I had no problem with the initial cover and price, but i cancelled my policy last month with 6months remaining until it should of expired i have now got too pay the remaining balance where as before when i have cancelled, the direct debits have stopped and that was it! Bastards no car no insurance but im still paying £60 a month until march! Soooo beware all, ask, if u need to cancel before 12months is up will you be liable for the whole premium

 

would make sense just to keep the policy for the rest of the year and get another years bonus then surely? rather than paying and getting nothing?

 

Whats the problem this time...

God its like a episode of Trisha on here at the mo

 

are you saying that this was not in the small print when you took the policy out?

 

yea i would of kept it going butdidnt find out i still owed premium until a month after i cancelled! so they wouldnt help me

 

Just cancel your direct debit, as long as you are up to date with your payments up until the time you needed the insurance there is bugger all they can do.

If they threaten legal action tell them to jog on, legally you have paid for the amount of cover they provided.

 

no idea on the law in this situation but go with Clare

greedy b@stards !!!!

 

.... but Clare - you're not signing up for a monthly policy.

You're signing to a yearly contract payable monthly.

 

just been told by a mate who works in insurance that company used a credit company to pay for the premium, if it was direct debit too the insurance then then i wouldnt owe the rest of the premium

No i didnt read small print

 

[/b]clare[b] I dont owe the insurance company, but the credit company they used, thats the difference, i it was direct debit to the insurance i wouldnt be in this mess

 

To be fair to Greenlight its not just their policy, all insurance companies do this. Seriously tell them where to stick it, had a few try and pull that shit on me in the past, just make sure you tell them in writing you are cancelling your policy.

 

the letter i recieved from amber credit says, the money is owed regardless of any insurance policy cancellations

 

So why is the topic slagging off Greenlight then?

 

no im not slagging them off, just making some people aware that if they needed to cancel insurance with any broker that they might be liable for the whole premium, i would not of cancelled if i had known this!

 

i think its more drawing peoples attention to the fact of what will happen if you your greenlight policy short, and lots on here use greenlight i guess.

ive al;ways done as clare has said, cancelled dd and ignored threats, not once have i had a problem of a mark on my credit record

 

beat me to it

 

Ah, sorry, i missunderstood the post.

 

I've having the same issue at the moment. I've taken a slightly more proactive approach than what Clare suggested and written in a complaint letter and spoken to the Insurance Ombudsman who advised me what to do.

To be honest, I didn't read the small print either, but then again I complained as I don't think this was explained to me properly and therefore I complained it was missold to me.

Never had another insurance company do this to me. Seems odd, but I'm not lying down and taking it up the shitter either

Cheers

Matt

 

i thought it was a basic of any insurance policy to have to pay the full amount "If you make a claim and haven't paid the full outstanding premium"
if you are on a month by month then you "technically" would still have to pay the full amount even if you did decide to cancel and they you would get a refund "because they have to make the numbers add up"

in the real world they would say "you owe us £x for the cancelation" and be done with it

but cc payments really do stick it to you up the apple core, especially if you have prolems with the card company
only did it once, for my broadband, and got ot of it asap

the only way i can see you gettin gout of this is to get a new cc, swap over all your stuff other than the insurance policy payments, cancel the old one, write them a polite letter explaining the sistuation, not a rude one tellin them to go stick their heads up each others rectums

 

That was the first question i asked when taking out my policy.. what was the cancellation fee.

The fee is £45, and pro-rata for any cover that doesn't complete a month.

So i paid the premium at the start of the month (2days after cancelling) and now have a cheque being posted to me for about £166... (£212 pcm was my premium)

Its a bit of a shitter really, but hey.. life goes on, they couldn't insure me on my new car so thats that!

The best company i've come across with regards to policy changes, was liverpool victoria... no charge (except premium difference) to change cars, and no charge to cancel.

When i was with them, i changed my car 3 times, then cancelled before the year was up, just cost me pro-rata for the days of the month i was covered.

Shame Liverpool Victoria don't do modified cars anymore!

 

cuvner you moaning old tit read the small print next time, or just keep your cossie and not dump it in favour of a crotch rocket

 

I was with Greenlight 3 years ago and mid policy I changed cars to the RS which they couldn't cover me on at the time due to my age, they cancelled the policy and refunded me the remaining (as I paid the year up front). Granted it took ALOT of phonecall reminders before I got the money!

I'm with them again now though and their quote/cover couldn't be beaten!

 

If they cant offer a competative quote on a new vehicle or cant quote at all you should get a prorata refund WITHOUT the cancellation fee being charged as its not your place to cancel it. The insurance obusman man will back you up on this.

 

I honestly cant speak highly enough of them, I sold my car last night and they changed the policy over to the 306 this mornin, and took it off limited mileage, and are sending me a refund of £110.

in fairness I did pay fully in advance.

Now.. In previous years ,with other companies, I have used the monthly payment thing and I know for a fact they use external credit agencies.

When I've cancelled halfway through policies though they have always cancelled the policies...

I imagine its down to the credit firm at the end of the day- but you've entered into a credit agreement with them and not greenlight so its not fair slaggin em off.

Jake

 

I've always paid monthly before and never come across this before, but I guess its because I've never used a broker before. I'm currently with Direct Line, I got a good quote and cover, credit is with them and its a standard policy. Much happier now.

 

Hi Cuvner,

Sorry to hear that you've experienced a problem, if you'd care to PM me with your details (ie. actual name, date of birth, reg number) i'm happy to check into the situation for you.

Firstly, we only deal with Underwriters that offer annual policies. If you need temporary cover, or are planning to sell the vehicle and not buy another within the next year it is always prudent to check the cancellation scale prior to going ahead with an annual policy.

The level of work/vetting involved for an underwriter/insurer when setting up a policy is far greater in the first year and as claire correctly points out most underwriters charge a short period cancellation fee which equates to a percentage of the premium if cancelled within the year.

As an independent brokerage, we are employed by and work for the client rather than the Insurer and whenever given the opportunity to do so (ie. been supplied up front with the information that people are looking to sell the vehicle within the first year of a new business contract) would advise the extent of of the charges for each respective underwriter.

All documentation, advertising, terms, conditions & marketing indicates that we purely offer annual cover. Thus when arranging annual cover it is always carried out upon the basis that it will run for the entire term.

Should the cancellation be due to a switch to a vehicle/something the respective underwriter cannot cover, whilst they are not obliged to do so we can usually negotiate a 'pro rata' (daily calculated) cancellation on your behalf if given the evidence/oportunity to do so.

With regard to paying by instalments, when an underwriter/insurer does not offer a finance facility we do try to accomodate people's finance need by sourcing an instalment facility via an Insurance premium finance specialist. Ordinarily this would operate in an identical way to your Insurer in terms of mechanics and there is no visible difference to an Insurer that offers finance when the annual policy runs its term.

Within this post people have stated to just cancel the ddm and they never bother chasing. Technically whether it is an Insurer finance plan or via a finance company they would be within their right to pursue funds owed under the contract. But clearly the level of tenacity would depend upon the organisation concerned.

To clarify the legal standpoint, the Distance Marketing Directive affords all new policyholders a 14 day 'cooling off' period to peruse the documentation enclosure and make sure that the terms of the policy (and finance) are acceptable.

Once this period has elapsed you are deemed to have read and understood the enclosure.

In addition, to ensure people understand thoroughly our process also involves the signing and returning legal contracts which clearly outlay and declare the basis of the contract.

Unfortunately, the moral of the story is to either:

1) Tell your Insurer/broker if you require short term cover up front so they have the opportunity to properly advise you as to the potential outcome

2) Always make sure you find out the cancellation charge of the policy

3) READ the documents that are sent to you within 14 days and cancel under cooling off if unacceptable

4) DO NOT sign, return and proceed with a contract that you are unhappy with, or not prepared to honour


We will always try to help where possible, but it is very difficult to do so in a retrospective situation or where we havent been given the opportunity to do so.

Kind regards

Tony

 

PLUS - Its not just a case of beware BROKERS, as DIRECT INSURERS also operate this practice.

Each respective underwriter stipulates a cancellation charge, these are specific to and vary for each & every Insurer.

As a broker, we are tasked with the wholly unpleasant task of giving the customer the bad news .

 

We ALWAYS point this out at the point of cancellation, when a policyholder requests their policy to be cancelled.

 

I can confirm that when I tried to cancel

I actually had one of my cars insured for 3 months with two companies!

out of interest could I have claimed twice if I had it stolen or crashed?!?!?!? I presume not!

 

I thought you couldnt have a car insured by 2 people at once..

I got fooked over by HIC recently........Lost a whole years no claims for just 1 month left,they said it was MIB rules....

 

tony u hav pm

 

cheers tony @greenlight, just to say i was personnally spoken too about it all and that he will try help out as much as possible, makes me feel a lot better about it all even if i do end up losing out

 

slightly differrent but i paid AA insurance in full . then changed my car and they wouldnt cover the new one so i cancelled the policy thinking i would get a refund but they refused .i lost 7mths cover
wouldnt use em again they even refused to discuss it

 

i wouldnt reccomend taking clare's advice. i tried this and had balifs chasing me!!!!!

 

I used to work for a broker until a couple of weeks ago. When we did motor policies we would provide instalments under a separate finance company which is a loan as opposed to a direct debit to the company.

The insurance company bills the broker for full premium, the finance company gives the broker the premium. The broker gives the premium to the insurance company (less their commission) then the insured pays the finance company back.

Obviously you need to sign an agreement and you should read the small print however, I completely disagree with what they are doing on this one.

Where I worked it was slightly fairer. If someone sold their car for example they would cancel the policy. We would cancel the agreement and the insurance. We would then obtain both the clawback from the finance company and the return premium from the insurance company.

If the clawback was more than the return we would invoice the insured for the additional amount but this is on monthly basis and would never be much money and is one off payment. If the return from the insurers was more than the clawback we would keep the extra money and call it quits

I think with a broker their is no excuse for not explaining small print when selling the policy, that is one of the reasons people use brokers because they are intemediatries and impartial to client or insurer. The Financial Sevices Authority should be doing more to help initiate this but sadly they are another government front of goodwill, whose sole purpose is really to make a shitload of money.

There are only two ways to learn:

1. Get screwed over
2. Work in Insurance

Neither are painless

 

I paid for my insurance up front (not with Greenlight) but I asked before taking the policy out and was told if I cancelled part way through they would refund me whatever fraction of the premium I hadn't used minus a months worth of notice.