Assurant premium hike.

payless

stocks27 wrote: »

Assurant are part of the same company group as British Insurance, I think the group are owned by Bankers Insurance Group.......I am somewhat concerned as to why there hiking up the premiums on one side of the

iness only to offer a cheaper seemingly identical product on the other???

No

Assurant and Bankers Insurance are the same, they have been underwriters on SOME of the Best / British Insurance policies .. these latter companies are run by Simon Burgess - (http://www.britishinsurance.com/british-insurance-press-coverage/Simon-Burgess.asp? ) .. he recently sold ( well I assume the reported deal did go thro') British Insurance brand ( not sure about "Best"- but I assume also thsi brand) to Towergate ( who also own Paymentshield )

Note most of these "branded policies " will have a different- larger insurance company underwriting the plans.

If the letter is referring you to Best insurance , then perhaps they are looking at getting policies swapped over to a different underwriter?

There is a difference in the meaning of the words "Insurance company , broker, administrator, underwriter etc, and it can be confusing with the lines blurred in palces.

katherinef1974

Well I rang Assurant today and said can I change my cover from income protection to mortgage protection only? and they said no they can't change cover I would have to reapply through the website for mortgage protection and when that was in place cancel the income protection So will proceed with my Pinnacle application but in the meantime will have to keep the Assurant policy until the alternative is set up so Assurant will take £16 out of my account this month:mad:

Dexter794

They have just put mine up from £34 to £54 - however i called them today to ask for a claim form as i got made redundant last Friday.

simpsonv

Hi

Me and my partner both have antinsurance and my premium has gone from £27 to £56... ridiculous! In the current climate though I am reluctant to switch as you often need to be with the insurer for a certain period of time before they pay out - it's a risk to switch!:eek:

don_jon_2

chartreuse wrote: »

I received a similar letter from Assurant today. It talked about how important insurance is "at a time of economic uncertainty" and said that, due to inflation they'd have to increase my premiums to £30.

If MSE has taught me one thing it's to ask "Hang on. How much was I paying?" A quick check - my current premiums are £15.

So I called them (on a geographic number, not the 0844 one they gave) and said that I wasn't up for my premiums doubling. The chap kept asking if I wanted to reduce my cover or amend my policy, I kept saying "No, I'm happy with my policy and cover, I just don't want you to double my premiums."

I'm waiting for a call back from a supervisor. In the interim, a 5 minute search has found another insurer who will give me the same level of cover for the same (£15) price. The site says that the 90 day exclusion period is "waived if you are transferring to this cover from an existing unemployment cover which was in place with Paymentshield or another Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance Policy and you are transferring your cover to this Paymentshield policy."

So, does taking out a new policy and closing the old one count as transferring? Or do I have to do something special?

yep i too have had pemium hike of 50%
credit crunch more like white collar crime going un challenged again
martin what do you suggest any better deals out there anyone............

dunstonh

credit crunch more like white collar crime going un challenged again

The premium increase has no direct link to the credit crunch. You bought a policy that was dirt cheap and had reviewable premiums. They activated the review and increased the premiums. Quite legal.

martin what do you suggest any better deals out there anyone............

Martin has tended to focus on price and not quality. If you check the current pricing I believe you will still find Ant is coming out cheap for a lot of people. Even though we know it isnt.

SJP

I've just posted about Ant, same sort of thing really - looks like transferring to best insurance.

I started a new thread before I found this!!!

Sterlingtimes

My premium has increased by 68%. This is a lot of additional money for me to find. I would be reluctant to move and note that it may not now be possible to buy on the same terms as before.

In respect of Ant, I notice the following changes FOR NEW POLICIES -

[-] No redundancy only cover for income insurance
[-] Maximum monthly cover reduced from £2,000 to £1,000
[-] Maximum overall cover now based on 50% of gross income - was previously related to gross income and a much greater amount.

I would be careful about comparing the policies on a money-saving only basis. A move now could be very disadvantageous.

JimmyTheWig

dunstonh wrote: »

Martin has tended to focus on price and not quality. If you check the current pricing I believe you will still find Ant is coming out cheap for a lot of people. Even though we know it isnt.

So if we can't use the MSE article, how do we go about finding out which is the best policy for us?

JimmyTheWig

chartreuse wrote: »

Oh, and don't ring the 0844 number! Use a geographic one. Saynoto0870 ...

Not so if you get your calls from BT. Page 4 of http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/consumerProducts/pdf/UKInternationalprices.pdf says daytime calls to geographic numbers are 4p per minute, while those to 0845 numbers are 2p per minute.