Tesco Car Insurance?

sammyw

Hi, Has anyone got tesco car insurance? What is the service like? OR is there a better company, cheaper? Any advice welcome! Thanks!

FTB83

I had a friend who had Tesco car insurance - she was in the middle of a pile up (sandwiched between the person in front and cars behind) and so had to claim from her insurer (the accident wasn't her fault). Anyways, she said the service from Tesco was dire - her mum ended up having to do all the liaising with the driver at fault's insurers and write letters etc. to them - things that Tesco should have done. Anyways, things were sorted out after a few months, but she said she wouldn't recommend them. I've heard similar stories, but this was a couple of years ago so they may have improved since then.

shelly

sammyw wrote:

Hi, Has anyone got tesco car insurance? What is the service like? OR is there a better company, cheaper? Any advice welcome! Thanks!

There are always co's that are cheaper than the last. I have a list of about 30 co's and I ring them all to get the cheapest quote possible. I do this for 2 cars and 1 motorbike :eek: Can't say what co is best for service as luckily we haven't had to make a claim. I'd advise calling at least 5 different co's though if you don't want to call too many and going for the cheapest. Play them off against each other is good to do too. e.g when they ask your cheapest price take about £30 off the actual cheapest quote then they usually can better it.

MikeLB

As per FTB83, I was involved in an accident, not my fault and was with Tesco Insurance. They made a complete mess of the claim to the extent I cancelled the claim and dealt with the other party inurance company myself, at their request, because they too were astonished at how badly Tesco were messing it up. I eventually took Tesco to the Financial Omdudsman for their handling of the case, and the ruling was in my favour and I recieved both a formal apology from Tesco and compensation. Tesco had to pay costs to the Ombudsman as well.

I was particualry saddened as I worked for Tesco for 5 years and had just left them the week before the claim and to this day have a strong loyalty to them. Lets just say if I delivered the service to a customer in store they delivered to me over the phone, I would have been fired immediately - It was that appalling.

To be fair, I noticed that just before my case at the Ombudsman was closed, Tesco did introduce a number of policy improvements such as Courtesy Car Cover etc. I dont know if it was related but it was a bit of a conincidence. So it might be better now, but certainly neither anyone in my family or myself have gone back to them since 2002.

I did get a Tesco quote last year which was certainly competitive and I was tempted, but the Post Office managed to beat the quote and I have to say, Post Office have really really thought about the product and the service, and I can not find fault in any dealings I have had with them - They are that good!

Tesco Insurance is run by UK Insurance Limited, they also run Egg Insurance.

tonyfaestoney

I have been with them for about 4 years now and had found them fine. 2 years ago had a minor bump in car park which cost £650 to other car (should have paid myself in hindsight), they sorted this claim no problem.

Couple months later somebody went through red light & hit me. Tesco gave me a very fair price for my written off vehicle but took months to get excess back. Continually had to chase them up and ended up phoning other insurance company myself.

Looking back there was zero communcation from Tesco, dealt with it really badly. I am currently looking into moving to another company. Remember & look at quidco once you get quotes, you can get £65 back from Zurich, AA and others too.

bluesnice

My car was broken into last year but they didn't manage to get it started so instead they nicked various bits of the engine and caused some damage to the door and interior. The car went off to the garage and stayed there for 6 weeks as tescos had to authorise every bit of work the garage did! Tesco only gave me a courtesy car for 2 weeks and wouldnt allow me to have one for longer despite taking upto a week at a time to authorise the work on my car. Twice they said that they were considering writing the car off. I had to phone them for this news... .no one bothered to let me know!

However, the last expensive item of engine that was pinched wasnt discovered until after all the other work had been done. Again they threatened to write the car off, but eventually allowed the garage to order the part after 2 weeks. I think the total bill tesco had to pay was actually more than the car was worth!!!

The funny thing was, I'd renewed my insurance with them a couple of days before my car was broken into.. so my quote was still quite low... (not the usual bumped up one after you've claimed despite having a no claims bonus!! ) But, don't think I'll bother with them next year. They just didn't want to know really.