So I’m talking to an “MCE Advisor” on the phone at the moment - and she tells me that I am going to be charged £59 to cancel my policy after two days. The original premium was under £180.
The distance selling regulations say that a “reasonable charge” can be made for a service which was operational for the time. I think that a 33% charge for less than two days of a year policy is not reasonable.
Has anyone challenged a fee like this before?
-simon
I was under the impression you were allowed a cooling off period of 14 days by law in which you had the right to cancel with no charges…
I thought it was 7 days, so you should be able to cancel for free.
I think 14 might be on the internet.
currently taking MCE to small claims (unless they conceed) for this exact thing and a few other things they did. Total cowboys imo
I’m with a different insurer but I think my papers say I can cancel at no charge within 14 days. Will check when I get back home. Either way £59 doesn’t really sound reasonable! It might just be that if you challenge, they’ll drop it.
I challenged, the lady was quite rude and insisted I would have to pay it, end of discussion. It’s £27 “pro rata for 14 days” for the insurance company (I only had the bike for two!) and £35 “admin fee” for MCE. Apparently this is in my T&C.
The one “saving grace” is that she has offered to let me move the existing insurance to my new bike and waive the £35 admin fee. Will be test riding some bikes on the weekend (still trying to arrange a test ride of a Honda S-Wing!).
-simon
My policy (which I’m mightily miffed about) said it’s 59 quid to cancel, or 29 if it’s within the 14 day cooling off period. ‘Admin’ fees, apparently…
See Kaos’ post (second on the thread)
http://londonbikers.com/forums/850126/Insurance-Company-Rip-off-no-surprises
I did exactly this with MCE, cancelled within 14 days (entitled - cooling of period IIRC) - I paid pro rata for the cover and (I think a cancellation charge applied as well for the admin). MCE were very hard work to get my premium back - had to write to their complaints division - address and details on the back of their policy. Be persistent.
I always assumed that the 14 day cooling off period was in part to give you time to read through all of the T&Cs? How can they tell you it’s in the T&Cs if you haven’t had the opportunity to read them?
My understanding is that they can charge a pro-rata fee for the cover they have provided (so total annual premium/375 x number of days the cover was for, and not pro-rating the policy over the 14 day cancellation period) but other fees are subject to other rules - see link to FSA handbook below.
any sum expended in concluding the contract (but not any element of profit (and arguably not selling the product, so how much time and resource was spent by whom in actually concluding the contract, at what annual salary) An amount for cover extended (query - is the policy void from inception, or does the cancellation only operate from the date of notification?)A proportion of the commission paid to any intermediary sufficient to cover costs (query - has there been an intermediary? Are you dealing with the insurer direct? Not sure about group intermediaries, so if you call NU (and not an independent broker) you might be dealing with a sales subsidiary of NU, but not sure that this distinction can be invoked hereA proportion of any fees charged by the intermediary so as to cover costs (in aggregate with commissions above).Broadly, you pay for the cover received, the insurers costs and any costs that may be withheld by an intermediary out of (now refundable) commission and fees paid to them.
None of this should be any element of profit, so the fact that your broker has lost its commission on your policy is not your concern. Your concern is how much it cost them to put the policy in place. You can request this information to check that the set admin fee does not contain any element of profit.
If you can’t get a satisfactory answer from them, I would complain to the Financial Ombudsman, and tell your insurer you are doing that . You have to go through the insurer’s complaints procedure, but then you can report.
And unless you have been given notice of a charge of this kind if you cancel within 14 days when you take out the policy, they have no contractual leg to stand on.
For reference, I’m with eBike. Their T&Cs say that if you cancel within the 14-day cooling off period and have not claimed during that time, you’re entitled to a refund of the premium subject to a deduction for the time covered. No mention of a cancellation charge.
If you cancel after the 14-day cooling off period, there is a cancellation fee of £75 plus a pro rata deduction for the time covered.
This thread made me look at the T&Cs more closely and I spotted this for the first time:
“Mid Term Changes to your policy will be subject to a £15 administration charge if the Additional Premium is over £20 or the Return Premium is over £25.”
Now that’s a complete rip-off, especially as eBike is an internet-only company so you’d presume that very few human hands are involved in the “administration” of their policies.
Just to follow up - in the end, MCE “agreed to waive” their £35 charge to change from the original bike to a new one. I still have to pay the £24 charge for 14 days insurance that their “in house” insurer charges (note that I only had the bike for two days!), but this is the best I could get. I think it’s fundamentally unfair to charge for 14 days of insurance rather than the time on cover, but I just don’t have the energy to take them to the small claims court for the delta.
Thanks everyone for your words of wisdom 
-simon
Hi , to be clear the cooling off period applies if you enter into a credit agreement , and you pay up for it.
If you pay in full by debit card you are stuffed.
Regarding other items bought from the internet you have 7 days (from the day of delivery) to “inspect” the goods if the transaction was concluded at distance.
OMG!!!
yes i challenged swinton bikes 2 months ago regarding cancellation charges.
the story
i passed my CBT in march and bought a bike imediately for the riding experience, it was insured with swinton bikes but they were not the underwriters it was some company in the depths of yorkshire.
well less than 2 months later i passed MOD1 and 2, i had already reserved a bike at Dobles croydon so rang swinton to transfer my insurance but there reply was the underwriter cant quote me for my 05 CBF600 and i would need to cancel and take out new insurance for the new bike.
the quote they gave was reasonable so i thought id stay with them however when i cancelled my existing policy i was told i would have to pay a charge of £56. the whole policy was only £91 and id paid £23 deposit and 3 months payments at £7.80 meaning i would be paying more than the policy.
i argued and argued that its not my fault the underwriter cant quote me so why should i pay to cancel but the reply was its there std cancellation charge, i rang the underwriters but obviously got no response from them so i was back on the phone to swinton and demanded to know why they couldnt switch me to another underwriter but all i got was its not possible.
anyway i was still arguing and finally brought my wife into it who by the way works for the chartered institute of insurance 
she pointed out that if an underwriter is unable to provide cover for any reason other than my driving history then no charge should be levied against me.
swinton didnt like this much and they reduced it to £25 so its worth fighting.
Tell them your going to the financial obusman. It costs them £££ if they get reported to the obusman. They have to pay if someone refers them to the Obusman…
Then tell them you will take them to the county court and mount a legal battle over the charge under the distance selling regs. You will also take them to the high court for a full judial review. And you will sue them for the costs…
Happy to help
King
I have heard some bad words about MCE on some polish motorcycle forum, and cancellations charges or premium refunds taking 6months+ are usual things. All the companies are good at the time of buying insurance but when it comes to claims or changes on policy not all are the same.
After 4 years of insuring the bike I only use Insurance Companies I have heard least amount of complains about. Never heard of insurance company who didnt have any so they are all the same, ripping customers off.
I havent used MCE yet myself and not planning to. Had bad experience with Express Insurance, they chasing me up for unpaid premium for policy which I did not want to renew because I sold my bike at the end of contract, and they renewed the policy themselves.
It is always good to read T&C before taking insurance as some may have 14-day cancellation period but you will still have to pay Admin Fee which is not possible to avoid as you accepted T&C when buying cover.
