Insurance and cooling off periods?

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I have paid the renewal on my insurance for the next year although the policy does not start until the 29th and I'm within my 14 day cooling off period.

So far over the weekend and this morning I have spent over 2hrs on hold to them trying to sort out a few things and can never get through and they never ring back.

Does anyone know the ins and outs of canceling within the cooling off period?

The FSA says the cant charge but they state on the website there is a cost of ?40

If they can beat another qoute I will more than likely stay with them, but at this rate I'm not even going to get to speak to them............

Express insurance by the way so if anyone knows how to get through to them on the phone without being on hold for 42 minutes at a time then please let me know.

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I have got hold of the Complaints Directors direct dial number, he was looking into my issues and supposed to be getting back to me within the hour.

its been 1hr 20 minutes so far

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Finally sorted.....Bloody hard work though.

But its good newsish

i used express last year, nothing but quick, helpful and polite! (not to mention cheap)

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Originally Posted by injury_ian

i used express last year, nothing but quick, helpful and polite! (not to mention cheap)

The department I was trying to get through to was ammendmants, which apparently has a call centre staff of 4, 3 of which called in sick this morning due to a bug going around the office.

When I initaly took out the policy a couple of weeks ago they were brilliant.

I would still recommend them brilliant prices, I have paid slightly over the odds which I'm abit pee'd about but its partly my fault.

I have had similar problems getting through to Express, it's the adjustments (amendments) line that is bad I think, as you say. The renewals one seems quick, and although I can't remember I bet you they answer the "new business" one right away!

The renewals people are very likely trained in amending policies. At work, I sit in a team during the day who are skilled up in renewals (they're more likely to get renewals calls through) and i'm more skilled up in general customer services, mid term adjustments and the such and I get about double their calls every day. If in doubt, call the renewals line- companies do want your business.

Oh and sales chaps are rarely trained in anything to do with amendments to policies so I wouldn't even bother- although there is a benefit in dialing that line because it's normally freephone, and then getting transferred through. Another thing is you can dial the international line (should be on the back of your policy booklets most likely, or on the cert) as that's charged at local rates. HTH

like always sales lines you get through straight away customer service lines leave you waiting because they get paid for you calling them 0845 etc numbers

Honestly this isn't the reason. I work at saga and if anybody asks me to immediately call them back, I will and we regularly schedule callbacks for people- when I get into work at 11 there are normally about 20 calls queuing for a head count of about 250 for customer services - I often spend up to half an hour a day listening to hold music (which is great!) getting people transferred to different departments. By the evening when there's a headcount of about 25, there are often 25 or more calls queuing because we physically can't deal with all the calls.