cancelling auto insurance

[Hemi-Cuda]

is it supposed to be this much of a pain in the ass? in May i switched from ING to Meloche Monnex because it ended up saving me around $300. at the same time i got an email from my insurance broker asking why i hadn't sent my renewal payment in for ING, to which i replied saying i wanted to cancel as i had found insurance elsewhere. then a couple weeks later my old broker sends another email, saying that ING has an automatic renewal system and if i want to cancel i need to sign a form and fax it to her, which i did. then just last week i get another email from her, saying that ING now wants proof of my insurance with Meloche Monnex before they'll cancel my old policy. does this sound right? why should they need proof of my current insurance to cancel an old policy, what if i decided to drop insurance completely and take the bus? it's getting to the point where i'm becoming quite annoyed with ING and their broker and i'd love to tell them to get stuffed, but i'm worried if just do nothing if they can somehow affect my credit. i've sent ING no money for any renewal, so in my mind that should be reason enough to cancel the policy. but will they try to ding me with some kind of failed payment that would show up on a credit report?

[FlamesKickAss]

send in the proof, if you ever try to get insurance it will show cancelled for non payment, and that can effect where you can get your insurance. ING probably want to charge you from the time of renewal until the time that you signed cancellation. They want the proof so that they can backdate. Not all companies require that though. We just cancel at renewal and dont charge for "time on risk" as of now.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

send in the proof, if you ever try to get insurance it will show cancelled for non payment, and that can effect where you can get your insurance. ING probably want to charge you from the time of renewal until the time that you signed cancellation. They want the proof so that they can backdate. Not all companies require that though. We just cancel at renewal and dont charge for "time on risk" as of now.

but shouldn't a signed statement from me saying i want my policy canceled on such date be enough? why is my own word not good enough, what if i wanted to carry no insurance?

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

but shouldn't a signed statement from me saying i want my policy canceled on such date be enough? why is my own word not good enough, what if i wanted to carry no insurance?

did you cancel before the renewal date, and by that i mean send in the renewal, or was it after the renewal date?

if you wanted no insurance they would try to charge you for their "time on risk". I agree with you though that if you dont pay renewal that should be a hint that you dont want insurance, but in insurance silence = acceptance.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i switched from ING to Meloche Monnex because it ended up saving me around $300.

Just out of curiosity, where did you find out about the glory that is Meloche? Did you hear about it here with all of us Meloche drum beaters?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Just out of curiosity, where did you find out about the glory that is Meloche? Did you hear about it here with all of us Meloche drum beaters?

nah, i did some online quotes and TD insurance was the cheapest i found. when i called them to sign up, they asked if i graduated from a post secondary school, and i said SAIT. they transferred me to Meloche Monnex right after

[onetwo_threefour]

I had the EXACT same thing happen to me this year on my home policy, even down to the companies involved. If had my car insurance with Meloche for years, but they were never as competitive in the condo market and we stuck with ING for awhile after buying our house in '06. Finally this year I got a round to getting a quote fromMEloche on the house and found out it would be about $300 less a year than ING, so we signied up directly with Meloche. When our broker sent us the ING renewal notice, my wife called and said that we didn;t want to renew, then, a couple of months latrer ING sends me a $200 invoice for cancellation for non-payment. My broker gave me the same explanation you got, and ING ended up retroactively cancelling the policy as of the renewal date and waiving the cancellation fee.

[4X4]

Sounds like it's the damn broker trying to get a little cash from you on your way out the door. Call ING directly? Send an envelope full of flour to your broker.

[algernon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Sounds like it's the damn broker trying to get a little cash from you on your way out the door. Call ING directly? Send an envelope full of flour to your broker.

Is that to trick 'em into sniffing it up? or to anthrax-scare them?

Does Meloche do commercial policies?

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

is it supposed to be this much of a pain in the ass? in May i switched from ING to Meloche Monnex because it ended up saving me around $300. at the same time i got an email from my insurance broker asking why i hadn't sent my renewal payment in for ING, to which i replied saying i wanted to cancel as i had found insurance elsewhere. then a couple weeks later my old broker sends another email, saying that ING has an automatic renewal system and if i want to cancel i need to sign a form and fax it to her, which i did. then just last week i get another email from her, saying that ING now wants proof of my insurance with Meloche Monnex before they'll cancel my old policy. does this sound right? why should they need proof of my current insurance to cancel an old policy, what if i decided to drop insurance completely and take the bus? it's getting to the point where i'm becoming quite annoyed with ING and their broker and i'd love to tell them to get stuffed, but i'm worried if just do nothing if they can somehow affect my credit. i've sent ING no money for any renewal, so in my mind that should be reason enough to cancel the policy. but will they try to ding me with some kind of failed payment that would show up on a credit report?

They don't need to know if you are insured now and if you are, with whom, none of their business.

But most companies do require a letter in writing for cancellation, easy enough to do.

[GoinAllTheWay]

By law, insurers do require a signed request to cancel a policy that way they have proof that you did request to cancel the policy.

Sounds to me like your broker may have dropped the ball a tad. The only reason why ING would need proof that you started a policy elsewhere is if you are trying to back date a cancellation and they want proof that you didn't need their policy past that time. This is the only reason I can think of.

You have every right to cancel your policy for what ever reason at what ever time, if you requested cancellation of an auto policy a couple weeks ahead of time, say for an upcoming renewal, they would not ask you for proof of insurance elsewhere.

Honestly, don't let this reflect on ING poorly, I'm willing to bet your broker was late sending in the cancellation request and was the cause of the problem, not the insurer.

[OzSome]

That happenned to be my dad's insurance before. He passed away and I guess I did not send a cancellation notice. The old insurance are demanding to pay for the amount before I cancelled the insurance. I told them my dad passed away on such dates and that's when the insurance should be cancelled. Just to make it easier, i told them I will send $25 and that's it. I did and they didn't bother me anymore.

Another incident I have was for our work truck. We are paying so much from one company so we looked around and found a cheaper one. We phoned this company and signed up. We thought it's because our insurance expired we can just change it to whoever. Our old insurance keeps sending some invoice and when we told them we signed up with another company once our insurance expired. They did asked us for proof of insurance and when it was in effect. I faxed them a copy that shows the date and they never bother us again. All they told me was next time, we should fax a cancellation notice.

[macker]

It is a liability issue. ING needs you to prove to them that you had insurance in place elsewhere for the time period in question so that there is never an issue of you comming back to them with a claim during this period of time. They will accept faxed cancellations so fax one to them at 403-269-8802. Also make sure that you and who ever else is listed on your policy sign the cancellation as this can also hold things up if only one of you signs off on the policy. I would make it a practice when ever cancelling a policy to send one copy to your broker and one copy to the actual company and document that you have done this.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by macker

It is a liability issue. ING needs you to prove to them that you had insurance in place elsewhere for the time period in question so that there is never an issue of you comming back to them with a claim during this period of time. They will accept faxed cancellations so fax one to them at 403-269-8802. Also make sure that you and who ever else is listed on your policy sign the cancellation as this can also hold things up if only one of you signs off on the policy. I would make it a practice when ever cancelling a policy to send one copy to your broker and one copy to the actual company and document that you have done this.

In his original post, he said he faxed that info already and they have contacted him again. No need for any further contact from them once he has faxed in his request to cancel the insurance he used to have with them.

[macker]

Originally Posted by redforever

In his original post, he said he faxed that info already and they have contacted him again. No need for any further contact from them once he has faxed in his request to cancel the insurance he used to have with them.

He said he faxed it to his broker and what I suggested was to fax it to the broker and more importantly the actual insurance company which in this case is ING. This way you know that the faxed cancellation is going to get to where it needs to be in a timely manner. It may sit in someones inbox for weeks on end especially in the summer. If you go to the source it will expediate things!

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by macker

He said he faxed it to his broker and what I suggested was to fax it to the broker and more importantly the actual insurance company which in this case is ING. This way you know that the faxed cancellation is going to get to where it needs to be in a timely manner. It may sit in someones inbox for weeks on end especially in the summer. If you go to the source it will expediate things!

I deal with one company that is just going through paperwork issued in may, and its a subsidary of ING. As long as it is dated then it will be fine, but he didnt realize that he needed to sign the cancellation and did so after renewal date, so it wouldnt matter if he sent it right to ING or not, he would still need the proof.

[macker]

Originally Posted by FlamesKickAss

I deal with one company that is just going through paperwork issued in may, and its a subsidary of ING. As long as it is dated then it will be fine, but he didnt realize that he needed to sign the cancellation and did so after renewal date, so it wouldnt matter if he sent it right to ING or not, he would still need the proof.

You must deal with Nordic. It is too bad that the broker didn't take the time to explain to the OP why this is required. Attach the Monnex policy to the cancellation and they will go away. Sounds like he will be better served at Monnex!

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by macker

You must deal with Nordic. It is too bad that the broker didn't take the time to explain to the OP why this is required. Attach the Monnex policy to the cancellation and they will go away. Sounds like he will be better served at Monnex!

good guess, and for the record I only sell their insurance I don't need it.

yea the broker should've explained why they needed this when they requested it.

[onetwo_threefour]

My only problem was the way ING handled it. Rather than sending a letter that says, 'We notice that your renewal date has passed and that you did not pay the renewal premium. As such we are forced to cancel your policy and charge you a cancellation fee of $200.00 unless you submit a written cancellation request to.... and a copy of your new policy with an effective date as at your renewal date...' instead of an invoice for $200 and a curt letter stating they are cancelling the policy for non-payment of premiums and charging acancellation fee without mentioning that said fee could be avoided. You gotta know this happpens all the times at renewal dates and from a customer service standpoint ING certainly left a bad taste in my mouth on that one.

From a legal standpoint, once the policy term is up, and the contract has expired there is no obligation on the part of the consumer to re-up with the same company and no validity to a cancellation charge. The only thing an insurance company should be able to require is a written cancellation request with an effective date as of the renewal, even if same is back dated because it is sent in later.

[FlamesKickAss]

Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

From a legal standpoint, once the policy term is up, and the contract has expired there is no obligation on the part of the consumer to re-up with the same company and no validity to a cancellation charge. The only thing an insurance company should be able to require is a written cancellation request with an effective date as of the renewal, even if same is back dated because it is sent in later.

Somewhat true. the company i work for will give you two weeks and then cancel. The don't charge you for time on risk, and like I said earlier in insurance silence is acceptance so if the company does charge for all time on risk you would have to pay that because you didnt notify them before that you were not renewing and the minimum retained premium is stated on the renewal offer as well.