Urgent -Please help-one call excess fee

1oneandonly

I changed car insurance from a company i had no probs with to a company called One Call Insurance Services Ltd approx a month or so ago as car insurance was up for renewal.
I paid for the insurance a year up front with a debit card which was approx £269.00 as i had the money at the time and my excess was to be £350.
A couple of weeks later i received a call from the new insurance company stating if i paid £70 then the excess would be nil and i could pay instalments over 4 months. It sounded good at the time so i agreed.
My first paymt wasnt to be until 4 wks later-however things have since changed financially and i cannot afford to pay any extra a month, so i didnt pay the first instalment. My god, i have received 3 letters
1st letter dated 9th march congratulating me cause i have opted to reduce my excess.
2nd letter dated 8th april requesting outstanding paymt with incorrect car registration no.-reminder
3rd letter sent by recorded delivery dated 15th april stating urgent 7 day cancellation notice saying cover will simply be covered.

I rang them and asked to go through to the complaints dept which they didnt appear to have as they put me through to an admin advisor then to a admin manager. She said in the original terms n conds their is a clause which clearly states we are allowed to cancel the whole insurance policy.
This is what it says in the terms n conds which was sent with the original insurance policy at the back of the booklet it refers to the excess protector.......we reserve the right to cancel this service along side the main insurance policy by issueing a cancellation notice to your last known address giving 7 days notice. I felt whilst i was on the phone i had no choice but to pay the instalment plus this coming months or the policy would be cancelled and they would only offer a partial refund which would be £90 (i paid £269)-this has now left me in a worse situation as i am short now for paying two other bills which are taken by dd each month.

it also says our aim is to try to provide a first class service to you at all times.
I feel this is really heavy handed and would appreciate any advice as i dont think it is fair what they do.

dacouch

They are a broker and would have had to pay the £70 (Minus their commission to the Insurer), like a business they would want their bills to be paid. Its common practice when someone defaults to send a letter advising you to contact them and to arrange payment. If there is no response they would send a letter advising you they will cancel. This normally has the effect of getting the client to contact them to arrange payment and if they don't they can then cancel the policy and obtain a credit from the Insurer to offset the money you owe them.

If you had contacted them to advise them you were having financial problems they could have probably arranged something that was acceptable to both parties.

You would have found all Insurers would have followed a similar procedure (Some may have sent more letters)

1oneandonly

Thankyou for your comments. I just feel its a little harsh to threaten to cancel the whole of my insurance policy when this was a so called add on a couple of weeks after the policy was taken out. There was no change to the policy except for the excess. I thought if i had not pd then it would just mean no alteration to the excess.

1oneandonly

i feel the original policy was mis-sold to me as surely they should have advised me about the excess initially. If they did advise me then i feel i have been taken advantage of as it was refused initially and the company would have had interest added onto the mthly instalment. So what i am saying is if advice was given initially why call me back again a ccouple of wks later.

dacouch

They should have advised you the amount of the excess when you called for the quote (I assume you rang them for a quote), it should also have been disclosed in the policy documents you received and any quotation letters you had

1oneandonly

They did advise me of the access being £350 at that time and if they said to me at that point to pay £70 then the excess would be nil to pay and i would have said no. The fact is they called me a couple of wks later after i had taken out the original policy advising me if i pay £70 then i will not have to pay the access should an accident happen....touch wood!

real1314

1oneandonly wrote: »

They did advise me of the access being £350 at that time and if they said to me at that point to pay £70 then the excess would be nil to pay and i would have said no. The fact is they called me a couple of wks later after i had taken out the original policy advising me if i pay £70 then i will not have to pay the access should an accident happen....touch wood!

You seem to be saying that they have mis-advised you by offering the £70 exces elimimator at a later date. I don't understand your point.
They offered, you accepted.
You now say you can't afford it. Well, you shoud have thought about the payments when you accepted surely?
If your case is that you cannot trust yourself to make a decision that involes money, you're going to have a difficult life.

1oneandonly

surely that doesnt warrant them to threaten to cancel my whole policy which was pd in full. I think thats harsh and with rgards to your comment .......my life is difficult but no more difficult than many others!