Insurance cancellation fee - ?40 ??!

Hi all,

My girlfriend took out insurance with Bike Sure a couple of days ago, and was told she had a 14 day cooling off period. She's changed her mind, but they are trying to charge her ?40 for the privelage. This seems ridiculous to me - as I understand it they can charge a 'small admin fee' but 'are not allowed to profit from it'. She paid on credit card, its a distance selling purchase so I think they're taking the p1ss and just trying it on.

Anyone had any experience with this?

Cheers
fatneck

Threaten them with the FSA (Financial Standards Authority). It's the FSA that say all financial agreements have to have a specified cooling off period.

Note though that in the case of insurers, they have the right to charge a "reasonable" administration fee, even during the 14 day cooling off period.

However, you can contest this, and they should be able to provide you with details of their complaints procedure. Complain to the insurer first, asking how they deem ?40 "reasonable" and if their answer is unsatisfactory, complain to the FSA.

Personally, if I were the insurer, and you were quoted say, ?350 for insurance for the year. I would argue that ?40 was reasonable, because the insurer has incurred costs of around ?10 ish, then there's the paper trail that needs sorting out, and loss of revanues because you've cancelled the policy. If you were quoted ?200 or less, I reckong they're taking the p...

quote was around 300ish i think, so they might have a point. cheers anyway

The insurance company should have explained how the cooling off period works and what fees, if any would be applied - Your GF has not signed any paperwork which also should notify the person of the same details. I think they are pulling a fast one.

The insurance company would probably recorded the phone call 'for training purposes' so would have details verbatim of the conversation.