To cancel your car insurance with Direct Line, you'll need to call them. You'll also need to pay a cancellation fee of £48.16 (plus a cancellation fee for breakdown cover, if you've got it).
Heads up, though: we AREN'T Direct Line! We're Cuvva. While we can't cancel your policies with other companies ourselves, we can help you on your way with our nice explainer below - just make sure you contact the right company directly.
(Note: the information in this article was valid at the time of publication in May 2020. Always double-check with your insurer.)
If you cancel before your policy starts, you don't have to pay anything. You'll get a full refund if you've paid for your car insurance for the year up front.
Direct Line's cancellation fees include Insurance Premium Tax (IPT).
With Direct Line, your cooling-off period starts from when you receive your policy docs.
When you cancel a car insurance policy, you'll usually have to pay a fee. The fee depends on the insurance company. It also depends on whether you're still your cooling-off period.
You'll get the rest of your policy refunded, if you paid for the whole year up front. But Direct Line will take away some of that refund to cover the insurance you've already had. They'll charge you a cancellation fee on top of this. It's pretty standard across most car insurance companies.
Direct Line also offers breakdown cover. You can cancel your breakdown cover separately to your car insurance.
If you cancel your breakdown cover during the cooling-off period, you'll get a full refund, minus a fee to cover the amount of time you've had the breakdown cover for.
Once the cooling-off period is over, the cancellation fee for Direct Line's breakdown cover is £11.20. If you cancel a car insurance policy with breakdown cover, you'll have to pay the £11.20 cancellation fee plus £48.16 to cancel the car insurance.
Like most car insurance companies, Direct Line won't give you any refund on your car insurance if you've made a claim. But you'll still have to pay a cancellation fee.
And if you pay monthly for your car insurance, you'll need to pay up for the rest of the policy when you cancel. Again, this is standard in insurance.
The same goes for breakdown cover. This is the same with most insurance companies.
To cancel your car insurance policy with Direct Line, you can call them or chat to them online. There's also a "Virtual Assistant" chatbot, but that will redirect you to get in touch with their customer service team if you ask about cancellation.
You can call them between:
They're closed on Sundays.
Direct Line supports the Typetalk service, and you can get sign language support between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.
You can also contact Direct Line by web chat, which has an average 3-minute wait time.
By law, every car insurance policy comes with a cooling-off period. The cooling-off period is either 14 days from the day your policy starts, or 14 days from when you get your policy documents in the post.
With Direct Line, your cooling-off period starts when you get your policy docs.
It's usually cheaper to cancel during your cooling-off period. And most insurance companies have one cancellation fee within the first 14 days, and a different (higher) cancellation fee if you cancel after the 14-day cooling-off period.
Whether you're in your cooling-off period or outside of it, your insurer will take away some money from your refund to cover the days of insurance you've already had.
But you won't get a refund if you've made a claim during the cooling-off period.
Direct Line will automatically renew your car insurance after a year - and often at a higher price. If you don't want your car insurance to renew, you'll need to let them know.
Letting your policy "lapse" (which means not renewing it) is not the same as cancelling your policy mid-way through.
Direct Line will contact you about a month before the policy renews to let you know:
If you renew, you'll start a new cooling-off period. That means you cancel within 14 days of getting your new policy documents, and you won't have to pay a cancellation fee. But you will have to pay for the amount of time you've been covered.
Cuvva hates deposits, interest, tie-ins and hidden fees - it's why we've scrapped them.
Instead, we offer flexible temporary insurance from 1 hour to 28 days.
It's perfect for borrowing and lending - and for experienced or learner drivers alike.
Whatever you're after, it only takes a few minutes to get a quote.
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