Budget Chief Exec?

sassybird · 16 October 2007 at 12:20PM

Does anybody know the name of the Budget (BISL) Chief Exec?

I've got their head office as Pegasus House in Southgate, London.

Last year I moved my House/Buildings policy to them and paid £232.69 for my dual policy. I paid £39.26 first payment and £17.53 for 11 months by direct debit. This was the best price I got after hunting around.

My policy has just been automatically renewed 3 days ago. (I received the renewal and put it in my bag and forgot about it!) 3 days ago. They want to charge me £350.88 for this year's policy!! (£29.24 per month).

I have rang them this morning and asked what reason there is for the £12.00 per month increase on the premium (I have made no claims). I was told that it is probably the area where I live and if there has been a lot of claims in that area the premiums go up.

I wasn't happy with that excuse at all. I don't mind a couple of quid, but the premium has gone up by one third!

I then asked them to take off the payment protection as I did not have that on last year. They said the best they could do for me is £288 (£24.00 per month). I could cancel the policy and try and find a cheaper quote but I would be "charged a £55 cancellation fee" - so it's definitely not worth me doing that for this year at least.

I would like to write a letter to the Chief Exec of this company as I think this is a blatant case of once you've taken out insurance with them, they hike the price up and hope you'll pay without a murmur.

I would still like to know what the heck I am paying an extra £6.50 per month for - for being loyal? for not making a claim? or just the fact that I've let the policy automatically renew and not cancelled and gone elsewhere?

Any advice gratefully received. :mad:

raskazz · 16 October 2007 at 1:35PM

I do sympathise with you, and this will probably sound harsh, but I really don't think there is a valid complaint here.

If you didn't want to accept the renewal, why did you not inform the insurer/broker of this prior to the renewal? It is your respnsibility to read your documents and take appropriate action.

They can set prices as they see fit. It is not as if someone has sat down and looked at your details and decided to try and rip you off; the premium will have been set according to standardised underwriting principles that will apply to every customer of theirs.

mattymoo · 16 October 2007 at 3:17PM

Not sure of cheif execs name but Budget are based at Pegasus House, Orton Southgate, Peterborough, Cambs.
Not sure where you got London from.

foggytown · 17 October 2007 at 9:27PM

BISL are owned by the BGL Group. Go to their site and one of the pages on the site is the list of corporate/board directors and members. The direct address for that page is http://www.bglgroup.co.uk/about/executive_team.php

Their phone number (per the FSA register) is 01733 845555. (They are very shy about giving out any direct contact info!)

They may write automatic renewal into the T&C and charge a cancellation fee BUT isn't there recent law regarding internet sales which gives you a period of time (cooling off period) after date of sale to cancel the sale?

Also, if BISL used your credit card to take the latest premium you can call the CC company and tell them that you dispute that transaction. They should claw it back from BISL until it is sorted out.

Also, BISL is not an insurer - they are an intermediary/broker. On the documentation from last last year there should be someplace where it says who your insurer is. Now look at the renewal. Is it the same insurer? If it is, did BISL do any searching among their panel of insurers to see if anyone was cheaper? If different, were there no cheaper insurers available? Make them tell you what different quotes they got for you.

And if you REALLY want to throw them in a tizz, demand that they tell you how much commission they got from the insurance company off your policy. By FSA (Financial Services Authority) they are required to tell you. No matter what they say, they are acting as YOUR broker. They are probably getting anywhere between 17.5% and 27.5%. So not much incentive for them to find you a lower premium in year two, is there.

FoggyTown

Jonbvn · 18 October 2007 at 1:11PM

Budget tried to do exactly the same thing to me. My house insurance premiums would have increased by 25%.

Fortunately, I managed to cancel the renewal in time, and got a nice new cheaper policy with Direct Line. As far as I am concerned, the way Budget try to transact renewals, by automatically renewing (unless you cancel) with massive premium increases is almost fraudulent.

raskazz · 18 October 2007 at 1:25PM

foggytown wrote: »

They may write automatic renewal into the T&C and charge a cancellation fee BUT isn't there recent law regarding internet sales which gives you a period of time (cooling off period) after date of sale to cancel the sale?

Given that the renewal was noted at the time of the post as '3 days ago' then it is likely that the OP is still under the 14 day 'cooling-off' period. But, given that cover will have been inforce for a certain amount of time, the insurer can still charge a pro-rata amount plus administration costs.

foggytown wrote: »

And if you REALLY want to throw them in a tizz, demand that they tell you how much commission they got from the insurance company off your policy. By FSA (Financial Services Authority) they are required to tell you.

I'd be interested to see a source to back this up. As far as I am aware, this is correct for commercial clients - but for retail customers insurance intermediaries are not required to disclose commission earned.

foggytown · 18 October 2007 at 4:20PM

raskazz wrote: »

Given that the renewal was noted at the time of the post as '3 days ago' then it is likely that the OP is still under the 14 day 'cooling-off' period. But, given that cover will have been inforce for a certain amount of time, the insurer can still charge a pro-rata amount plus administration costs.

Yes, but time on risk for a week will be a lot less than the cancellation fee quoted.

FoggyTown

foggytown · 18 October 2007 at 4:25PM

I'd be interested to see a source to back this up. As far as I am aware, this is correct for commercial clients - but for retail customers insurance intermediaries are not required to disclose commission earned.[/quote]

I can't immediately find it in the FSA's user-hostile site but I can tell you that I have secured this info from Quoteline, YES, confused, and others. One muttered "Let me look at my compliance screen." before telling me. All the others initially resisted but finally acknowledged their obligation to disclose.

FoggyTown

raskazz · 18 October 2007 at 4:56PM

They may well have chosen to disclose it but I'm certain that there is no obligation to.

Edit - just found the FSA's approach (scroll down to point 10).

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/small_firms/insurance/faq/ICOB.shtml

And intermediaries can charge time on risk PLUS a reasonable fee. The size of the fee might be questionable but it's certainly not extraordinarily high as far as the market goes.

foggytown · 18 October 2007 at 5:23PM

raskazz wrote: »

They may well have chosen to disclose it but I'm certain that there is no obligation to.

Edit - just found the FSA's approach (scroll down to point 10).

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/small_firms/insurance/faq/ICOB.shtml

What about point 11?
11. But what if my retail customers ask for it?

Agency law requires an intermediary who is the customer's agent to disclose his commission if the customer asks him to do so.

The question is whether these intermediaries are "agents" of the policyholder. They certainly aren't agents of the insurers (unless they claim to be, of course, as in a captive agent). On who's behalf are they working?

FoggyTown

raskazz · 18 October 2007 at 7:14PM

foggytown wrote: »

What about point 11?
11. But what if my retail customers ask for it?

Agency law requires an intermediary who is the customer's agent to disclose his commission if the customer asks him to do so.

The question is whether these intermediaries are "agents" of the policyholder. They certainly aren't agents of the insurers (unless they claim to be, of course, as in a captive agent). On who's behalf are they working?

FoggyTown

Intermediaries can act as an agent of both the insurer or the insured depending on the particular function involved at the time.

As far as inception of the policy is concerned, and the associated commission, intermediaries such as Budget are agents of the insurer not the insured (as they have binding authority arrangements with the insurers on its panel - whereas Confused, for example, does not have any binding authority - they do not issue cover notes, etc).

Budget is not a 'captive agent', more a 'multi-tied' agent.

Budget Chief Exec?

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