5 replies to this topic

[mike.]

Hi guys, 

 

Some of you may know I recently sold my mini, so i'm now miniless!

 

I took out a classic policy on the car in June, and agreed value policy for a premium of £635. 

 

I rang them today to cancel my insurance policy hoping to get a few hundred quid back and have been told that no refunds are offered on Classic policies. 

 

To say i'm annoyed about this is an understatement. I wouldn't have taken the policy out if I had known this as I knew I was going to be selling the car shortly after. 

 

I have read through my policy documents and this is all I can see:

 

9. Cancellations 

 

If you are thinking of cancelling your policy, you must first call our Customer Service Team who will be able to confirm any return of premium along with any other options 

available to you. 

 

Claim in current year: Insurers do not permit a refund of premium upon cancellation if a claim has been reported during the current term of insurance irrespective of fault. 

Within Cooling Off: Once we arrange insurance cover, you have the right to cancel it within 14 days of receiving the policy, without giving any reason. In this event, we shall retain our New Policy/Renewal charge. Also your insurer will make a charge for the cover provided. 

 

Outside of Cooling Off: Not all insurers permit a refund upon cancellation, please refer to the insurers Policy Book. Cancelling any Direct Debit does not cancel your policy and it is not to be assumed that the Direct Debits paid thus far equate to the charge for the time on cover.

 

Your policy cover is made up of a number of components 

which are not all refundable additional extra benefits (e.g. Personal Accident Cover) are non refundable following cancellation. 

If the policy is voided or cancelled due to non-disclosed material facts none of our charges will be refunded. 

 

Your cancellation request must be confirmed in writing enclosing your Certificate of Motor Insurance or Lost Certificate Declaration before we can cancel your policy. 

Policies will only be cancelled from the date we receive your Certificate of Motor Insurance, or receipt of confirmation that you have deleted all emailed copies and 

destroyed all printed copies of your Certificate of Motor Insurance. 

 

 

It does say not all insurers permit a refund, but I have no further documents that I can see this no refunds policy confirmed in writing. I also don't recall being told about this when the policy was sold to me. 

 

It says refer to the insurers policy book, which is not on their website and I was not given a copy of as my documents are online only.

 

 

Where do I stand as is there any hope of getting any money back off them?

 

Thanks 

 

Mike.

 

Edited by mike., 30 October 2013 - 07:33 PM.

[filski]

 

best thing to do is the following.

 

1) Write a formal complaint to their customer service.

 

you will most definitely receive a generic thank you but you not getting anything.

 

2) Write a second letter in a similar format, stressing that they really missed the point that you were putting across and that you demand having a some form of refund.

 

you will again probably get another generic email

 

3) if that is the case write another email asking at the beginning to put this to a supervisor or a manager as you are not being treated fairly and that the emails you sending are not being read (+ they will probably make spelling mistakes you can pick up on those too;) somewhere close to the end of the letter you can put the section from T&C where relevant and finally request a copy of the recording of your phone conversation where nothing was mentioned about no refund on classic car insurance (you can quote s7 of data protection act where you entitled to your data)

 

4) if you once again get a generic email then best thing to do is demand the info you requested and take them to ombudsman/you local trading standards

 

however make sure you read all the documentation that they sent you inc links to online statements.

[filski]

Main thing is to be consistent in what you say and be persistent. also i would allow about 5 woking days for reply as i would deam that reasonable if you don't hear back from them within that time then you can add that to your emails as well.

 

Good luck if you need help pm me

[mike.]

Ok mate, well i'll give it a go tomorrow as see how far I get.

[Guess-Works.com]

As far back as I remember, classic car policies have always been an annual policy, mainly because people who have classic car policies don't sell the cars, and it is usually very cheap. Last time I had a separate policy for a mini it cost less than £100, and that was only 4 or 5 years ago.

 

I would not be surprised if somewhere else in the T&C's it states that no refund is given on Classic Car Policies, along with no NCB is accrued with Classic Car policies either

[AVV IT]

As above, it's actually pretty standard for classic policies not to be refundable in my experience, in the same way that they don't accrue no claims discount either. I've certainly never heard of a classic policy being refundable any way.

Their get out clause, will probably be that you were actually advised that you may not get a refund in the policy documentation and to "refer to your policy book" for more information, (where no doubt it does actually state that you are not entitled to one.) Even though this policy book wasn't actually supplied in your case, you were advised of its existence but didn't request that one be made available to you. If you had requested that one be provided, so that you could read the terms and conditions, you would have been able to cancel the policy within the cooling off period and got a full refund if you weren't happy.

Unfortunately though, at the time you probably did what most of us do, i.e. you took out the policy, assumed what it entailed and didn't actually check the terms and conditions of the policy, or that you actually had all the policy documentation to refer to. In which case I really don't see how you would have a leg to stand on!