Cancelled a bike insurance policy with MCE on saturday, told i was due a 160 quid refund and it would be put back in the account i paid with. Fine, go ahead with that then...

Called them today as it hadn't been refunded yet only to be told i won't get a credit note (wtf?!) until October!

Now i paid in full so not direct debit. But should it take that long?

doesn't sound right to me. they're keeping your money for a service you're not paying for, partial refunds should be made and the money should be in your account within the week usually i think.
never worked for insurance, but any company i worked for, once a refund is agreed (which in itself can take a few days) is processed right away, and can take a few days to clear into you account.

That doesn't sound reasonable at all. I would be calling them again to query this and escalate it if you don't get a satisfactory answer.

sounds to me like they are "suspending" the policy,

was the policy due to run out in October by any chance?

When I've cancelled insurance in the past they gave me the option of suspending the policy, meaning that the policy is still there but not providing insurance cover (idea is that you could re-instate it at any time), they refund pro-rata on the number of days suspended but you wont receive payment until the insurance has run its course, this avoids cancellation/administration charges

or the other option is to cancel the policy, pay a fee and get the money right away

if this isnt the case then yea, get on the phone to them some things not on.


Matt

They're only allowed to charge for the cover used and a 'reasonable' cancellation charge to cover admin costs (which must be detailed at the time of inception), they have no right to defer the settlement. Complain asap.

Yeah and I'm willing to wager those admin charges suggest it takes someone about 4 hours to do that work too.. Credit note in October? Who are they Lazycorp? 3?

It runs until february next year. I'll call them again tomorrow and see what they say. its not suspended, its cancelled.

It's MCE insurance.

Right spoken to the broker again this morning...

Its going to be October before I see my refund. The policy was with RSA through MCE as a broker. RSA have a 60 or 90day account with them so MCE wont recieve the refund from the insurance company until then and they wont issue the refund to me until they have the money abck from RSA... This is MCE's policy.

All sounds a bit crap to me. Should I complain? If so who to?

Never had this issue with a policy refund before.

still doesn't sound right to me tbh, i'd try going straight to the insurer

I have emailed the Financial Ombudsmen to ask if there are grounds for a formal complaint. If so i will follow it through.

Totally wrong, I've just done the same thing myself through a broker, had the refund immediately