Cancelling insurance when paying monthly with a choice/ marker study, fees.

[Chloen]

We previously owned a ford mondeo that was involved in a rear end accident. After it was repaired via insurance solicitors, we decided to get rid of it. It may sound silly but I didn't want to drive that car anymore after the repair, I felt the repair was inadequate but rather than dispute this we decided to change it.

 

We bought a ford c max grand. We rang a choice whom our policy documents are with and they told us it would be £288 to cancel as they cannot insure our new vehicle as it has seven seats and we had an open claim. They had called us two weeks prior to this to ask permission to close it on their system as the other party had admitted 100% fault which we agreed to.

 

After speaking to the solicitors they confirmed it should be closed. After arguing this they're now saying we have to pay £110 to cancel. I feel this is unfair, we didn't want to cancel, we wanted to switch the policy over to our new vehicle and we just paid this months premium two days ago, it was them who wouldn't allow us to do this forcing us to cancel.

 

However, we pay monthly for our policy and have held it for five (possibly 6 but I'd have to check for sure) months now. Yes we had a claim open, but now fault has been determined and they've closed it surely it's merely informing them of an incident as all costs will be recovered from the 3rd party's insurer?

 

Is this a fair charge before I get into disputing it? i thought a cancellation charge of up to £50 was deemed reasonable? Thank you

Edited June 12, 2015 by maroondevo52
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[unclebulgaria67]

We previously owned a ford mondeo that was involved in a rear end accident. After it was repaired via insurance solicitors, we decided to get rid of it. It may sound silly but I didn't want to drive that car anymore after the repair, I felt the repair was inadequate but rather than dispute this we decided to change it. We bought a ford c max grand. We rang a choice whom our policy documents are with and they told us it would be £288 to cancel as they cannot insure our new vehicle as it has seven seats and we had an open claim. They had called us two weeks prior to this to ask permission to close it on their system as the other party had admitted 100% fault which we agreed to. After speaking to the solicitors they confirmed it should be closed. After arguing this they're now saying we have to pay £110 to cancel. I feel this is unfair, we didn't want to cancel, we wanted to switch the policy over to our new vehicle and we just paid this months premium two days ago, it was them who wouldn't allow us to do this forcing us to cancel. However, we pay monthly for our policy and have held it for five (possibly 6 but I'd have to check for sure) months now. Yes we had a claim open, but now fault has been determined and they've closed it surely it's merely informing them of an incident as all costs will be recovered from the 3rd party's insurer?

Is this a fair charge before I get into disputing it? i thought a cancellation charge of up to £50 was deemed reasonable? Thank you

 

They can charge cancellation admin fees whatever the reasons for cancellation are, but I agree that it could be considered unfair.

 

It is worth making a formal complaint in writing saying that you believe the cancellation charge is unfair and that you wish to test this with the FOS. Ask them to reconsider this or to issue their final response so that you can escalate to the FOS without delay. They might back down.

 

Another thing is to try and get a quote from this company for a C Max online if you can. It is not unknown for mistakes to be made and that they find out they could have arranged the cover.

[Chloen]

They can charge cancellation admin fees whatever the reasons for cancellation are, but I agree that it could be considered unfair.

 

It is worth making a formal complaint in writing saying that you believe the cancellation charge is unfair and that you wish to test this with the FOS. Ask them to reconsider this or to issue their final response so that you can escalate to the FOS without delay. They might back down.

 

Another thing is to try and get a quote from this company for a C Max online if you can. It is not unknown for mistakes to be made and that they find out they could have arranged the cover.

 

Thank you for your reply, as a choice are a broker they told us they could get us alternative cover, at a cost of £120 per month, when our previous cover cost £48 per month. So we were forced to get cover elsewhere which we managed for £57 per month taking into account the claim as even though it wasn't my fault insurers still increase premiums as 'statistically we're more likely to be involved in another accident' seems rubbish to me as I'm not sure how I'm any more likely than other driver to be rear ended but there you go.

 

I just don't feel £110 is reasonable to cancel when we had no way of knowing they wouldn't insure our new vehicle. It's not a helicopter or a Ferrari, it's another ford hatchback. I will try and dispute then though thank you

[Conniff]

Will you let us know what happens ?

[Chloen]

I will update when I have an answer

[Chloen]

Update - got it down to £71, still high but almost £40 off the first figure they gave us. This is cancellation fee and interest apparently, previous figure was commission too? To be honest I'm not entirely sure what that means but a £40 knockdown is better than nothing!