This actually sounds rather familiar. My brother cancelled his policy on a Rover P5 with Admiral I think it was. Premium was £403 cancelled after 6 months - he got £37 back!! I know that back in the day if I cancelled my insurance policy after 1 month I was only likely to get 70% of my premium back. I’m sure A S Flux has some box that you have to check that says ‘you agree the terms and conditions’ but if it makes you feel happier bringing it to the attention of the Financial Ombudsman then go right ahead - I’d do the same myself… but only to vent. I wouldn’t expect the complaint to go my way. We already know what sort of bar stewards insurance companies can be. I’d be interested to see how this one turns out.
I’m afraid it is quite a familiar story - there have been threads with very similar problems. I’m sure you will find a rather large contingent of AF avoidants on here - for good reason in my view…
I’m with Adrian Flux as well, I started my insurance in Nov 2011 paid £ 190.00 for my old car then changed to a MX-5 last week and they said that if I cancelled I would owe them money! but if I started a new full year cover for the new MX I could have £ 134.00 towards it, form the old cover!!
Where’s the surprise? They’re insurance salesmen. They’re all thieves, crooks and liars. I’ve never met one that didn’t try to rip me off.
They know they have you by the short and curlies because you have to have their product and they know that none of their competition is going to treat you any better.
I think 3rd party insurance ought to be included in your annual road fund licence. That way they’d have to compete properly to get you to buy the increased cover.
Just to address the balance a little (and I could barely believe it myself) but when I told Adrian S Flux that I’d moved from London to Cumbria they gave me £150 back!!.. and the driving roads are better. I’ll be quiet now
Further developments… I spoke to Adrian Flux today, who kindly broke down the £400 charge (sorry I said £370 before) for my one months cover.
There is Setup Fee, Direct Debit Setup Fee, 3 months premium (because they did maths at oxford), their cancellation fee, the insurers cancellation fee, their commission, and interest. obvious really.
Their commission was the best bit. They will retain commission on the 11 months cover (or is it 9, I really am confused now) I didn’t use. Lovely.
I can see Elvie’s point that Adrian Flux are not that bad, since the lovely lady did promise to call the insurers and see if they would budge on their charges. I left the conversation feeling ok, like I’d been bummed, but given a biscuit afterwards to make everything all better
Yep had similar treatment cancelling with Adrian Flux a few years ago, fortunately I only had 2 or 3 months to run so just let it run out instead and got nothing at all back.
What you also have to watch is companies which take a credit card for payment and then ask permission to use it for future renewals. I’ve just had this where unwittingly I’d given such permission and they’d renewed with it automatically. I only found out from my card statement weeks after I’d already insured with someone else. They then wanted a fee for cancelling! Finally they agreed to refund but it was a very long job.
If you’re young it will come up with an Admiral company like Bell or Elephant, if you’re older like me it wil come up with Esure or Sheilas wheels If the car’s old and you do low mileage maybe a classic insurer will be better, loads of those Carole Nash were ok but check carefully the type of running allowed. Remember too that going to work in the car these days means you need to declare that as travel to a fixed place of work and not just social domestic and pleasure as used to be.
If the car’s old and you do low mileage maybe a classic insurer will be better, loads of those Carole Nash were ok but check carefully the type of running allowed. Remember too that going to work in the car these days means you need to declare that as travel to a fixed place of work and not just social domestic and pleasure as used to be.