Direct Line Car Insurance

Bonnie2009

I had to phone Direct Line to renew my car insurance today - I don't know why I had to do that as it's always automatically renewed.

When I spoke to to the girl on the phone, she mentioned that £25 or so of my annual policy is for some sort of extra (voluntary) insurance - they would pay £100,000 of legal fees if I ever needed to take anyone to court. She gave the example of someone not accepting knock for knock, etc.

I told her I'd never heard of this insurance and didn't know it was voluntary. When I asked how long I'd been paying it for, she told me I'd been paying for it since I'd first joined Direct Line.

Until 2005 I was paying the car insurance but my ex was the named person and I was the additional driver. It was only when I needed to hire a car that I realised and changed it over. Her records show that I'd been paying it since 2005 - she couldn't tell me anything about the previous insurance (given that my ex was the actual policy holder - even though I'd always made the payments) but did admit it was an identical insurance.

I'm about to try to claim this money back. I know it's not a lot, but it's infuriated me that they can just take this money out without mentioning it.

Is anyone else with Direct Line and not known about it?

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Do you mean legal cover? If so, £25 is actually very cheap.

I tried carrying out an online quote and could not see this.

Anyway, it is recommended that you should obtain legal cover in the event of something happening to your car. Other option is the no win- no fee.

Quote

Call me a bluff traditionalist, but I always find reading my insurance documents means I'm not paying for things I don't want.

adamc260

Your on about legal cover -


If you have a road traffic accident involving your car that is not your fault, you have a right to be able to claim back your uninsured losses from the driver responsible.

The hourly rate for a qualified solicitor or legal executive’s costs is likely to be in excess of £100. Our legal protection cover will provide up to £100,000 of legal costs to help you to recover losses that cannot be claimed from any insurance policy.

Examples may include:
Compensation for death or Injury
Your car insurance excess under your comprehensive policy
Accident repair costs if you do not have comprehensive cover
Damage to your clothes, luggage or personal belongings if you do not have comprehensive cover
Hire car costs
Loss of earnings
This cover also provides protection for any one else authorised to drive or use the car and for any authorised passengers.

The solicitor acting for you will handle all aspects of your claim such as locating a specialist (i.e. a medical expert) should this be necessary as a result of injury resulting from the accident. The specialist charges will be met by this legal protection policy.

The appointed solicitor is regulated by the Law Society and, should you choose to appoint one of our solicitor’s, they will also have to operate under our own high service level protocols – ensuring that you receive the professional legal service you would expect.

All in all providing you with peace of mind and a hassle free solution when you need it most.

Direct Line Insurance plc

Taken from their website as I'm not allowed to post links

Astaroth

Whether your policy is on a manual renewal or assumptive/ auto it will be based on what you had paid for the year before. Since the FSA took over regulation of insurance insurers have had to provide a breakdown of premium and all your documents will have shown that you are buying LE cover.

Circa 90-95% of people have LE cover on their comprehensive motor policies so whilst it is optional it is unusual not to have it