Coverbox PAYG insurance

x9abm

missmuffet wrote: »

I've just had my renewal from Coverbox. I have only done 1800 of the 3000 I forecast.
They claim my milage is as forecasted so have doubled my premium. No refunds, no discounts
as promised when I took out the policy last year. If I want to leave them I have to do it
within 14 days of receiving my documents and pay £120. They sent the documents with
the renewal. My present policy expires 4th Feb. Not happy! What other insurance company
charges not to renew? Surely this is not legal?

You need to get a return of premium for this period just finishing, or finished ,when the mileage was 1800 not 3000. Copy the dashboard to prove the numbers and write them a nice letter explaining that they owe you the refund and the policy is a drive less pay less policy. You may need to write more than one letter.

The new premium for this year could well be double last years. Our mileage rate at renewal in September was way higher than the previous year - I gather all policies have increased a lot this year. They will only charge you to leave if you leave mid term - they have high cancellation charges - I guess this is the price of low premiums. If you leave at renewal, i.e. you don't renew the policy there should be no charge to exit.

missmuffet

x9abm wrote: »

You need to get a return of premium for this period just finishing, or finished ,when the mileage was 1800 not 3000. Copy the dashboard to prove the numbers and write them a nice letter explaining that they owe you the refund and the policy is a drive less pay less policy. You may need to write more than one letter.

The new premium for this year could well be double last years. Our mileage rate at renewal in September was way higher than the previous year - I gather all policies have increased a lot this year. They will only charge you to leave if you leave mid term - they have high cancellation charges - I guess this is the price of low premiums. If you leave at renewal, i.e. you don't renew the policy there should be no charge to exit.

Thanks, I will write to them and update this thread when they reply.

Mobius1

scousepie wrote: »

i joined coverbox sept 2009. 28th august i rang them to say i had sold my car and bought another one and gave them the new car details. they assured me they would send me an updated proposal for the new year. when i didnt hear anything after 2 weeks i called them. they advised of my new payment plan and that i was now insured to drive my new car but i would get a call back within 48 hours to confirm everything. after 4 days i called them back to be told they dont have my new car details and therefore my policy has lapsed and i wasnt insured to drive my new car. i had a manager to call me back only to find i am no longer insured with this company but if i wanted to re-apply i could do it online. so after being told my insurance for the new car was £320 and then find out if i re-apply i have to pay £670. i asked about the rebate as i stated i would use approx 6000 miles but i only used 3900. i was told my rebate had been refunded into my account of £4. i have asked for a formal complaint to be forwarded on as they dont have a complaints service you can speak to. i have been told a formal complaint can take 14 days to be dealt with. so i have a car i cannot use. will let you know what happens

What a co-incidence! I received my renewal yesterday.

Basically for my first year I said I would drive 6500 miles. So my premium and monthly payments that I've now paid over the year I've been with Coverbox have paid for this. However, I've only driven 4800 miles which is about 25% less than what I planned to. The credit to this year's premium? £4.

This cannot be an isolated incident. I phoned them asking them why if I've driven 25% fewer miles than what I've paid for, why am I getting less than 1% of my premium credited to this year's premium? The lady at Coverbox couldn't answer and claimed she didn't know how it's worked out. I find this unacceptable. I mean, surely it is reasonable to ask a "pay as you drive" company how the credit is worked out? But no, she couldn't answer me. I have made a complaint, since this isn't paying as you drive. Based on that credit less than 4% of the premium I pay goes on the miles that I drive, so what is the rest of the money for?

I never expected to get a full 25% back, but since my total premium last year was £460 I was expecting a credit in the area of the £50 mark. £4 isn't worth jack, and I bet ANY money that if I were to have driven 1800 mile OVER what I said I would I'd be owing them a hell of a lot more than 4 quid.

They're going "get back to me" after investigating the credit, but this apparently takes up to 3 weeks. If I am not satisfied by the credit I will be getting in touch with the financial ombudsman because the product is being mis-sold.

missmuffet

Yes I got 75p. Not worth the hassle.
As it turns out they were the cheapest so I've ended up staying with them. Only problem is, they charged me £90 to fit a tracker that I already have. I will get that money back though.

hfz_3

I'm writing to thank all those who have posted about Coverbox, as I was just about to buy with them, with a planned vehicle change in the coming months.

They appear to be a admin nightmare - So I'll be staying away

Thanks

FRAZ

Hi
Took my car insurance in July 2010, paid £550 for 6000 miles per year cover. Done only 2500 miles, got a renewal letter with renewal price of £600-00, with £10-00 refund for my 3500 miles which I paid in advance. Called them and after my challenge the guy said he will speak to underwriter and came back to me with a refund offer of £80-00 but could not answer how is this calculated. I asked him how much I would have to pay for extra 3500 miles, he told me £380-00 . Unbelievable how could FSA could allow these companies to miss sell this insurance as PAYD. Q&A stated previously that a minimum charge (fix charge) of £180-00 apply if the mileage is low.
I am going to write to FSA, watchdog and trading standards. I hope Martin will look into this for consumers and highlight this with authorities and warn money saving expert newsletter readers.

mobh

Hi

I just got my renewal docs from Coverbox, I gave estimated mileage of 5000 for last year and only drove 1800 miles only 36% used yet the refund is £6! my premium for last year was £385.

I still have the email for my quote from last year and the phrase on the email was "If you drive less miles you will pay less". I used only 36% of my mileage allowance and got £6 back, so its completely misleading advertising. I have spoken to them and they say they will go back to the underwriter to see if they need to recalculate the refund.

Another thing I found out which people should be aware of is my renewal for this year is £411 which is based on my actual mileage of last year and a bit more, around 1900 miles. If I go over this amount then the premium I will pay will go up (I imagine by alot if any of the threads are anything to go by, no doubt much more than £6 I got for only using 36% of allowance). On the renewal documentation there is no mention anywhere of the mileage limit for this years renewal. So you need to watch out for that.

Lets just say I am going to get busy writing letters of complaint to various people. You should definately avoid using them as its only PAYG when you go over not when you go under your mileage, win, win for them and always a loss for you. AVOID.

bullinn1

Just a quick addition, I just went through the really tedious process of filling in my details and then right at the end got 'technical problem please telephone' - I shall not be using Coverbox ! - Roger

SteveG56

I was 17 at the time almost 18 and not long past my test.
As everyone knows young drivers are the most expensive in car insurance and for obvious reasons.
I do however disagree that all teens should be labelled as boy racers and charged on average £3000, and thats as a named driver!
I do think that insurance companies should give young drivers a chance before putting your premiums up sky high.
This is where CoverBox really looked good. It's super cheap, well compared to other companies. I only wanted to get some practice and as I live away I only wanted a named driver policy on my dads insurance.
£850 they charged which was rather good I though compared to others.
After 5 weeks of all going fine they wanted an extra £50 for a conviction on my fathers license. This had expired in the laws eyes but not in their eyes. Another 3 weeks went with no problems and they now want an extra £1222.00. And this is for invalid no-claims, which are valid on the paper work. 75% for 9 years no claims, again on my dads licence. We are now going to try and leave them as it seems they leave it longer and longer but want more and more of your money at the end of the day. RIP OFF!

-- P.S- for those who think teenagers shouldn't be driving anyway, well I say that I would get the bus around. In fact I would be happy to get the bus or walk. But when you live in Rural Wales where buses are few and far between and everything is in driving distance it's not so easy.

So all in all coverbox looks good for those who want some experience or cheap run around insurance, but beware of their ever changing premiums which rocket.

jraw

Just revisiting this thread after a year away from coverbox, seems many others have had bad experiences too.

Remember this that Coverbox market themselves as a drive less - pay less company but in reality if you drive less you will save next to nothing and they are just looking for you to go over your agreement so they can add costs, they are just as bad as doorstep lenders or payday loans companies in my eyes.

Its good to see though that there are a few people who have at least had a decent service from them.

I managed to get my no-claims certificate off them in the end but only after much hassle and after my new insurers had increased my price, luckily they took the price back down again after i explained to them and were really nice about it all, Thanks Octagon!