Insurance advice please

[Mercdan68]

Sorry for a possible Rant on insurance again!
I need help with a problem with Lancaster insurance
Today after three days trying I finally cancelled my policy with them
The first time I’ve ever used them
They advertise how good they are in various mags and there man is constantly in the classic car papers and mags so I went with them because I figured they would be good ...
Unfortunately they would not change over to my merc from my escort
And the guy was totally unhelpful
So I’ve insured elsewhere, but just spent three days phone call on hold for over 40 minutes each time, I finally got through today
And now they are asking me for £80 payment because I want to cancel??
Seems absurd to me , do i have to pay??
And if Mr Evanson gets to read this it’s all well and good spouting off about Lancaster in various classic mags but customer service needs improvement!!
Sorry for the rant on here any advice accepted
Cheers Danny
As said first time with Lancaster and probably the last

[Mercdan68]

Cool car as penance!

[mrbounce]

Insurance companies are utter bar stewards when it comes to cancellation fees if it's cancelled mid-term. There's no way round it as it's in the small print unless you cancel in the 14 day "cooling-off" period. Personally what I would do is find out their MD's details and write a strongly worded e-mail to them concentrating on how unhelpful and inflexible their "assistance" was.

They might refund some of the charge, but don't hold your breath.

[Mercdan68]

The car was Insured for only a month with them to clarify

[Adey]

Ive never had a problem cancelling any policy but you have to work the system, I'm a customer of the above also but in general the way to work around it is to ask them to insure a car they cant cover, tell them you have sold the current one. When they cant cover what you have they will cancel with no fees. This has worked for me many times over, i did it this year with one of my daily vehicles, and have cancelled through Lancaster previously by asking them to cover a modern. You will loose any NCB as you haven't completed a full year.

[ballbagbagins]

Of course you have to pay £80, it's car insurance. A few mouse clicks aren't cheap.

[grizz]

Oct 23, 2020 15:33:18 GMT Mercdan68 said:

The car was Insured for only a month with them to clarify

I think that is where the problem lies Dan.

14 vs 30 days.

Sadly, insurance companies are there for one reason only, and it ain’t charity.

I think the whole UK system is a massive rip off, but nothing one can do about it.

[Mercdan68]

Oct 23, 2020 16:08:40 GMT Adey said:

Ive never had a problem cancelling any policy but you have to work the system, I'm a customer of the above also but in general the way to work around it is to ask them to insure a car they cant cover, tell them you have sold the current one. When they cant cover what you have they will cancel with no fees. This has worked for me many times over, i did it this year with one of my daily vehicles, and have cancelled through Lancaster previously by asking them to cover a modern. You will loose any NCB as you haven't completed a full year.

They couldn’t cover the mercedes I used nine years no claims with them
I have asked for my proof back within seven days

[Adey]

Oct 23, 2020 16:53:20 GMT Mercdan68 said:

Oct 23, 2020 16:08:40 GMT Adey said:

Ive never had a problem cancelling any policy but you have to work the system, I'm a customer of the above also but in general the way to work around it is to ask them to insure a car they cant cover, tell them you have sold the current one. When they cant cover what you have they will cancel with no fees. This has worked for me many times over, i did it this year with one of my daily vehicles, and have cancelled through Lancaster previously by asking them to cover a modern. You will loose any NCB as you haven't completed a full year.

They couldn’t cover the mercedes I used nine years no claims with them
I have asked for my proof back within seven days

you'll get that back I'm sure, what i meant was you wouldn't get the year for the incomplete policy. Odd that they are still trying to charge you, ive always done it that way, even if i haven't got a car to transfer too so that i don't get stung by a fee....

[Mercdan68]

Another conversation on the phone this morning
There saying I have to pay it’s in the hands of there complaints dept
If I have to pay it’ll be in my time , bloody rip off company

[vitessetony]

Oct 24, 2020 11:48:33 GMT Mercdan68 said:

Another conversation on the phone this morning
There saying I have to pay it’s in the hands of there complaints dept
If I have to pay it’ll be in my time , bloody rip off company

I had something similar with quote me happy, I changed cars mid policy and they wouldn't insure the new one, so there was a cancellation fee, they waived the charge after I wrote an email of complaint to the MD so it's definitely worth a shot. Good luck.

[MkX]

Lancaster is a trading name of the Insurance Factory Ltd which is a subsidiary of Markerstudy Group. The founder is Kevin Spencer who is Group CEO and majority shareholder:



Other than that, if you have to pay, muck 'em about for a few months by issuing dud cheques* and make sure it costs them £hundreds in admin to collect their £80.00!

*Unsigned, written and digital amounts not matching, wrong payee, mis-dated 20 years ago, etc.

[Mercdan68]

Thank you!! Email will be sent Monday

[MkX]

Oct 24, 2020 15:29:19 GMT Mercdan68 said:

Thank you!! Email will be sent Monday

I'm not guaranteeing it's valid Dan but it is out there in t'internetland as a probable.

[fraudownersclub]

Out of curiosity how much was the original policy

[astranaut]

If its anything like Flux, who asked for my mods, gave them a list, quoted for insurance to start a week later when I got the car out, which i accepted then, then sent me the documents with no mods on then increased the price when contacted even though they had a list, who then charged me 50 cancellation for the privilege of not even having the car insured, think they quoted me 200 or so (with mods declared) then when I rang to ask why they hadn't included them jumped the price to nearly 500...

[Mercdan68]

Oct 24, 2020 17:22:29 GMT fraudownersclub said:

Out of curiosity how much was the original policy

£120 😳

[melle]

Oct 23, 2020 16:34:02 GMT grizz said:

I think the whole UK system is a massive rip off, but nothing one can do about it.

I paid €1450 per year for my Saab 900 in Ireland, that's with 75% no claims discount mind! It seems impossible to carry over NCB from one country to another, so I started afresh when I registered the same car in the UK, and I'm paying £200-ish now. I've lived in a few European countries and I've never insured a car anywhere cheaper than in the UK. Cheapest tax too.

[grizz]

Oct 24, 2020 18:21:43 GMT melle said:

Oct 23, 2020 16:34:02 GMT grizz said:

I think the whole UK system is a massive rip off, but nothing one can do about it.

I paid €1450 per year for my Saab 900 in Ireland, that's with 75% no claims discount mind! It seems impossible to carry over NCB from one country to another, so I started afresh when I registered the same car in the UK, and I'm paying £200-ish now. I've lived in a few European countries and I've never insured a car anywhere cheaper than in the UK. Cheapest tax too.

I get you.

However, having grown up in South Africa and having my heart over in the USA, I can say that the U.K. system still screws people.

In SA growing up, I could have ‘insured a V6 3.0 litre Ford for the same as a 1400 Datsun.

In America, a 17 year old can drive a 5.7 litre V8 and not have to sell their grand mother.

Just different experiences I guess.

[stealthstylz]

Oct 24, 2020 18:34:07 GMT grizz said:

Oct 24, 2020 18:21:43 GMT melle said:

I paid €1450 per year for my Saab 900 in Ireland, that's with 75% no claims discount mind! It seems impossible to carry over NCB from one country to another, so I started afresh when I registered the same car in the UK, and I'm paying £200-ish now. I've lived in a few European countries and I've never insured a car anywhere cheaper than in the UK. Cheapest tax too.

I get you.

However, having grown up in South Africa and having my heart over in the USA, I can say that the U.K. system still screws people.

In SA growing up, I could have ‘insured a V6 3.0 litre Ford for the same as a 1400 Datsun.

In America, a 17 year old can drive a 5.7 litre V8 and not have to sell their grand mother.

Just different experiences I guess.

Average car insurance cost in UK is £471p/a, average in America is $1748p/a. The people I know over there think it's insane that I can insure pretty much any car for £500 a year.