# Car Insurance Refund



## Seabiscuit (3 Nov 2006)

Can anyone help with my situation below? Last November I accepted a comprehensive insurance quote obtained through insure.ie. I paid the total amount in full in November for the next 12 months. Mid Aug I sold the car and asked to cancel the insurance and provide me with the remaining refund. Insure.ie said that they received my cancellation notice and were working on the refund. Time past and I checked again 3-4 weeks later, same story. Another 3 weeks past and I rang once more, to find out that they now dont offer refunds for clients who are less than a year old? I stated that there was nothing in the terms and conditions about this? so they sent them out and it is not clearly defined. It just states that a pro rata payment can be stopped through out the year. The most annoying part is that the policy is with a seperate wellknown insurance company (where insure.ie are brokers) and they state that my issue is with insure.ie, and if I had dealt with them directly they could do something???


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## Ravima (3 Nov 2006)

write to ceo/md of brokerage seking response. You should know that policies are not cancelled until and unless certificate and disc are returned.

There may be a penalty for cancelling in first year as most companies charge what they term 'short period' rates. 

However, if you get no response from broker or an unsatisfactory response, I would suggest that you write to them again advising that if your complaint is not resoplved to your satisfaction, you will be writing to ombudsman.


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## RS2K (5 Nov 2006)

Refund will never be "pro rata" btw.

If their t&C's didn't say so you should be entitled to one.

Cert. and disc comment is spot on.


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## Seabiscuit (7 Nov 2006)

Thanks for the feedback and just to cover the cert and disc, I cancelled in writing with the certificate and disc and then followed with a call to confirm that they received the items. It was then that they stated that they were working out a refund as above...


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## briancbyrne (10 Nov 2006)

go to small claims court.
they will pay up as soon as they recieve a letter and will only cost you a few euro.... as Im sure it is happening across the board with them


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## orka (10 Nov 2006)

briancbyrne said:


> go to small claims court.
> they will pay up as soon as they recieve a letter and will only cost you a few euro.... as Im sure it is happening across the board with them


 
You've said in previous posts that you are a broker - if you're sure that this is happening across the board, is it because you've seen some successful instances of this?

I don't know what the case to the small claims court would be - the OP signed up to a one-year contract which they are now seeking to cancel.  The absence of any Ts&Cs on what happens on cancellation should indicate that there is NO refund (it's a one year contract not an open-ended get-your-money-back-when-you-feel-like-it contract) - any refund is at the discretion of the insurer.  I can't think of any other one year contract where you would be able to unilaterally break it with no penalty.  Insurers will usually allow pro-rata refunds once the policy is in its second year but I think it is common for short-period rates to apply where the policy is cancelled in the first year because of higher claims and set-up costs etc.


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## Ravima (10 Nov 2006)

most insurers have an arbiration clause that must be used in the event of a dispute, prior to commencing legal action.


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## Seabiscuit (16 Nov 2006)

Only reason that I expected a refund was that I had a policy with another car insurance company a few years back and had to cancel due to a lengthy spell of work in the uk. They just sent out the difference that I was owed from the policy ?


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## Seabiscuit (21 Nov 2006)

Just thought I would update this post. Recently and due to constant progression of this issue with insure.ie we both reached a satisfactory conclusion.
In fairness to them they didn't let this go and provided me with constant updates to the best of their ability. I have to make the point that they provided excellent customer
service over the latter stages of this issue.


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## briancbyrne (12 Dec 2006)

orka said:


> &Cs on what happens on cancellation should indicate that there is NO refund (it's a one year contract not an open-ended get-your-money-back-when-you-feel-like-it contract) - any refund is at the discretion of the insurer. .


 

ahh flipancy on a one sided conversation...love it

was speaking from experience re using the small claims with insurers re the short term rates where I signed an " open-ended-get-your-money-back-when-you-feel-like-it-contract"

but then again maybe I should of posted my "advice" on a site that provides such opinion/advice...oh wait I did   (now thats flipancy! )


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## orka (12 Dec 2006)

briancbyrne said:


> ahh flipancy on a one sided conversation...love it
> 
> was speaking from experience re using the small claims with insurers re the short term rates where I signed an " open-ended-get-your-money-back-when-you-feel-like-it-contract"
> 
> but then again maybe I should of posted my "advice" on a site that provides such opinion/advice...oh wait I did (now thats flipancy! )


 
Gosh Brian you sure are quick with your comebacks. And your self-congratulatory 'flippancy'. And maybe you should have posted your "advice" (I love these ironic quote marks by the way) somewhere else. And I don't know how you can call this a one-sided conversation when here we are chatting like old buddies.

But anyhoo, in all seriousness, this IS an advice forum and when you feel the need to tell us regularly that you are an insurance broker (are you really or do you work for a large insurance broker?) I think there is a reasonable expectation that the advice has a chance of being right or well-informed. Your view in another thread that an insurer cannot refuse to renew house insurance is just wrong. Your view in this thread moved from 'I'm sure it's happening across the board' to your personal experience in the small claims court of a contract that YOU signed personally. One thing I do know from working for many years (although none very recently) in an insurance company is that no way would an insurance company let things get to the stage where 'an insurance broker' had to take them to the small claims court to get a pro-rata refund on his own personal insurance - as I mentioned in my original post pro-rata refunds are at the discretion of the insurance company and lemme tell ya, that discretion would be exercised for an insurance broker.

Anyway, I do enjoy your posts in a Forrest Gump box of chocolates sort of way - not least because they remind me when I'm actually looking for advice on other threads that just because something is written on t'internet it isn't necessarily right.


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## Johno (15 Dec 2006)

I think you will find that brianc is an employee of an insurance broker and would guess not for very long judging by some of the advise he has given on this forum.

Sorry Brian, but some of your insurance advice has been incorrect on many occasions which is fine but you are _alwas_ stating you are an insurance broker giving the impression to people that you must be right.


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