Do I have to pay cancel fee?

[Spike M]

I have Auto insurance that expires in 5 days. I have already paid via automatic payment for renewal of that policy. My insurance as far as I can tell charges $50 or 10% to cancel policy. The effective date of the renewal is still 5 days off. If I call and tell them I do not want to renew before the effective date of renewal will I get all my money back or can they consider it a cancel and have to pay the cancel fee? I have not talk to them and wanted to know what I am looking at before I do.

Thank you
Mike

 

[Spike M]

Also this is a 6 month policy payment

 

[fed up]

Don't know who your carrier is or what the state law is but if you cancel the policy prior to the renewal, and have replacement coverage in place, you should not be charges anything. Had you not paid the renewal, your policy would be cancelled by the carrier along the rules of the BOI. You would get a cancellation letter (unless the state automatically cancels on the renewal date without receiving a renewal acceptance from you) and they would carry the vehicle for probably 20 days just in case your premium was late. The only fee you might owe under this scenario is for the period of time you were covered and did not pay but there should be no extra fee.
Call them and make sure that they will cancel the policy at 12:01 AM on the renewal day provided you have another carrier.

 

[Spike M]

Thank you. I have Esurance in California and I did find on there web site that the fee is $50 to cancel. My thinking is that I am not canceling just not renewing even tho I have paid the renewal ahead of time. I have other insurance lined up but have not pulled the trigger on that yet. Do not plan on having a lapse, still have 5 days. Trying to save $50 and will put up a moderate fight if I think I do not owe. Sounds like you feel I would not.

 

[adjusterjack]

I have Esurance in California and I did find on there web site that the fee is $50 to cancel.

You're going to have to determine whether that is a "cancellation" fee or just an administration fee for handling the refund if you don't take the policy after you've paid for it.

Post a link to it.

 

[Spike M]

Did not get any fee they did not even mention it. I like to know what I am getting into before I do it. They were $400 more a year so the $50 was not going to change my mind. Thanks

 

[fed up]

From their website: If you don't want to renew your policy with us, we'll be sorry to see you go. To non-renew your policy penalty-free, please call us at 1-800-ESURANCE (1-800-378-7262), and let us know that you want your Esurance policy to end when its current term expires. If you choose to cancel your policy before the end of your current policy term, you'll likely be subject to a cancellation fee.
Since you are cancelling before the term ends there should be no penalty. Esurance is not going to exist in the very near future as Allstate rolls it into their regular policy company. it has not been the great thing that Allstate envisioned when it was launched.