Car insurance cancellation fees

This morning I phoned to cancel my car insurance, only to get a shock that it was going to cost me 159 pounds. I was gob smaked.I can deal with having to pay a cancellation fee but not that much what can I do. Can someone help me please.

There's nothing you can do - your policy is a contract.
The only way around it is to wait until your policy is up for renewal and cancel it then.

I thought with car insurances you either paid your insurance in advance annually or in monthly instalments?...Give them another call as the person answering your questions in the call centre may have stuffed up entering your details into their system.

Didn't think they could penalise a member for cancelling their insurance policy... If your car insurance policy is for 12 months and you paid the whole year in advance and later on decide to cancel, they will reimburses the remaining $ back to you...OR...if you are on their monthly instalments deductions, they automatically stop processing any payments once you notify them in writing...These rules are for Oz but I thought England being under the same Commonwealth branch would have similar sets of rules.