Backing out of bike insurance?

[P.addy]

Say you found a quote slightly cheaper... to the tone of £20.. which is loads when you are paying £90

and

you are within 14 days of your insurance starting..

Can you back out? I see it on here quite a bit.. but never really understood it.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Depends if it's still worth it after various admin fees.....
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[P.addy]

Nah, would outweight the £20

[DrDonnyBrago]

[angryjonny]

Most such agreements have what's called a "cooling off period" in which you can cancel the policy - I believe this *should* be without penalty but insurance companies are buggers for charging you a ludicrous "admin" fee for any changes.

I'd suggest you give them a call and see what they say. £20 is £20 and for the effort of a phone call saying something like "as I'm still in my cooling off period I'd like to cancel the policy without penalty" you may get out of it. Or maybe they'll refund your £20 to keep you as a customer. Nowt to lose really...

[JP7]

You should have a 14 day cooling-off period, but many insurers will charge for the days that they've provided cover if you cancel.

[Rogerborg]

See the Financial Services (Distance Marketing) Regulations 2004

For insurance, the statutory amounts that they can charge are the reasonable cost of arranging the policy, plus a pro-rata amount for the days that you've used. They're not supposed to charge a specific "cancellation" fee within the first 14 days.

It's clearly unreasonable for them to claim that it costs (e.g.) £50 just to arrange the policy - if you do it online, it's pennies - or to refund less than pro-rata for the unused days.

However, that's just what the statute allows them to charge. They'll also put in and assert contractual charges, that you agreed to when you took the insurance, that far exceed the reasonable statutory amounts.

The situation on this appears (to me) be unclear. It's a contract, you chose to agree to it, so it should bind you. But if it does, then what's the point of there being a statutory limit on what they can charge?

They will of course try and hit you with inflated charges, betting that it's not worth your time to fight it.

If you think that it is, then you'll need to stick to your guns, cite the Regulations above, grind through their complaints procedure and then take it to Trading Standards or the Financial Ombusman, which the insurer will try to avoid since it'll cost them a packet, and shine a light on their claims about how much it really costs them to arrange a policy.
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[c-m]

[Minty]

Yeah, there will be an admin fee. Suck it up, you have used the cover and signed up to their t&c's.

Do more shopping around next time!!!
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