Norwich Union!!!

Annabee

We remortgaged last March/April and applied for new life assurance - separate level term policies for husband and self. The mortgage and my life policy went through straight away, but because DH had just seen doctor and been referred to hospital, his application was taking ages.

I posted about this last June, annoyed with NU for taking so long, not realising it was normal for them to wait until medical investigations were complete. In replies I received I was shot down and I was told that it was probably the GPs fault for not responding to enquires from NU, and how efficient and all round wonderful NU were.

Well, DH's hospital appointment was last Oct, and he was basically given the all clear. Around this time he received letter from NU asking him to inform them when his investigations were complete. So he rang straight away and told them. We left it for a while, thinking they were writing again to GP, etc. and knowing how slow they are.

Guess what? This week received another letter from NU "We refer to our previous letter of 21 November. Could you let us know when your investigations are complete".

DH phoned them - "Oh, we have no record of your previous phone call."

So they have done NOTHING for 2 months! Fantastic. Incompetent idiots.
I wish I'd never heard of them.

It's now ten months since the original application. I don't know whether we could put in a complaint, either to NU themselves, Insurance Ombudsman, or the mortgage broker, who seeing as they will get commission, surely should make some attempt to monitor the application? They do zilch.

dunstonh

It's now ten months since the original application. I don't know whether we could put in a complaint, either to NU themselves, Insurance Ombudsman, or the mortgage broker, who seeing as they will get commission, surely should make some attempt to monitor the application?

10 months is a long time but hardly any insurers will put cases in force whilst hospital investigations are ongoing.

The broker is not made aware of the specific medical checks so would be a little out of the loop. However, if you pass information to them to forward, a copy usually goes on file with the broker and original to provider. The address and contact points for the the advisor placed business will often be different to the one you would deal with had you gone direct.

Ombudsman would not deal with your complaint and send it back to NU. As it isnt an advice complaint, the FOS wouldn't be interested anyway. You could complain to the advisor but he will almost certainly place the blame at NU's door.

For others reading, if you use an advisor to place the business, then use the advisor all the way through. Don't try and bypass the advisor as the insurer may not be able to locate you as the application is being handled at an IFA/protection advisor office rather than the office that deals with direct applications. With different offices handling different advisor networks and regions, the information could end up doing the rounds with no-one knowing where it should go.

SPENCER

I won't bore you as I have posted previously about NU but they seem fairly incompetant and I would not do business with them. On another thread I posted about my friend and his problems with them. I know someone else who was sent a cheque from them as a gesture of goodwill by way of an apology for their incompetance.

dunstonh

When discussing NU, it should be noted, like with many insurance companies, that their life and pensions side is different to the general insurance side. It may be same logo in the corner but that is where the relationship ends.

I wouldn't go near NU for car insurance but wouldn't hesitate for one second using them for life, pensions or investments.