Coverbox PAYG insurance

kdlang

I am a 32 year old woman and i have just passed my driving test. WooHoo!

I have been looking at various insurance quotes for a car I have seen that ticks all the boxes and I noticed that on one of the searches, go compare, the cheapest quote was from Coverbox which charges by mile. Since I am anticipating not using the car for more than approx 7000 a year and it will be usually during the day when the kids are at school (certainly for the next couple of years until my premiums drop) this kind of policy seems ideal.

However I can't seem to find too many reviews on it altho after a search on here I think a few people used the old Norwich Union version.

Has anyone had any experience with Coverbox? Has there been any nasty surprises with bills higher than expected? What has been the experience if you needed to claim?

Would like to be a bit more informed before I commit myself. Thanks in advance

Dangermac

Hi kdlang

Many congrats at passing your test.

I havent come accross Coverbox before, but there continually new players in the car insurance arena.

Please be warned, cheapest isnt always best.

Dangermac

dogbot

Coverbox are a broker, with a panel of insurers, though notification of the claims appears to go to a central location, it will be handled by your insurer on that panel.

The bills work like a utility bill so you know how much you will be paying unless you signficantly under estimate your mileage. So long as you make a decent estimate, even slight over-estimate, you should be fine.

They are a small start up and it is fairly high concept stuff - i don't think you will have a problem if you have a claim since they will be looking to make sure their service is good - many people don't like the monitoring aspects of the black-box so they are looking to sell the added benifits - which is why they are pushing the theft tracking benifit so much on their website, and why they will want to make sure they offer a good service.

The above is quite correct, cheapest isn't always best, but if you are happy with the level of cover, the price and the billing arrangement, then go for it. The theft tracking is an attractive bit of extra peice of mind I have to say, but I do a lot of miles so they arn't hugely competitive for me.

Carl_L_2

Congrats on passing your test. My experience with Coverbox has not been great so far - ok, only took up (& paid for, on-line) insurance 8 days ago, but haven't been able to get a certificate out of them yet, without which I'm not prepared to drive my car. When you speak to them ('them', in this case, being BDML Connect), they're defensive to comedy levels & try to blame the Royal Mail - their (Wunelli) 'dashboard' is badly designed as documents are only available from section that isn't active until tracker is fitted (earliest appt 3 weeks away in my case).

May all turn out hunky-dory as I can forgive teething problems in newish companies & don't like to be unfair on them but I think I'm forgiven for being wary - I don't know if this is just an admin thing or whether I'm not insured (they're only a broker after all). Your call but I'd recommend going in with your eyes open - I'll post update in a few days/weeks to confirm whether I've received cert/had tracker fitted.

Coverbox is a trading name of Cobra Wunelli - did some digging on Cobra group & future doesn't exactly appear rosy to a layman like me

(tried to post a link to company accounts but wasn't allowed - you'll find them thru Google - extract from PWC summary below)

Without qualifying our opinion we draw your attention to the content of

explanatory note n.5 "Business outlook and assessment of the going
concern assumption" in connection to the events and circumstances which,
along with the other matters described in note 9 of the Interim Management
Report, indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast
significant doubts about the company and the group’s ability to continue as
a going concern. The same paragraphs describe the reasons based on
which the Directors decided to continue to adopt the going concern
assumption in preparing the half-year condensed consolidated financial
statements.
Milan, 28 August 2009
PricewaterhouseCoopers SpA
Signed by Enrico Picasso

(Partner)

Carl_L_2

Quick update: Just checked ASKMID to confirm my car is insured and all seems ok, so there's no suggestion of anything underhand - just looks like poor systems/processes, will keep fngers crossed

Thinking out loud though, wonder what would happen if Cobra ceased trading - presume the industry has built-in protection but would be without tracker data if no one took over operation? I could do as many miles as I liked

Astaroth

Coverbox are a company trying to do a proof of concept.... effectively they are a data management company who want to prove that PAYG insurance can work. They seem to intend to run this to prove it, then sell it off to other parties but continue to be the data provider.

With discussions on the government doing similar things for road tax it doesnt take a great leap in thinking to realise if a company is out there already collecting all the data the government will need and proven competency in it that they will be a lead contender for being a supplier.

They are geniune, the insurers behind the scheme are fully there (as a pilot) but they ultimately are neither an experienced insurance company nor in it for the long term

NineThreeNine

Let me clear some things up for you guys. I worked for a company that created the quotation systems used by A LOT of insurers, brokers, and comparison sites (there are three big companies that do this.)

I worked on a few Coverbox schemes and even told the insurers how the worked

First, Coverbox are not an insurance company. They are a broker, as stated earlier they are known asWunelli. They are part of another 'big' broker kown as BDML. BDML run the ASDA insurance schemes as well as many others. So you should not worry about insuring through Wunelli. Your insurance will actually be with one of the big underwriters; although, you'll understand if I can't tell you who they are!

EDIT: Coverbox are in this for the long term. Insurers are slowly moving into the Coverbox group. I know at least two insurers moved into the group in the last year.

dacouch

Groupama (Pants), Equity Red Star (Can be pants), Co-operative (Good), Markerstudy (Pants) and Allianz (Not to bad)

Carl_L_2

As promised, quick update following installation of tracker.

Generally a good experience as policy administrators (BDML) answer phones within a few rings and always courteous, which is 1/2 way there in the insurance field (though they do provide service to several other insurers) & Coverbox personnel have been friendly and efficient throughout. 'Dashboard' is also, on the whole, quite impressive and will be a useful tool for monitoring mileage.

However, full policy documentation is NOT available on-line and it was day 13 before I got paper docs. Had the envelope been post-marked, I would have immediately cancelled under the 14 day cooling-off period, but didn't have the heart for a fight without proof of date of receipt (I'd paid annual premium up-front).

I've calmed down now & am generally happy with the service but list, for info, a few of the policy terms that either aren't mentioned on their website or, worse, are (to the gentleman on the Clapham omnibus, at least), contradicted by their website:

• (In my case, at least) device could not be fitted in anything like 10 days (+ developed a fault almost immediately, which was rectified 1 week later)
• Whilst waiting for the device to be fitted, or whilst waiting for a fault to be rectified, you are not charged according to your estimated daily mileage but 1.5 times the estimate
• Premium includes £39.00 installaton charge (reasonable, but I'm a fan of transparency)
• Premium includes annual charge of £24 for theft tracking (not optional)
• £90 charge for change of vehicle in 1st year

There's really nothing in the above that is unreasonable (though the 1.5 multiplier for their failings shows a certain comtempt for the customer) but all this information should be available up-front for an on-line policy.

P.S: NineThreeNine - My cursory research into the group structure didn't suggest that Coverbox was 'part of' BDML but simply that BDML Connect were a service provider for policy administration - are you sure of this?

Edit: I'm not a regular to this site so if anyone has any specific questions beyond the few points I chose to highlight, please P.M. me as I won't be checking back here

dacouch

The 14 day cooling off period generally operates for 14 days from the date you RECEIVE the policy documents

NineThreeNine

Bit of a Neco post, but this is the only thread for the broker...

P.S: NineThreeNine - My cursory research into the group structure didn't suggest that Coverbox was 'part of' BDML but simply that BDML Connect were a service provider for policy administration - are you sure of this?

Seems to be a strong link. I presume BDML may just be handling the documents/customer support/sales. I never really talked to Wunelli employees, just the insurers. Though they used to call it BDML Coverbox...

Groupama (Pants), Equity Red Star (Can be pants), Co-operative (Good), Markerstudy (Pants) and Allianz (Not to bad)

Almost got them all There's one more, but it might not be active yet. BTW I implemented the one in bold. The guys from Markerstudy are cool; but, I've never had good rates from them! The scheme was complex...

BTW, I've read the terms recently. Did you know if you don't do the miles specified Coverbox can charge you more? So whats the point in PAYG?