Quote me UN happy

[CraigMcK]

Just looking for some advice

 

My wife just sold her car, there is about 2 months left on her insurance policy.

 

Going onto Quote me unhappy's website they want £53 to cancel the insurance and an extra £30 if I call them to cancel it.

 

There is no refund for the remaining term, which I can accept, but charging to cancel it seems well OTT, which I'm not about to pay.

 

So

1) Is it just me or is this a complete rip off

2) Can we just leave the insurance running until June when it's finishes

 

Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

Standard practice these days. The FOS position is that these cancellation fees are acceptable, provided they are written into the terms of the policy. Some people complain that the fees represent a profit, as they are more than the costs the Insurers will incur for processing the cancellation. This does not get them very far, as the Insurers can provide evidence of costs being incurred in dealing with a cancellation, which will equal the fee being charged.

 

If you have sold the vehicle, you have to cancel insurance on that vehicle. You cannot simply let the policy run, as Insurers may have an ongoing responsibility under the Road Traffic Acts. There was a case a few years back, where someone sold a car and the new owner did not take out insurance. They were later involved in an accident and the third party managed to claim against the only insurance that was in force, which was still in the old owners name. The Insurers were not happy with their policyholder not advising of the sale of the car and sued their policyholder for £30k, which I think they won.

 

So you have no choice but to cancel and pay the fee, if you have no other car to put on the policy. If you don't pay the fee, the insurers will chase as a debt, pass to debt collectors and one of these may even go for a CCJ.

 

You could complain and say that you want the FOS to review the matter. If the Insurers think you are a pain in the *ss and will cost money to correspond with, they may write the amount off.

[lenn]

Hold your nerve for a while. Write to them explain the circumstances, tell them how harsh this is, and how as a loyal customer you are disappointed. Keep replying to them until they pass to a DCA (if they do) and then pay.

 

There is every chance they will give up as it is expensive to chase.

 

Do not telephone them.

[dacouc]

Standard practice these days. The FOS position is that these cancellation fees are acceptable, provided they are written into the terms of the policy. Some people complain that the fees represent a profit, as they are more than the costs the Insurers will incur for processing the cancellation. This does not get them very far, as the Insurers can provide evidence of costs being incurred in dealing with a cancellation, which will equal the fee being charged.

 

If you have sold the vehicle, you have to cancel insurance on that vehicle. You cannot simply let the policy run, as Insurers may have an ongoing responsibility under the Road Traffic Acts. There was a case a few years back, where someone sold a car and the new owner did not take out insurance. They were later involved in an accident and the third party managed to claim against the only insurance that was in force, which was still in the old owners name. The Insurers were not happy with their policyholder not advising of the sale of the car and sued their policyholder for £30k, which I think they won.

 

So you have no choice but to cancel and pay the fee, if you have no other car to put on the policy. If you don't pay the fee, the insurers will chase as a debt, pass to debt collectors and one of these may even go for a CCJ.

 

You could complain and say that you want the FOS to review the matter. If the Insurers think you are a pain in the *ss and will cost money to correspond with, they may write the amount off.

 

There was a case that was in most of the motoring media last year for a motorcyclist in a similar position that was being chased by his Insurers for north of £10k, I've seen a couple of similar cases recently on other forums for similar amounts