Some company such as Norwich Union Direct has the 14 day cooling off period explicitly put in the term and condition and will refund all premium on cancellation. No question asked.
I was under the impression that all insurance company has this rule, until very recently when I bought a car policy from Screentrade, part of LloydsTSB
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Haven't been unable to receive anything from them until the 10th day, although they promised the policy book and proposal "within 5 days". I phoned and say that I wish to cancel under the 14-day cooling-off rule. They sounded like having never heard of this and said that they had to charge me. I pointed out that the Rule 3.9 of the Private Consumer Code of GISC allows a 14-days cooling off period
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. Apparently they were unaware of this, though they claimed to be a member, and said that they had to call me back. Couple of hours later, they phoned me and said that to their understanding, I can only cancel the policy under the rule if they have missold me a policy, and as I have given them all my correct information, they haven't missold so they cannot allow me to cancel with full refund. My understanding is that the rule allows me to examine the policy wording in more details, and even though they have not missold, I still have the right to cancel if I am unhappy. But they disagreed. I later phone GISC to enquire about this rule. They suggested that I can cancel if there is anything in the policy book that I don't like. However, I still haven't got a chance to examine the policy as the policy book is yet to arrive nearly 4 weeks after I bought the policy...
Well, at least I know which company I will avoid in future.
John K.
On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 14:22:42 +0100, Alf wrote:
>
> Is there a cooling off period when buying car insurance over the
> telephone? How long is it? Are they entitled to make a charge if you
> cancel in this period? Does the length of time different if you buy it
> over the internet rather than the telephone?
>