Pay it monthly by direct debit!

It’s good to learn things innit.
I always pay anually to get it over and done with. Now, today I changed my car. This, for some reason added (I kid you not) £300 to my annual policy! Wow, it was only £275 to start with.
In the policy: you can cancel, but you get none of the money you’ve paid back! So they keep the remaining 4 months I’ve already paid as like a little gift to themselves and the broker also charge £50..
Sneaky bastards huh.

Even if you pay monthly, they will still charge you to change cars won’t they?
Is the new car a much higher insurance group?

I always pay annually because it works out 40-50% cheaper that way.

Just check it’s not premium credit/finance. If the same thing happens and you cancel, you may still be liable for what has not been paid.

You’re doing it wrong, it should go:

“Hi I’m changing car”
“That’ll be £300”
“Get ****, I’ll be cancelling the policy”
“That’ll cost you £xx to cancel”
“No it bloody well won’t, I’d happily continue the policy but you’ve just tried to fleece me”
“Er…….. ok we’ll cancel it with no charge”

At which point you then go looking for a better deal (before actually cancelling, obvs)

The Legend has it!

It will all have been in the docs you were sent but didnt read. 😉

Never leave insurance running on a car you no longer own.
If the new owner has a crash without valid insurance, then your insurer is liable (and you lose ncb).

This happened to me. I went from a 6 year old 1.6 petrol Focus to a 1 year old 1.6 diesel C-Max and it doubled the insurance. After 6 months I swapped the happy bus for a 1 year old Focus ST. This has more than twice the power of either of the previous cars and the insurance cost went down from around £800 to £300.

Legend – why would they say that if they can take all your money when you cancel anyway?
Car is newer but same insurance group. The underwriters can charge what they like for the update with that in the policy.
At least with a DD you can stop it and just pay the cancellation fee.

Never leave insurance running on a car you no longer own
Not sure how this applies – “Hi I’ve changed cars, I’m no longer running carA, so now it’s carB.” Insurance isn’t “running” on carA.

Only plus is that there’s just 4 months to run on the policy.

Even if you pay monthly, they will still charge you to change cars won’t they?

yep. but if you pay monthly they just revise the monthly payments. Or Hastings Direct do anyway, as I found out yesterday

NB monthly insurance premiums carry (a) interest (usually) and (b) (yet more) tax

DezB – someone on here had left his policy running to avoid a cancellation fee when he got rid of a car and didn’t replace it, and his insurers got stung for the new owners accident as they were still legally the insurer on risk. Situation is obviously different if you actually swap cars.

monthly insurance premiums carry (a) interest

They do, but it’s pretty small. And nowhere near the amount I would’ve lost if I’d cancelled this policy. Or indeed, lost by continuing it!

Dez, you’ll get a pro-rata refund as they’re “forcing you to cancel the policy”. This has worked for me a few times

I’ve tried that! The thick git I spoke to the first day wouldn’t give me all the information, but all that means is the broker will waive the £50.
As I said, I’ve learned something, but I’ll live with the £130 I’ve paid them and cancel in June.

How you pay makes no difference whatsoever.

It’s all about the terms & conditions in the policy itself – the cheaper the insurance the worse they (usually) are. It’s all about internal costs – If you renew your policy & nothing happens for a year until you renew again then you’ve cost them nothing in administration etc If you dare to call them and ask them to do something then they charge accordingly.

In your example DezB, it is not unheard of for a renewal to be (say) £250, a mid-term change of vehicle costs another £200 yet when the following renewal comes through it’s at £275. The maths don’t stack up but, in their view, you are unlikely to renew at the nigh on double premium so they charge their ‘market rate’ knowing that they will charge you again if you make any changes. Sometimes this is driven by their use of generic call centres which they pay on a ‘per call’ basis – the more customers call, the bigger their bill.

There are all sorts of issues within wordings which are not apparent to the consumer – a favourite is insurers leaving out the normal Cancellation Clause. If there isn’t one then, legally, you’ve entered into an annual contract from which there is no get out and the entire annual premium is due to the insurer even if you sell the vehicle & no longer need the policy.

Better (sic) companies charge a bit more but their policies have this clause, do not carry administration or cancellation charges and make alterations on a pro rata basis.