Assurant premium hike.

dunstonh

There ought to be law about how much these companies can increase their prices!!

You did buy a budget plan with reviewable premiums. It was almost inevitable what was going to happen. Indeed there were threads on this forum as early as January this year highlighting how poor the ant insurance was.

brad_s_uk

toyotayaris wrote: »

And they hold the awards for the Insurers of the year 2007 and 2008!

In terms of the awards, I think this is British Insurance (the provider) you are referring to rather than Assurant who were the insurers (and are still on some of their products). It could be that British Insurance had little say in the decision to hike prices.

That's the reason I have been questioning whether this just affects Assurant based policies. We need to establish whether it is Assurant or British/Best Insurance who are responsible. If Assurant, then it may be safe (for the time being) to take out the Norwich Union underwritten one.

I already have an equivalent Norwich Union policy direct with them and although it offers less value for money in terms of coverage per £ (which is my reason for looking to switch) they haven't increased my prices for approx 3 or 4 years.

weeklyrunner

We have just put in a claim with the above company, within 1 week we were informed that the premium would increase from £17 to £34, is it coincidence? We have just received our first cheque, with it came a letter from Assurant, that each month we needed to send evidence of 2 jobs applied for (they will only accept rejection letters, or letters from employer offering interviews, which must include the HR contact! In our experience, many companies are too busy to send rejection letters!) we have looked through the terms of the policy and can find no mention of this being required. Can anyone explain, or has anyone else come accross this>

rlc22

I've just noticed that my Direct Debit has gone up from £22.69 to £28.03 (although it looks like I got off lightly compared to others!).

I never received a letter about the increase, am I therefore able to go to my bank and get the difference back under the Direct Debit Guarantee?

I spoke to Assurant who have refused to refund me the difference. I expressed my concern that it could happen again but next time they could double the premium and if I received no letter I would be none the wiser and they told me that my premium wouldn't ever double!!

brad_s_uk

I think I am going to go with the Norwich Union policy. Everybody on this thread who has been hit seems to have had the Assurant policy and nobody has suggested NU have done the same.

Dick_here

There is another thread debating whether this is legal...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1039779

rjsetford

I complained to Assurant at the end of July 2008.

Then then took over 8 weeks to get a response to me regarding that complaint and only after a lot of chasing on my part.

In the end I asked for some compensation (and charged them for the email). The cheque turned up this morning :j. Suffice to sat that it'll more than cover 1 years worth of premium increase. I'll post the exact amount I recieved from them once the cheque has cleared.

Don't forget, if you complain and you don't feel like you'e being treated fairly, charging the company you're complaining to/about for your time and reasonable expenses is perfecty reasonable.

Happy to discuss more if a:) people are interested and b:) after the cheque has cleared

Rich

MattE

rjsetford wrote: »

I complained to Assurant at the end of July 2008.

Then then took over 8 weeks to get a response to me regarding that complaint and only after a lot of chasing on my part.

In the end I asked for some compensation (and charged them for the email). The cheque turned up this morning :j. Suffice to sat that it'll more than cover 1 years worth of premium increase. I'll post the exact amount I recieved from them once the cheque has cleared.

Don't forget, if you complain and you don't feel like you'e being treated fairly, charging the company you're complaining to/about for your time and reasonable expenses is perfecty reasonable.

Happy to discuss more if a:) people are interested and b:) after the cheque has cleared

Rich

Very interested.

I'm now past the 8 weeks they get to resolve so I'm referring to the Ombudsman - I got the refund and change in terms which I'm going to reject - I don't think they should try and change t&c whilst a complaint is outstanding.

In my girlfirends compliant they have replied saying the increases were due to inflation and an increased level of claims. Now considering inflation and unemployment are by historical standards both low I think they've had a serious error in their premium pricing models - I think it's unfair to ask existing policy holders to correct this (especially when no where does it say the premium is variable) - an error the shareholders should be wearing.

letitcomedown

Well, I've had a final response letter. It's actually a bit of a shambles, in that they obviously did not read my letter (sent recorded delivery) and haven't addressed the complaint *I* actually made. So it's a form letter. Reading between the lines, it appears to say:
- They tried to increase the premiums
- People complained there was no term that allowed them to increase the premiums, so they have changed the T&Cs to add one !
- They have refunded the extra premiums taken when they weren't allowed to
- Reason for increase was, basically they got the risk level wrong initially

Now, I believe this is a clearly makes the term used to change the T&C's an "unfair term" under the "Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1995" and therefore unenforcable.

I would recommend everyone affected finds the FSA “Fairness of terms in consumer contracts” May 2005, on the FSA website, I would particularly point out sections 2.3, 3.4, 3.6, 3.14-3.18, 3.21, 4.20-4.21. The exact situation seems to be covered there (insurance company increasing premiums due to setting them too low initially).

I have pointed this out to them, and given them a further 2 weeks to respond before FOS complaint.

Cheers, Ian

MattE

Thanks Ian - what do you think likely outcome will be? I suspect they will just give notice to cancel the contracts.