A customer wants to cancel
A customer cancels in the cooling-off period, or sells the car, or closes the business, or has found cheaper cover. They message support or tap a cancel button that sends an email. Someone opens the policy, checks the start date, works out whether any premium is due back, looks at whether a claim was made, and calculates the return on a spreadsheet.
They then refund the customer through the payment provider, cancel any remaining instalments, process the cancellation in the policy administration system, and send a confirmation. If the customer paid monthly, the sums are fiddlier. If there was a claim, the answer changes. Each step is in a different tool, and at month end the bordereaux do not quite match the refunds.
Why cancellations are so manual
Each cancellation depends on several facts at once.
- The reason and date decide which of your rules apply, such as cooling-off or mid-term.
- Whether a claim has been made changes the return.
- The payment method decides how any refund is made and whether instalments stop.
- Fees, if your product has them, apply in some cases and not others.
- The policy system, payment provider and bordereaux each need updating.
Your return premium rules come from your wording, agreements and capacity provider. We apply them. We do not set them.
Errors and delays at the exit
Calculated by hand, returns are sometimes wrong, which leads to complaints or loss. Refunds that take a long time irritate customers at the last point of contact, when they may be deciding what to say about you. Instalments that keep being taken after cancellation are a common and avoidable complaint. Bordereaux and cash do not reconcile until someone finds the mismatches.
A cancellation flow we build
What we build runs each cancellation from request to confirmation, in the right order.
- The customer cancels in the app or on the web, choosing a reason and date, or support raises it for them.
- The flow reads the policy, payments and any claims from your systems.
- Your rules calculate the return premium and any fee, and the calculation is shown with each step visible.
- Cancellations with a claim, or outside your automatic rules, go to a person to approve.
- The refund is made through the original payment method through your payment provider's API, and future instalments are cancelled.
- The cancellation is processed in your policy administration system through its API, and the confirmation is sent from your template.
- The cancellation and return are recorded for your bordereaux and reconciliation.
| Cancellation case | Route | Return calculated by |
|---|---|---|
| Within cooling-off, no claim | Automatic | Your cooling-off rule |
| Mid-term, no claim, paid annually | Automatic | Your mid-term rule |
| Mid-term, paying monthly | Automatic | Your rule, net of instalments paid |
| Any cancellation with a claim | Person approves | Your rule, reviewed |
| Cancelled by you for non-payment | Separate non-payment flow | Your rule |
Cancellations, handled cleanly
Consider a customer paying monthly who cancels part way through a month, with one instalment already taken for that month and a fee in your rules for mid-term cancellation. By hand, the calculation depends on who does it and which spreadsheet they open. In the flow, the same rule runs every time, the calculation is shown line by line to the customer and to support, and the refund amount, the cancelled instalments and the bordereau entry all come from that single calculation.
Most cancellations complete without anyone touching them, with the refund on its way and confirmation sent. The ones with claims reach a person with the calculation laid out. Instalments stop. At month end, refunds and bordereaux agree, because they come from the same records.
Is your cancellation process like this?
- Return premiums are calculated on a spreadsheet.
- Refunds and policy cancellations are done in separate tools.
- Customers have been charged instalments after cancelling.
- Refunds take longer than they should.
- Cancellations cause differences between bordereaux and cash.