# Short Term Policy/Easy Cancellation?



## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

*Urgent! Short Term Policy/Easy Cancellation?*

I'm intending to get rid of the M3 in the summer due to finances and moving out, will be gutted to see it go but needs must.

Now, I realised that my policy expires TODAY (just did a routine check to see when it was up on Admiral, had an email from them go into my junk box and no letter!) Needless to say they got a nice phone call and my renewal is no longer going ahead!

Now, I'm only planning on having the car for 2-3 months, what are my best options here?

Do any companies let you do monthly at a reasonable price? Are most companies happy to refund you the remainder of your policy if you do cancel?


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## Alzak (Aug 31, 2010)

Do You buy any cheaper car after this BMW ? If so will not be better for You to just swap cars on policy ?


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## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

I've already got 2 cars with 2 different policies, I'll probably be narrowing down to just my daily driver for the time being until I know what I want to do.


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## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Really need help with this guys, it runs out at midnight tonight!


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Not many companies offer short period policies. Those that do usually have a higher short period rate than the equivalent pro-rata annual rate, so you might find that a 3 month policy could cost something like 45/50% of the insurers annual rate. It is a very limited market so you could be paying well over the odds. 

You could look at one these "day-insure" type policies that cover up to 30 days, but three lots of them will cost a small fortune no doubt.

The other option is to renew or take out an annual policy and cancel it when the car is sold. A short period cancellation scale will be contained in the policy booklet. This will be the insurers charge for the cover provided. On top of this there may be provider cancellation fees, these will be detailed in a Toba. 

As a general indication, if an annual policy is cancelled, Insurer cancellation scales are circa 30% charge for 1 month's cover, 40% for 2 months, 50% for 3 and so on. This can vary from insurer to insurer though, plus you will probably have any additional provider fees for cancellation, which varies depending on where you bought your insurance from.

If it is a renewal, "some" insurers only charge short period rates in the first year, so they may give you a pro-rate refund if the policy is renewed and then subsequently cancelled later. Again this depends on the insurer. 

As a word of warning though, if you take out an annual policy and a claim occurs, if this is a "fault" claim (ie where the insurers have not made a full recovery) or if the claim is unresolved at the point of cancellation, you will NOT get any refund on cancellation, so the full annual premium will be payable regardless of when you cancel. If the claim was non fault and subsequently settled with a full recovery at a later date, you should then get your refund on the cancelled policy. 

You can't guarantee you won't have an accident, so have to be aware that you may still end up paying the premium for the year even if you sell your car and cancel the policy in a couple of months time.


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## bildo (Mar 29, 2008)

Thanks Shiny, very interesting and informative post.

My best quote was with Flux Direct, they were around £150 cheaper than Admiral, however Admiral's cancellation fee is £47.50, compared to Flux Direct seemingly not giving any form of refund at all after the initial 14 days!!

Needless to say I decided to settle with Admiral!


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