive??

 

Is there anyway of gettign around this? I accept that cancelling in the middle of my policy would incur some sort of penalty but I was thinking more like £35 cancellation fee and 1 months cover of £50.

 

RAC take the money via my debit card which I have cancelled to avoid them taking the full £200 - is this a sensible move or should I just take it on the chin and pay them? IfI offered them say £85 and told themI had cancelled my card meaning they wouldnt get anything would they be likely to accept?

 

Thanks.

[MARTIN3030]

It is a common practice for all insurers to seek disproportionate cancellation charges.

What I suggest that you do is demand a breakdown of the figures which show that their cancellation charges are proportionate to their loss in dealing with your cancellation.

My guess is they wont be able to show these charges to be fair.

Remind them that UTCC gives a consumer protection against penalty charges,and that if they are unable to demonstrate clearly that the charges for dealing with your cancellation are fair and proportionate,then you will be filing a complaint with the FOS.

[samantha25]

Use Tesco, they're by far the cheapest, especially when you're a new customer to them. You may want to move after 3-4 years but to be honest they'll still be hard to beat then.

[MARTIN3030]

Use Tesco, they're by far the cheapest, especially when you're a new customer to them. You may want to move after 3-4 years but to be honest they'll still be hard to beat then.

 

Not sure I would agree Tesco are any better.

Looking at the published figures recently from the FOS in relation to their complaints data,it would seem Tesco actually fare worse in the tables.

[samantha25]

I defer to your better sources then Martin

 

Forgive my laziness, not looking at your source, but I (and I bet everybody) would love to know:

 

Who's the cheapest and/or best?

[MARTIN3030]

Lets look at the periods from 01 January 2011 to 30 June 2011

RAC had 830 new cases opened by the FOS compared to Tesco 982

 

Complaints closed RAC -879 Tesco-685

Complaints closed within 8 weeks RAC-98 Tesco -94

 

Complaints closed and upheld by the FOS RAC-48 Tesco 67

 

Therefore from these figures it appears RAC fare better than Tesco

[samantha25]

Interesting. On a related topic, I found RAC cheapest for breakdown cover.

[MARTIN3030]

Who is the best and worst ?

Interesting question here are some more Motor Insurance stats.

 

 

Complaints were up 6% for the year ending March 2011 than on the previous year with total complaints being 5,784 and 5,451 respectively.

 

This came after a period which had seen complaints for Motor Insurance actually fall.

 

 

year ended 31 March

2011 5,784

2010 5,451

2009 6,267

2008 6,009

2007 4,230

2006 3,372

 

 

Complaints upheld by the FOS so far for 2010/2011 are slightly up on the previous period standing at 51% compared with 50%

 

This means that in theory you have a 1 in 2 chance of having your complaint upheld by the FOS.

 

Once again the figures appear to be growing again after a decline seen previously.Figures for prev years are

 

2009 -50% 2010-38% 2011-45%

 

I will try and complile a list of the best and worst when I get some time.

[silverfox1961]

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