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Insurance Policy
We took out a policy Jurisdique and it costs 300 odd a year we went to ING and they told us a policy Jurisdique would cost about 25 euros with them so I wrote to the company to cancel and they have said they will cancel it next year does anyone know if they are allowed to make you pay as yet we have not and it was due in October, what I mean is can they legally make you pay?
Like almost all contracts in Belgium, insurance policies renew automatically unless appropriate notice, as stated in the insurance contract, is given to cancel them. The normal amount of notice is three calendar months.
If the policy renewed in October, this would have required you to have given notice of cancellation to the insurer by the last day of June. Seemingly, you failed to do this and the insurer has instead accepted your notice of cancellation to be effective when the current policy expires in October 2015.
The good news is that you remain insured until then, the bad news is that you do have to pay.
Incidentally, this system isn't a Belgian quirk, it applies in a number of other European countries too.
You do have to give some sort of notice. If you check the small print of your insurance policy, it should say what the cancellation policy is. Also, it sounds like that you currently have a general policy jurisdique, meaning it covers everything that can happen in your daily life (most exclude divorce). They do cost around 250 - 300 a year. To get a general policy jurdisique for 25 Euro (unless this is monthly), is highly unlikely, no matter where you go. The 25 may have been only covering certain sectors, such as only traffic, or only issues associated with renting. I have a policy for rental issues and it costs around 25 Euros a year, additionally to my fire insurance. Check again what ING is offering for 25 Euro a year. Also keep in mind, that generally when you first sign up for an assistance jurdique policy, you usually have a 6 month wait or so until you can first use them. Also keep in mind that some companies make you pay a deductible on each case you use them for.
Take your current insurance policy to ING and let them make you an offer on exactly what you have currently, they usually make quotes like that in writing. Something like that should not be done on the phone. Let us know, I am curious to see if the 25 Euro is an annual rate for a general legal assistance policy, if it is - it is a deal!
3 Months notice is standard. It's extremely anti-competitive and one of the reasons your premiums are so high.
Offering the explanation that some other Countries do this too is rather like the Belgian habit of pointing at Greek roads when you mention how blardy dangerous they are in Belgium.
@Mikek1300gt
With monotonous regularity you post that '3 Months notice is anti-competitive'.
Why?
Is one month's notice anti-competitive? Or one week? Or one day?
Four months before my insurance runs out I start to look for a better deal. If I had to give one month's notice, I would start to look 2 months ahead.
Sorry if I appear thick, but I just don't get why the need to remind myself in Belgium further in advance than I did in UK is a big deal.
Surely the difference is obvious? In the UK I receive a renewal notice I am free to accept or decline, particularly when I am given the opportunity to shop around.
You might be smart enough to keep track of all these three month notice periods but most people have busy lives with other things to do. The only time they remember the insurance is when the new, and increased bill arrives!
