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

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Confused.com:

Its now been a few days since our last communication.

In my last response I advised that I had referred your case back to our Home Team for further information on the issue. Rest assured, we appreciate the comments noted in your response and realise that this is something that needs to be considered further, given the response you received from the providers concerned.

We understand that customers' circumstances can differ, as such, we endeavour to create a robust quote process that caters for as many circumstances as possible.

As previously explained, providers will operate stricter criteria when providing quotations online and may require, under special circumstances, the customer to contact them directly so that they are able to complete the necessary risk assessment.

One of the restrictions set by providers online is not to return quotations for customers who have been declared bankrupt. We understand, thanks to the information provided in your email and from our further investigations, that some of our providers have now lifted these restrictions. I would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

As alluded to above, we endeavour to be as flexible as possible and continually work with our partners to present our customers with the opportunity to return quotations under special circumstances. Our attitude in this respect reflects the recent amendments to our Home Quote process in relation to customers who have been declared bankrupt.

As you are already aware, our questionnaire was amended recently to ask the date and which person was declared bankrupt. This amendment was made to accommodate the introduction of Home Protect (insurance broker), who specialise in non -standard home insurance. Prior to this amendment customers were unable to return quotations online at all when declared bankrupt and were provided with a telephone number to call the insurance provider, 'Heath Lambert' directly, instead of completing the process online with 'Home Protect'.

I understand that the providers you have spoken to are not included in the list of specialist insurers on the panel of Home Protect. As such, we are looking at the opportunity to adjust our quote process to allow customers to return quotations from the providers concerned. Be confident, we will do our utmost to be as flexible as possible, However, it is not always possible to make an amendment to our quote process immediately. This may be something that will arrive in the future.

I hope you appreciate and understand the reasoning behind your inability to obtain quotations at this stage. I also realise that this response is in slight contrast to my initial email. However, having spoken at length with our Compliance and Home Team we have now amended the status of your complaint at Confused.com as upheld, according to our findings above.

To summarise, we would like to thank you for your feedback. We acknowledge that this is certainly an area that we need to look into the coming months.


I see this as sort of helpful but not quite good enough. They acknowledge there's a problem and they have upheld my complaint. I also think the author of that email has been on a power writing course and perhaps got it a bit wrong, but then maybe I am being picky.

What is helpful is the fact they upheld the complaint and this in itself is a big piece of leverage to give to the ABI. I want to compile responses and write a full report for the ABI's investigation into this, so far I think my summary will be at least 5 pages and at least 20 pages of supporting evidence. It hasn't been easy getting this far but the ammunition has come in slowly but surely.

I am finally starting to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, I hope I am not being premature saying that.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Europa Group (One Quote Direct) have replied:

Thank you for your mail, we (One Quote Direct) are an Intermediary representing many insurers, it is they (the Insurers) and not us who ‘have the rules’ in place as to what is acceptable and what is not. As we are the Company responsible for Retail Mediation (the selling of the product)) we must ensure that the multiple rules set by all the Insurers are met to their satisfaction.

This requirement applies to the ‘full question set’ and not just the one specific question you refer to. The point you raise is valid and as you say needs further clarification. The price comparison site asks a closed question with a simple Yes/No option, as our insurers are likely to have differing rules it is currently not possible for us to return an accurate price (indeed i notice that most (if not all), Intermediaries currently offer a No Quote).

I think your point about putting pressure on the price comparison site to ask for more information (dates etc) would help solve this problem, we will indeed do that in our business update meetings with them assuming you are happy that we speak openly about your letter and concerns.


I find that response quite positive and very helpful.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

One Call Direct are messing me about *again*:

I can fully understand your points and issues confirmed below.

For One Call to be able to assist in this matter further we require a contact number to call you on. The reason for this being that we are unable to specifically identify each and every insurance companies bankruptcy policies without referring your individual details to them. I do request the reason you require this information as the insurers themselves will query this.

We look forward to discussing the matter verbally with you as soon as possible.


I respond:

I am a little concerned you do not appear to be progressing this issue, and instead appear determined to speak to me. As I have already outlined my reasons as to not wishing to enter any verbal discussions I am confused why you continue to pursue a conversation.

So far over 30 companies have responded to me with the information I requested, having exactly the same information you have been given. I am not requesting you provide a quote for me, I am instead asking you to clarify your position on handling bankruptcy data and the time limits beyond which your representative companies discount bankruptcy entirely.

As I have pointed out the Ombudsman allows insurers and intermediaries eight weeks to resolve complaints. This leaves you with three weeks as of tomorrow to attempt to bring this matter to a close, and I remain committed to receiving a written response. Why it is a problem for you and not the other companies I am currently dealing with I am unsure, I will leave this to you do draw your own conclusions.

Please be aware as I am compiling information for the ABI's investigations, due to complete in the autumn, I will be forwarding relevant correspondence from you in my portfolio. This will include highlighting difficulties organisations pose in obtaining information.


You can probably gather my frustration at their attitude, and they still don't seem to be treating this as a complaint. All the other companies I am most likely to be using their information to feed to my report for the ABI but these guys are getting to the point where they are the only ones I am likely to go to the Ombudsman about due to their actions. As I point out in my email they have three more weeks to resolve a complaint...

patman99

Keep up the good work. Are you also keeping a blog about your campaign ?.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Thank you. I am not keeping a blog, never really been a blog person, but I really appreciate all the recognition from others as this has occasionally been a bit demoralising. I work in a professional environment though so I try to remember the problems I face are mainly process driven at this stage in my work and are not personally aimed at me.

I think at the report stage I will split two ways, focussing one side to the ABI and one side to the price comparison sites. I am also going to extend an offer of a meeting with the Director General at the ABI next month probably - I do imagine this won't be accepted but even a brief 15 minute window could pay dividends if I can swing something.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

eHome Insurance have given a very positive reply:

I note your complaint concerns the Underwriting criteria with regards to the acceptance of customers who have previously been declared as bankrupt. Upon receipt of your email I did discuss the matter with my colleagues as I was unaware that we had any clauses with regards to bankruptcy issues, my colleagues agreed that they were also unaware of this issue.

You have stated within your correspondence that you tired to obtain a quotation through https://www.gocompare.com and you were informed we as eHome were unable to provide you with a quote due to the site showing a message of 'Cannot quote as previously declared bankrupt'. As part of the investigation I also logged into the go compare website and ran through a home insurance declaring I had been declared bankrupt and I was presented with only a few quotations as all other insurers including eHome were unable to provide a quote due to previously being declared as bankrupt.

I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that I have contacted our Aggregator Product Manager and reported the issue to him, as we should not be declining on this basis.

You are able to obtain a quote with https://www.ehomeinsurance.co.uk but as at present the comparison site is declining the quote (when it should not be) I would advise if you do require cover and want to obtain this with us, please visit our home page and obtain cover this way.

alastairq

That one is very positive, eh?

If only the others could realise the intransigence of the comparison sites to address the issue is going to actually affect sales.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

alastairq wrote: »

That one is very positive, eh?

If only the others could realise the intransigence of the comparison sites to address the issue is going to actually affect sales.

I have emailed GoCompare.com, MoneySupermarket.com, Confused.com and CompareTheMarket.com all with a list of about a dozen companies (including massive players like the AA, Groupama and AXA) along with their views - and where they have provided it - their comments on this being a shortfall with the comparison site's position.

Too often these comparison sites have blamed the insurers but now I have the evidence from lots of companies I can rest this firmly at the comparison sites' doors.

In the same note, I have told them their position ironically loses them business. I have described how it is entirely possible to lie about bankruptcy, get a decent quote, then phone the cheapest to explain the circumstances and request if they will still cover (and this is the approach I took this year). This stops people clicking referral links so the comparison sites lose money when you don't click via them.

Let's see what they say to that - though I suspect the biggest win will still come via the ABI if we can persuade them to come to a standardised approach in disregarding bankruptcy.

4$£&*(£$&*(!

Confused.com have started an internal investigation with their Product and Commercial team leading. They are going to take my findings so far and approach the providers on their panel to corroborate their positions.

Since they say this presents an unknown quantity of work at this stage they are unable to give timeframes for customers seeing the difference on their website, but they agree with me this represents a good business opportunity and they thank me for bringing it to their attention.

I feel that is a great move on behalf of Confused.com and according to Martin's guide on cheap household insurance they represent 38 brokers and 22 insurers. Given the size of their business I believe the case for any insurer still taking bankruptcy into account beyond a certain duration is now quickly evaporating.

I will wait now to see what GoCompare, MoneySupermarket and CompareTheMarket say - hopefully their responses will be comparable - then I will write my report for the ABI.

MTDancer

I am impressed - pat on the back for you - thank you for all your hard work