Life Cancelled Life assurance - entitled to refund of unused premium?

L

Lone Shark

Registered User
Messages
2
Hi,

Question for the bright minds on here:

I held a life assurance policy with Irish Life from 2011, but recently myself and my wife bought a house. Since we were getting our mortgage from BOI, in order to minimise complications and ensure everything went through, we went with BOI for our joint life cover. (Since she is a public servant and had cover through superannuation, she had no cover previous to the mortgage.)

Our mortgage was drawn down and the BOI Life cover commenced on the 31/5/2013, and due to poor communication between myself and BOI, they did not inform Irish Life that the previous policy would be cancelled. My understanding was that they would do this once they had all my paperwork from my previous policy, but they did not - however that's done and dusted, I'm not worried about that bit.

My policy was from the 28th of the month up until the 27th of the next month, with the direct debit coming out on the 2nd - so essentially four days in arrears, the rest in advance. My DD came out on the 2/6/2013 as normal, which I noticed later in the week. Between toing and froing, I only called Irish Life to cancel and sent a confirmation email on the 7/6/2013.

However they have now told me that they cannot refund the portion of my premium for the time unused. I accept that I was covered up until the 7th, i.e. 11 days. However that still leaves 20 days, or just under 2/3 of my monthly premium, that should be refunded surely? Needless to say I've called and Irish Life disagree.

Can anyone here tell me am I right or wrong, does this not work the same as car and health insurance, and if so, can ye point me to the relevant legislation so I can make a complaint?

Thanks in advance for the help, this board is an excellent resource and when ye open a gambling section, I'll be happy to contribute and help out others!
 
Not a lot - monthly premium was around €60, so a bit under 2/3 that. Not so much that I'm going to go nuts chasing after it, but if it's there to be got back, I'll certainly do my best to get it. As ye can imagine, there aren't a lot of spare pennies left after the house purchase!
 
Just had a quick look at their website and it says this (which I pesume was also in the Ts & Cs you signed up to):

"No cash will ever be returned if you cancel your plan during your term of cover."

Personally I think the "ever" is a little rude and overkill but anyway seems pretty definitive!
 
Sorry for gate crashing but I have a similar question, my sun took out a car insurance policy yest but today when he received the terms & conditions he noticed something that did not suit him is it possible for him to get him money back from this policy and cancel the policy. He has not signed anything yet but has paid for the policy in full.. Sorry again for gate crashing and thanks in advance for anyone that can give us some info on this before we phone them Tomoro.. tks!!
 
You usually have a cooling off period with insurance company's so if you cancel within this period you should receive a refund!
 
I'd say he'll get a refund. Put your claim for a refund in writing immediately. Might get charged for a small amount for administration and the few days of cover.
 
Lone Shark, before you do anything hasty, have you checked the cost of the assurance for what you're paying BoI versus what you were paying Irish Life. The cost of Life Assurance increases as one gets older and if pure life is a good investment when you have offspring.
 
Elainek said:
You usually have a cooling off period with insurance company's so if you cancel within this period you should receive a refund!
Click to expand...

Exactly. It's a legal requirement to provide a cooling off period precisely for the case you're in: Until you get all the terms and conditions you might not realise if it's suitable for you.

I think they are allowed to charge a small administration fee and/or a fee for the period when you were actually covered but not 100% sure on that.

Also I think if you make a claim then this doesn't apply as that implies consent.

Have a look at the "Cooling off period" section here:
Home > Consumer Affairs > Consumer protection > Consumer Rights > Shopping from Home
 
Your policy isn't treated as a single policy in isolation but is part of a group of policies that in practice create a reserve which pays claims and creates profit. Life offices contracts out some or all of the risk to a reassurer. The consequence of this is your premiums are not treated as a daily contract but monthly. A monthly premium is dearer than if you paid annually. If an insurer here was able to offer a daily contract then you wouldn't get premiums as cheap as you do on a monthly basis.
 
Re-Cancelled Life assurance - entitled to refund of unused premium?

I agree with Sumatra. Most of the insurance companies will not favor at the time when we need. You can check the policy of this website. activeinsurance.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top