Claiming On Insurance..

[Scarlett]

I've just claimed for my broken camcorder and they have given me money for a new one, BUT they have deducted £64 from my premium as I still owed £64 for the rest of the year. I don't get this at all! I have had the insurance policy for years and been paying monthly for a really long time! So why are they looking at it per year?

[woofgang]

because once you have made a claim in hat year, you are comitted to pay the whole year's premium.

[CheekyChops]

You are claiming on an insurance policy that you haven't actually paid for yet, so they are taking the rest of what you owe them from your payout, this is quite normal.

You may have been paying monthly for years, but there is still an annual policy that will be renewed at some point each year.

Say your policy runs from 1st Dec - 30 Nov each year and costs £360 per year and this is divided into 12 monthly payments of £30. If you make a claim in September, you haven't paid Octobers or Novembers payment so they would deduct £60 from any payout.

[Scarlett]

Okay, thanks. So if I claimed on 30th Nov I would not have to pay anything back but if I claimed on the next day- 1st Dec then I would have to pay the whole year's premium back?!

[ummmm]

Our insurance company didn't do that when we made a claim.

[Everhelpful]

I worked for an Insurance Company for 29 years and have never heard of that before,might be new Rules as I retired 12 years ago,I would ring them and check if I were you.

[CheekyChops]

Yes but if you claimed on 1st December, you wouldn't actually have paid any premiums! The monthly payments from before that would have been for last years policy.

If you are taking out a policy of £360 for a year, starting 1st Dec, you can pay the whole £360 up front or pay in installments.

Look at it like this, someone paying the whole premium up front and making a claim at same time as someone paying monthly would be disadvantaged if they didn't make you pay the rest of your monthly installments.

[soapnumpty]

Assuming your policy only covered your camcorder then this is correct as the others have said. Your policy is probably an annual policy, so you need to have paid the full annual premium. It's the same with car insurance. If your car is written off half way through the policy period, you still need to pay the full years premium.

If however your policy covered other things than your camcorder, say it was your home insurance policy covering all of your contents, I don't see why they should make you pay the full years premiums now as your policy and your monthly direct debit will just continue.

[woofgang]

because you could stop the DD.