Sheila's Wheels Car Insurance Renewal Refused

123lins123

Hi,

I need some advice please. I have been insured with 71% No Claims Discount Protected with Sheila's Wheels for four years. Unfortunately I have had to claim three times in this period as follows;

Dec 2007 - Reversed in skip causing damage to rear of car.

Aug 2008 - Car spun out on roundabout and was written off. No other parties involved.

Dec 2008 - Third party hit rear of my car in car park and failed to leave details.

When the third incident happened I specifically asked the operator if I was to make claim would this affect my No Claims Discount or premium on renewal and he advised me it would not. I would not have made the third claim if I had been made aware of this possibility as this was cosmetic and I either would not have got it fixed or would have used savings.

The policy booklet says the following;

"If you do not claim during the period of cover, we will give you a no claim
discount. The scale we will use is shown in your Schedule.
If you do make a claim, your no claim discount will be reduced at the next
renewal date. The scale we use to reduce your no claim discount is shown
in your Schedule.

No claim discount protection for life

Your Schedule will show if you have this benefit.
For an additional premium, you can opt to retain your no claim discount for
the life of your policy. This means that your no claim discount will remain
protected and will not be stepped back as a direct result of any claims you
have, provided your policy remains in force and you continue to be eligible
for this benefit.
No claim discount protection can only be added to your policy at the start of
the period of cover.
This benefit only applies to your no claim discount - it does not protect the
premium you pay and we may take account of claims when calculating your
premium."

Today I have recieved a letter that from Sheila's Wheels Head of Customer Service saying the following;

"You current Sheila's wheels car insurance policy is due to expire at midday on 07/09/2009.

We regret that we will not be able to provide you with a renewal quotation due to the change in our underwriting strategy. You will therefore need to make alternative insurance arrangements for when your policy expires.

Please be assured that this decision is in no way a reflection on you as an individual and should not affect your ability to secure alternative cover with other motor insurers. Feel free to provide them with a copy of this letter, if required. We will send proof of your no claims discount to show your new insurer when your current policy expires."

I have spoken to the manager at the Customer Service Dept which is apprently a different Dept to their Customer Relations Dept who sent the letter. He was absolutely no help at all and said the call operator who gave me this advice would not have known if it would affect the premium as the policies are risk assessed individually and risk analysed. My point is that he should not have given the advice that it would not affect my policy then! He advises that all calls are recorded and he can check what was said which I am relieved about. I have said I will contact them next week.

Please can anyone help? Can they do this?

I have been paying an additional premium to protect my No Claims Discount which I thought would overcome such problems.

I am concerned that when I now look for insurance elsewhere I will have to declare that I have had insurance refused by another company and I either won't get insurance or will have to pay sky high prices.

I am so annoyed and upset as I asked the question and have been given the wrong advice. If I had neglected to ask I could just blame myself but this is just unfair.

Any advice gratefully received.

espresso

No insurance company has to renew your cover. Your record is not very good and they have given you one month to find alternative cover. They could have simply trebled your premium and you would have then likely found another insurance company. Enter your details into a few comparison sites and see what deals you can get. see here and perhaps here if you can't see skips.

123lins123

Actually, if you read it correctly I had two incidents which were my fault. I've been driving 19 years with no incidents until these.

Espresso - Thanks, at least your feedback was partly constructive and certainly humorous.

Forum etiquette - "Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps."

chalkie99

I think they are really looking at it as 3 incidents in 12/13 months and the last one, although you may have been entirely innocent, will still count against you as firstly, your insurer has still had to pay out and cannot reclaim their losses from the culprit or their insurers and secondly, however blameless you may have been , they really have just your word about the circumstances.

Historically, although it is a number of years since I worked for a major insurer, there was always a penalty for having a number of incidents, even if all of them were someone elses fault.

123lins123

Ha Bristol_Pilot! I see you have amended you last post and removed the unnecessary and abusive comment that I should be banned anyway. Nice.

Thank Chalkie99. That's the kind of constructive advice I'm after. I just want to know where I stand.

olly300

123Iins123 unfortunately you cannot tell other posters to get off my thread. Threads are open for everyone to post on.

If you find a poster abusive you can report them. Click on the red warning triangle.

However the best thing to do is ignore them as some other long term poster is likely to come along, tell them off and report them if they are indeed being sexist, racist,etc.

123lins123

Thanks Olly300, advice like that is useful to new users.

dunstonh

Please can anyone help? Can they do this?

Yes they can do it. You are now viewed as a high risk driver and they dont want you. Also, to make matters worse you will now need to declare on future car insurance applications that you have been refused cover. That will probably increase your premiums as well.

Sheilas Wheels are also have sister companies (esure, M&S and others) who may refuse you as well once you tell them that shielas wheels wont cover you. Although each company will have its own underwriting criteria.

I suspect you will not find getting alternative insurance as hard as you perhaps think but it will almost certainly cost you more than you have been used to.

123lins123

Thanks for the advice, I wanted to know if they could do this and you seem to have answered that for me. I've done some research on line tonight. It was correct that some insurance companies wouldn't offer insurance but I have found several that will. I've found one that's actually cheaper than last years so it looks like I'm sorted anyway. Thanks again.

dunstonh

Sounds like a blessing in disguise then.

dacouch

I'm surprised with the three claims that you have found a premium cheaper than last year.

Have you entered the three claims as all being "fault" claims as this is how they need to be declared.

How much no claims bonus have you declared to the new Insurer