A chance for all bankrupts to change your life - Your help needed!

Ineedaname

Just wanted to add another thanks, if I was more able at the moment I would join in.

Runningbackwards_2

Thanks for the work you are doing on this - as you say why should someone be stigmatised and penalised for life for going BR?

I will be writing to my new MP - we changed area at the last election due to boundaries being re-drawn, I have previously written to former MP (received no reply, not surprised as he was apparently busy fiddling his expenses), and quite forgot about doing a letter/email to new chap - who knows one day let us hope they start listening!

Thanks again.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Otto Thoresen took over as Director General recently, in chasing this up I have sent him this letter tonight.

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Earlier in the year I was in discussion with Mrs Craig, your former Acting Director General, in relation to insurance matters faced by discharged bankrupts and their families. Mrs Craig was working to understand better how insurers use bankruptcy in assessing risk and how this may impact premiums. I would very much like to give you a brief overview as incumbent Director General with the view to working with you in order to ensure bankruptcy matters are handled to the best interest of your members whilst remaining fair to customers.

My partner faced financial difficulties following constructive dismissal a number of years ago and subsequently built debts as a result of daily living expenses supporting her and her child. During 2008 she moved in with me and I began to unravel her financial situation. After seeking professional advice her only route was to take bankruptcy. Up to this stage I had several years of unblemished insurance history. Following her bankruptcy I now have a battle each year to find a competitive quote despite having never made a home insurance claim.

To give an example, using a comparison website with identical data returned the lowest premium of £223 for a person not declaring bankruptcy, and the lowest premium of £467 for a person declaring bankruptcy. I have taken this matter to the comparison sites who have generally all now included exceptions on the bankruptcy question – they now discriminate asking a question 'Who has been bankrupt?' 'Proposer' 'Joint Proposer' 'Other', and additionally ask for the date of bankruptcy. During this comparison, no alteration had any affect on the end price other than positively or negatively confirming bankruptcy. This may suggest the gathering of such data does not filter to affect premiums in any way.

I discussed with Mrs Craig how credit reference agencies only hold a back catalogue of data for six years, and suggested it is the six most recent years that are relevant in considering insurance risk. Many insurers ask if anyone in the household has ever been bankrupt; meaning this question is perpetual even many years after a bankruptcy and affects entire families regardless of who the policyholder is. The Information Commissioner has additionally suggested it is possible the retention of such data may not be in the spirit of the third principle of the Data Protection Act.

It is my belief insurers would be acting reasonably to ask if a person in the household has been bankrupt in the last six years; removing the perpetual question if anyone at that address has ever been bankrupt in their lifetime. I believe this will be additionally beneficial to your members. This is an area of untested water should a claim be refused for a customer who has not declared bankruptcy that happened a number of years ago, that customer may be entitled to redress by the Ombudsman and could open a number of financial claims similarly to those faced by the retail banking sector if it is accepted insurers are acting unfairly.

I have read much about your career to date, and am excited you join the ABI at a time when striking a balance between regulatory matters and stakeholder interests is paramount. Your chairman, Mr Breedon suggests you are keen to tackle areas of customer detriment. I am aware you acknowledged the insurance industry has faced its share of issues during an interview you gave in 2009, and I am also aware since then you have had a great deal of challenging matters to deal with. I would like to build on your appetite for challenge and obvious keenness to deal with customer detriment whilst putting the protection of your members to the fore.

I hope I have been able to demonstrate my passion for this issue succinctly. To put this in a very simple way, right now I am attempting to renew my household insurance that expires this month. I have spent three hours so far and have been unable to obtain a quote for under £300. All insurers I call state they have to refer the bankruptcy issue to the underwriter and I have to wait for telephone calls. My local broker has quoted me £427 as their cheapest quote. Had bankruptcy not been a factor I would have been able to secure a quote within 15 minutes online at a cost of £193.

Our work together can jointly tackle customer detriment whilst also protecting the interests of your members from unnecessary future claims of mishandling bankruptcy data and the associated financial costs to them. I would very much welcome your views on this matter and hope to enter further dialogue to reach a resolution with you; it is my firm assertion we can reach a mutually agreeable outcome through informal channels.

MTDancer

Fingers crossed.
Thanks for all your hard work

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Building on the momentum I have emailed Which? and Citizen's Advice to ask if they will view the information I have posted here and consider if they will work with me to build a supercomplaint against the industry. This will be a last resort; I am hopeful I get movement with ABI but I have been playing things very nicely for a long time across a great deal of people in this industry. If I don't start to get somewhere soon I think a supercomplaint may be one way to go.

I am still considering approaching people from legal fields such as universities to ask if they will consider tackling this issue pro bono as the last resort will be court. As you probably saw from my letter today to the ABI this could cost them dearly, look how PPI turned out.

Ineedaname

Another superbly written letter and I truly hope it gets results.

katsu

I've never gone bankrupt, but I think the point about this lasting forever for insurance is really wrong and so have just sent my first ever email to my MP.

Doucam

Wow cityslicker! that is a really good letter and I do hope it gets some results.

We re-insured this year for contents with Yorkshire Bank and it was £137, and they couldn't care less about the BR, even offered monthly payments! Compared to the AA who put our premium up a ridiculous amount based on the fact we had been BR even though we hadn't claimed.

So there are some companies out there who are willing to ignore the BR but unfortunately they are too few and far between.

I do hope this is as successful as the whole Asda debacle. I wonder if I should get you to take my Asda issues on for me now?!! (I'll still never ever ever shop with them again such is my ire!)

4$£&*(£$&*(!

katsu wrote: »

I've never gone bankrupt, but I think the point about this lasting forever for insurance is really wrong and so have just sent my first ever email to my MP.

Thank you, I am eager to raise as much awareness as possible about this matter as it seems until this thread came along no-one realised the enormity of the problem and how many people it potentially affects. Please post back how you get on, if your MP is willing to follow up with the ABI as well this would be a big coup.

dojoman

Thanks for persevering with this CS, hopefully you will get a result with it like you did with Asda, :T:T:T