Cancelling Insurances - Assurance

 Hi Everyone,

When we completed on our purchase last year. It was a condition of drawing down our insurance that we take out life assurance and home insurance, we done so through our bank in Spain for convenience. However, they were very expensive so we got alternative cover for all items far cheaper this year. I then contacted our representative in the bank who didn't reply to the 10 emails on the issue until today (a month later) to tell me we still had to pay for them as she required at least 3 months notice to cancel these policies. She then offered to allow us to pay monthly.

Has anyone any advice / thoughts on how to deal with it because I definitely won't be payoing on the double.

Many Thanks in Advance

Yes, we even cancelled our car insurance and gave our bank explicit instructions to not pay again and six months later (and six months after that)they  paid it again...  We got the second unauthorised payment refunded but not the first one.  Our bank said that when we cancelled the direct debit with them, the cancellation was only active for three months, so that is why they paid again!  We had to make several visits to the car insurance office and the bank to finally sort it and were still hundreds of pounds out of pocket.

I cancelled my house insurance with Knight Insurance Brokers., they acknowledged my email but still took the payment from the bank. I did not notice it until they sent me a renewal reminder the following year, I had of course taken cover with another company during they refused to return the premium, around 350 euros.

So careful who you deal with

 I looked at changing our building insurance but the broker I spoke to said our current insurer will need at least 2 months notice to cancel and claimed it was Spanish legislation. 

In the UK that would be an abusive contract unless they gave you the renewal premium at least 2 months in advance and time to cancel.

Many UK insurers are now using the Spanish system of automatic renewal unless you cancel, but this can be done up to renewal date and your informed in writing couple of weeks before.

What I did find very strange was the broker said he probably could not beat the price I am paying for house insurance. The house insurance was arranged throught the bank with the mortgage.

It's my understanding that UK insurance on Spanish properties is much better as regards public liability.  I think amounts like 30,000 euros or 50,000 euros are granted with the typical policies that come via the Spanish banks, as opposed to several million with the UK company policies.  So, if someone sued you for falling in your house, I think the UK ones would be able to pay out far more if necessary.  Apparently the logic of the small amounts covered in the standard Spanish policies is that Spain is less litigious and judges would grant lower compensation... But maybe others know more about this aspect.

Also, I recall hearing some people a few months ago saying that their insurers were not paying out following the forest fires in Malaga...  So, this is also a very important criterion to think about; if it is possible to get some idea before paying for a policy what the chances would be of being able to actually claim on it if necessary.

 We changed insurers this year. I was told by the broker that we would have to allow the losing company to take a direct debit payment and then reclaim it from the bank. We did this and also then cancelled the direct debit. The next month they tried to claim again, but I managed to catch them in the act and the bank rejected payment same day. No problems since.

Mark

This message was last edited by johnzx on 24/11/2012.