Full Refund of Automatic Annual Mortgage Protection Renewal?

[Villaines]

I have a mortgage protection (reducing balance) policy that I no longer need to have (the mortgage it was covering has been discharged). I could keep the policy as a form of life insurance but decided not to.

However, I forgot to write to the insurer before the annual renewal direct debit came out. That was just 2 days ago. I have now written (post and e-mail) to the insurer requesting cancellation and a refund of the annual premium taken 2 days ago. All paperwork in order.

Question is: Should I expect to have a fee deducted or do I have a right to a full refund within X days of the direct debit? There was no notice given to me that the premium would be taken, it's just taken automatically each year, of course it is my own fault that I forgot to address it before the renewal date, I only remembered when it was taken out, but if they had sent me some form of notification say a month before, I would have taken action to cancel, so I don't really have sympathy for the insurer's administrative cost of giving me a refund given how they generally benefit from automatic renewal inertia and unawareness.

Surely there's some consumer protection for this type of thing that ensures a full refund can be requested if claimed within a short timeframe?

Appreciate any knowledge you can impart in case I have to fight my corner. Will update here.

 

[peemac]

It's not an annual policy. It's a "life of loan" policy, so there's no "renewal" just an annual or monthly payment.

There's no legal requirement to make a refund, so a "nice" approach is best and they may do it and only add a small admin charge

 

[LDFerguson]

As a general rule, life insurance companies round cancellation refunds to the nearest month, so I'd expect that you'll receive a full refund back from them. In other words, if you cancelled 23 days after the annual premium had been paid, you'd probably get 11/12 of the year back. But as it's only 2 days, I'd imagine they'll refund the full year.

 

[Villaines]

It's not an annual policy. It's a "life of loan" policy, so there's no "renewal" just an annual or monthly payment.

There's no legal requirement to make a refund, so a "nice" approach is best and they may do it and only add a small admin charge

Thanks for that. Interesting. I suppose then in the worst case scenario I'll be on cover for another year in case I kick the bucket earlier than expected and just cancel the direct debit prospectively. Makes me reconsider wisdom of single annual recurring payment though, if there is no right of refund and circumstances change.