Will I get a refund if I cancel my car insurance?

You can get a refund if you cancel your car insurance, but how much you’ll get depends on when you cancel and how you pay.

When you take out a car insurance policy, you have what’s called a 14-day cooling-off period during which you can cancel. If your policy hasn’t actually started, then cancelling within this period means you’ll get a full refund. Once your policy has started, if you’re still in the cooling-off period then you still get a refund but it won’t be for the full amount – the price of the days of cover you’ve already enjoyed will be deducted.

If you cancel your car insurance outside this cooling-off period, then you could still receive a partial refund. This’ll depend on how long you have left on your policy. Typically, insurers won’t refund the final two months of a policy, so for example if you cancel with five months left, you’ll only receive three months of premium payments back. Check what your terms are though, as each insurer is different.

Bear in mind, too, that this only applies to if you’ve paid for your insurance upfront. Should you pay by monthly instalments then it’s possible you won’t be entitled to a refund; instead you may have to pay an adjusted premium and even additional charges. Any car insurance add-ons you have are also non-refundable.

Always carefully consider whether cancelling your car insurance is worth it. Not only will you likely have to pay administration fees, you’ll forgo any no claims bonus you’d receive if you hadn’t claimed on your insurance that year.

You may find your insurer won’t offer you a refund. In this case, you can make a formal complaint via their official process. If the case still isn’t resolved, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman.