Alliance And Leicester Car Insurance!!

hotsnowflake

WARNING WARNING!! FOLLOWING THIS ARTICLE ADVICE INITIALLY SAVED £15 BUT ACTUALLY HAS COST ME AN EXTRA £133!!!

My insurance with A&L (Equity Red Star) was due at the end of Jan, the notice quoted £236, I read and followed through the money saving article but just couldn't get anywhere near this (£400+) but as mentioned in the article I went back to A&L's own website as a new customer and it quoted £221, First Direct were the only other similar quote £223 but I decided to stay with A&L and paid the £221.
On the 9 Feb I rec a letter saying they had yet to rec my renewal notice and proof of no claims - I had sent them anyway but called them to say you do have them and also because you were my previous insurers!
They looked into it and started giving me jargon about the fact that I had undercut myself and that wasn't allowed - I had apparently missed the small print where it said that you couldn't come in as a new customer if you already had insurance with them.
After numerous phone calls it turned out that since the original quote of £236 had now expired (by two weeks) they could no longer honour it and looking at the premium they now want an additional £133!! I was obviously furious and very frustrated at this but they said either I pay or have to cancel - (but I wouldn't have to pay a cancellation fee - very good of them!) I really couldn't understand why within two weeks there is such a difference in the premium but thinking about it, on Boxing day I bumped a parked car, no damage that I could see, but the owner said they would make a claim anyway! -their letter from their insurers came and I sent it to A&L within those two weeks of expiry and now this has happened - co-incidence? I wonder how much my additional premium would have been had I not sent them the claim letter yet?
I wish I had just changed to First Direct but even then they are still Equity Red Star!
Has anyone out there ever had anything similar happen to them?

Quentin

You seem to be blaming everyone for this but the responsible person.

Here's a clue:

I had apparently missed the small print where it said that you couldn't come in as a new customer if you already had insurance with them.