# Cancelling Insurance



## lijongtao

Hi All

My friend is with an insurance company called either onestop or onecall. I cannot remember which.

When I spoke to him he said he'd been with them for 4 years and cannot leave as they charge him £60 for leaving. He pays yearly upfront (not monthly) but I have never heard of a cancellation fee as I assumed as it is yearly you have no obligation to pay anything or stay with them. I did say perhaps it was an "early" leaving fee but he's adamant that if he goes with another insurer when his is up for renewal he gets charged £60.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks Li


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## Peirre

Read the T’s&C’s 
I think you’ll find the fee is listed there


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## AndyQash

Not sure if I'm reading the above correctly, but If he pays yearly and once his insurance has expired then surely the contract with the company has then expired also?


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## MagpieRH

Agree with Li on this, there will be an early cancellation fee, but they can't charge you to not renew. Perhaps he's missed the deadline and the new policy has already started (though you'd expect if it's a day or two they'd waive the fee). Otherwise the only thing I can think is there's been crossed wires somewhere and the person he spoke to misunderstood what he was asking (maybe deliberately so).

He's not obliged to renew with them, and I can't see how charging him to not renew could possibly be legal.


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## Darlofan

They can't charge him if he is just not renewing with them. Just make sure he let's them know he doesn't want to renew before it auto renews. From my experience swapping to a new company anyway will probably save more than £60 on his renewal quote so he'll be better of cancelling.


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## Andy from Sandy

> make sure he let's them know he doesn't want to renew before it auto renews.


This auto renew nonsense should be outlawed. It is not the insurance companies responsibility to ensure you are legal to drive.

It drives me insane when confronted as an existing customer with a 'phone number that has charges attached. It costs me money to cancel!

Everyone knows the auto renew price is higher and once challenged will be lowered.

Most policies I have seen come with a 14 day cancellation period so even if it auto renews I would still expect the same condition to apply.

Read the small print first before declaring you are being wronged.


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## Darlofan

Andy from Sandy said:


> This auto renew nonsense should be outlawed. It is not the insurance companies responsibility to ensure you are legal to drive.
> 
> It drives me insane when confronted as an existing customer with a 'phone number that has charges attached. It costs me money to cancel!
> 
> Everyone knows the auto renew price is higher and once challenged will be lowered.
> 
> Most policies I have seen come with a 14 day cancellation period so even if it auto renews I would still expect the same condition to apply.
> 
> Read the small print first before declaring you are being wronged.


It is a great con and the insurance companies will be loving it. Like you say renewals are much higher because they know the majority of customers are lazy and won't shop around. With auto renewal that has just made it so much easier for them.


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## BrummyPete

I've just done my insurance for the year, bearing in mind last year's insurance was £650, renewal was £1004, when I phoned it dropped to £816, I told them politely that I would not want to renew and managed to get it for £610 elsewhere 

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## Cookies

Mine went from £365 last year to £450. Same car. No accidents, no claims and no points. 

Did a quick online quote, that came in at £370. Phoned the company and told them that, also said that i'd much rather stay with a local broker that brought jobs to the community etc. They renewed at £365. 

Cooks

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## dchapman88

Cookies said:


> Mine went from £365 last year to £450. Same car. No accidents, no claims and no points.
> 
> Did a quick online quote, that came in at £370. Phoned the company and told them that, also said that i'd much rather stay with a local broker that brought jobs to the community etc. They renewed at £365.
> 
> Cooks
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


That's a big jump up from one year to the next!

Maybe they heard your a dodgy character....



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## Cookies

dchapman88 said:


> That's a big jump up from one year to the next!
> 
> Maybe they heard your a dodgy character....
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk


It probably should have been a lot more lol

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## Radish293

Darlofan said:


> It is a great con and the insurance companies will be loving it. Like you say renewals are much higher because they know the majority of customers are lazy and won't shop around. With auto renewal that has just made it so much easier for them.


My understanding that one of the reasons the insurance companies auto renew is in the even of an uninsured loss claim the Motor insures bureaux nominate the last firm that insured the car as the one to pay out.

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## fatdazza

Radish293 said:


> My understanding that one of the reasons the insurance companies auto renew is in the even of an uninsured loss claim the Motor insures bureaux nominate the last firm that insured the car as the one to pay out.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


The MIB is funded by a levy paid by all insurers (which in turn is collected from all of us in our premiums). Estimated cost to each policyholder is about £30 per year.

Auto renew is done purely as a commercial decision to capitalise on people who can't be bothered / can't be organised to shop around before renewal.

This coupled with high cancellation / amendment fees serves to capture customers rather than losing them.


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## MagpieRH

Auto renew was designed to reduce the number of people driving uninsured because they hadn't realised their policy has expired (missed the deadline by a day or two, etc).

Of course, insurance companies saw an opportunity to make a fortune and would almost always hike the price up for the renewal unless you contacted them, in such case suddenly they could miraculously drop the price a bit.

The newest addition is they have to tell you last year's premium to compare - clearly intended to try and stop them just whang on a massive "can't be bothered" tax; if you can see they've added 50%, you're more likely to challenge it, so they're a bit less likely to try it.

Auto renew was a noble idea, but it was always going to be abused.


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