Tesco Car Insurance Help? - who/how can i complain and get my quote back !

tenof26

hi all

i'll explain my situation, and was wondering if anyone has any advice as to what i should do, or who i can complain to.

At the end of may, i got my first car insurance quote, at tesco car insurance, for the cheapest price around, one of the downsides, was that i had to wait until i turn 21 to start driving, (next week), but the quote was valid for 90 days, so it wasnt a problem.

today when i went to go online, to get the insurance, i found out my quote was gone (still within the 90 days) !

after phoning up to see why, i found out that my dad being the caution man he is, phoned up to enquire a few details about the insurance, back at the begining of june, and that when he spoke to them about it, since the quote details had been disucssed in person, the quote had been withdrawn, as it was no longer an "online" quote.

i am now in distress, as whenever i try and get another quote, its over £200 more expensive !

and after numerous phone calls to tesco, they say they are unable to retrieve my original quote!

i have read the small print on the site, and the number my dad phoned, was the general help number, below the phrase "helpline" no where does it state that if you phone the number your online quote will be withdrawn.

and surely they can't withdraw it, as they didn't speak to the person applying for the quote in the first place!

argh, stress, stress, stress !

someone out there, tell me some good news, or some way to complain!

PJ_the_Director

tenof26...

if i were you, i wouldn't worry about tesco car insurance. I recently went for a quote, and it wasn't until the VERY last page, just before confirming payment and just after entering credit card details, that i found out that the excess of £300 that i opted for was in addition to a COMPULSORY excess of £450 which you can do nothing about, and i think there is also a YOUNG DRIVERS EXCESS that will also add to your misery.

This basically means that if you have a bump in the car park, and it costs £500 to repair, your insurance isless than useless

There are plenty more online brokers to try, and although your first quote from Tesco may seem like a great deal, i think you'll find if you look a little harder, that it rarely is the case.

Finally, they offer you anh online discount? and they will do ANYTHING to stop paying it!

I should point out that i have no affiliation to Any other insurance company, and have used Tesco's before and have not had any specific bad experience, however i have found that even the smallest change, such as moving house to a lower risk area, still increased my premium with them, and the requote that offered at the end of the 1st year was beyond belief!

Good Luck

PJ

maclean2

Hi - if I were you I would forget about Tesco's as already suggested and try quotes from Quinn Direct and https://www.ecarinsurance.co.uk.

Both of them normally offer good prices at your age.

HTH

Astaroth

Unless your father was named on the policy then they shouldnt have spoken to him about it under the data protection act... though if you were doing the usual fraud of naming him as the policyholder and you as the named driver in which case unless he is the main driver of the vehicle then I wouldnt complain too loud.

Certain insurers review their prices at least on a weekly basis but I am surprised that the price has gone up so much if everything else is identical.

Tesco certainly is aimed at younger drivers and so does tend to come out with good prices for them. There are others but be sure to check the policy docs... Tescos is very up front about its young/ inexperienced driver excess where as others still charge it but dont show it so overtly.

tenof26

nope, it was a policy for me, and not for him, never thought you could do that, (have differnet policy holders to names)

and i;m not suprised the price has gone up, after all, it was cheapest by far by £200 at the time, im just annoyed as i waited to save money, and its gone back up again, and the fact they have said it was going to be avaliabe for 90 days !

as other people have mentioned, i know there was going to be an excess of £500 in total, but im guessing im just hoping i will get through the year ok, and then it should all start to drop down

my friend said try the local citiens advice burea, so ill try that tommorow

thanks for your words of advice all

Astaroth wrote:

Unless your father was named on the policy then they shouldnt have spoken to him about it under the data protection act... though if you were doing the usual fraud of naming him as the policyholder and you as the named driver in which case unless he is the main driver of the vehicle then I wouldnt complain too loud.

Certain insurers review their prices at least on a weekly basis but I am surprised that the price has gone up so much if everything else is identical.

Tesco certainly is aimed at younger drivers and so does tend to come out with good prices for them. There are others but be sure to check the policy docs... Tescos is very up front about its young/ inexperienced driver excess where as others still charge it but dont show it so overtly.

Astaroth

If your father is not named on the policy at all complain to Tescos that they have done anything to the policy without your authority and therefore have breached the data protection act. It is their unauthorised access to your file that has caused the problem and so they should honour the original quote.

tenof26

woo hoo

the data protection line worked :-D

followed by a "we don't normally do this but ..."

thanks to everyone, and heres to a accideny free first year of driving :-D

streets of london, beware !

Astaroth

Thank god I dont actually drive in London... will definately be sticking to the tube/ train now

Bob63

Nice result. Good luck with the driving. Remember to keep the rubber side down!

Just as a postcript though, if Tesco insurance have been this incompetent over a simple quote, I do hope you don't have a similar experience should you need to make a claim. Personally I would have walked away.

Mike