Car insurance - beating renewal quotes then saying the policy isn't like-for-like

jwalters_3

Last february my 10 month car insurance policy with elephant expired. They sent me a renewal quote and i decided to shop around.

First Direct were offering to beat other quotes by 10% (or something along those lines) so i got a quote for 12 months on-line. They ask you for your renewal offer, which i gave them, but they didn't ask whether the renewal offer was 10 or 12 months.

They beat my renewal offer but i didn't take up their policy straight away. The next day, their sales person called and made their offer even better by reducing the excess and reducing the premium even more. He asked me questions about my renewal offer but never asked me whether it was for 10 or 12 months.

I decided to take their policy and paid for it.

3 months on, they have written to me to say that there is a problem. They've received my renewal offer (that i had to send them) and spotted that it is for 10 months only and therefore the 'discount' no longer applies and i'll have to pay an extra £207, or cancel my policy.

I do not feel that they can do this because :
1. They never asked me for the renewal offer term
2. They never made it clear what the 'discount' was and i cannot believe it was £207.
3. They can't spring this on me 3 months in to the policy, they received my renewal offer at the very beginning.

Can you advise where i stand on this?

dacouch

Its an interesting question, there terms and conditions for the discount do not mention the competing policy must be a 12 month policy. It specifies they will beat the price on your "Invited Renewal Premium" so I assume the price you asked them to undercut is the price on your renewal invite.

I think its a case of their terms and conditions not excluding it so they are liable, I could be wrong though.

I would suggest you take a screen print of their terms and conditions before they correct the mistake