avoid budget insurance!!!!

joanne_d_3

Hi all.

I have another thread running regarding budget insurance .

This one i just HAD to post as they have got me hopping mad and i just wanted to tell you all.

Myself+my hubby have 2 cars. hubby is owner and main driver of both .

Now that hubby has started self employed taxi driving , he will be using the one car most of the time(call this car "A".) Yesterday , i rang our insurance broker BUDGET to inform them of hubbies change of occupation and to tell them that hubby would NO LONGER be the main driver of the of the second car (call this car "B") , AS HE WOULD BE DRIVING CAR "A" mostly now.

The agent from budget informed me that in these circumstances they could no longer provide commuting cover on car "B" as hubby as the main driver would no longer be commuting to work in this car . This left me , as the named driver with no transport to work.

The insurance agent also told me that as our insurance runs out in Aug ,the best option would be to KEEP hubby as the main driver and ME to stay as the named driver? (I know this is fronting and so illegal)

I agreed to this and told him that come Aug i intended to cancel the policy.

When i came off the phone my hubby went mad. He told me that what we would be doing is illegal and he told me that i had to phone budget back this morning and MAKE them change me to the main driver.

This is where my troubles begin.........I phoned budget at 9am and told the woman there exactly what my husband wanted me to do . She informed me that the only way to get me as the main driver and hubby as named driver was to cancel the original policy....whcih she did.

I was due a refund as i had payed the full premium in Aug last year , but as i had paid it on my dad's cc the refund would be issued back to that card within 14 days....no probs so far lol.

Any way , the new policy starts today and the cost was £261 , to be taken from my debit card on the 19th April. At this point i am happy , the insurance has now been changed , i am the main driver with hubby as the named driver so technically we both own and insure a car each.

An hour later i am out and check my bank account and notice an amount of £193.50 has been debited by budget insurance . This confuses me so i come home and ring them up to find out what is going on .

The guy i speak to was foreign and we had great trouble with language.

He denies that budget have taken money from my bank account and tells me "mam , sorry but you are wrong , we have a payment due to be taken from yor account on 19th April for the amount of "£261" to which i say "you have taken £193.50" to which he repeats "mam we have a payment due to be taken from your account on 19th April for the amount of £261".

This goes on and on until (im ashamed to say) i start loosing my patience and get a bit narky !

Eventually i ask him to put a manager/supervisor on the phone and so he puts me on hold for 20 mins before coming back to tell me that THE MANAGER WILL NOT COME TO THE PHONE BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING MORE HE CAN DO TO HELP YOU!!! !!!!!!? Is this customer services?

Any how , to cut a long story a bit shorter , after a further 30 mins arguing with him and him saying the same script a million times , he eventually puts me on hold again and when he comes back he admits that he was wrong.........budget DID take a debit of £193.50 from my account....but they didnt mean to(???) , they also still plan to take the full premium amount of £261 on the 19th April as planned during this mornings phone call !!

I argued that he cant do that !! if he takes a further £261 from my account im going to be without money until next payday!!

I tell him that i need the money refunded (the £193.50) so that i can have enough in the account to cover the £261 to which he replies "mam , the £193 will take up to 10 days to show back into your account "

By this time im going crazy , i ask him how the hell do i manage with 3 kids , mortgage and other bills if they have taken my money ? He tells me that i can claim back any late payment bank charges which i incur because of this ....but that it can take up to 10 weeks to have these charges refunded.....he fails to mention the hammering my credit score will take.

He has NO sympathy for the situation at all , he states he cant change the date on which the £261 comes out of my account and if i do not have enough funds available to cover the cost then my INSURANCE COVER WILL BECOME NULL AND VOID!!!!!!! and that i will also insur a late payment fee

To say im p**ed off is the understatement of the year!! I have £200 in my account , they want a payment of £261 on 19th April and they cannot say when my £193.50 will be credited back !

They just dont care , that guy i dealt with just couldnt care less ,,,,,the manager who wouldnt even come to the phone couldnt care less.....

This has put me right off budget insurance , i considered cancelling my whole policy tonight BUT HE WANTED SOMETHING LIKE £30 TO DO THIS !

i JUST WANTED YOU ALL TO KNOW HOW UNPROFESSIONAL AND UNHELPFUL THIS COMPANY ARE ...THINK TWICE BEFORE USING THEM....I TOLD THEM I WOULD REALLY STRUGGLE TO FEED MY CHILDREN IF THEY TOOK THESE EXTRAS UN ARRANGED PAYMENTS AND THEIR RESPONSE .......THEY JUST DONT CARE


AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!!

nelbo009

Call back and insist you speak to a manager. Where I work we have a policy that the manager (me) will not go on the phone if it's an issue that the member of staff should be competent enough to deal with, unless the customer is insistent - Budget may be the same.

If this happened in my workplace, we would be able to ensure that the erroneous payment was sent back to your account within 24 hours, although it may take longer than that to appear on your statement depending on your bank. We'd also easily be able to amend the agreed payment date, particularly since it was our error; although it would have to be referred to another department to organise.

It seems to me that you got a member of staff who really didn't appreciate the situation, and quite possibly a manager who didn't either. Call back, insist on speaking to a manager, and see where it goes from there.

Oscar_The_Grouch

I hate to say it, but Budget (or BISL Ltd and all their other names such as Bennetts, Dial Direct, ibuyeco, Ist Call Direct and more) are one of the few companies that I will not use as a broker under any circumstances. Unfortunately, they also manage the callcentres for a number of companies (anyone with HSBC Car Insurance is actually speaking to BISL)

From the point of view of an insurer, I have had to deal with their staff on several occasions and found them to have, in my opinion, the lowest average level of insurance knowledge of all the brokers (ok "intermediaries" if you prefer) I had a working relationship with. Their management teams appear to be working against each other, as there seems to be a permanent one upmanship mentality to their dealings both internally and externally.

Their computer systems are, in my opinion, totally inadequate. They used to have (I'm not sure if it's still the case) 2 systems for sending new claims information to insurers: By fax or by e-mail. You could only have one or the other; not both. This meant that if one system failed, you were completely stuck.

During the 2007 January storms (hurricane Kyril for those that are interested) BISL received so many new claims that their electronic fax machine couldn't cope and shut down. For about 2 weeks, new claims came through in a slow dribble. Understandably, this caused no end of complaints from customers to the insurers, who quite happily turned round and said "blame Budget - their system has broken and they have no back-up" - they weren't able to switch over to the e-mail system and re-send everything!

The "Compare the meerkat" adverts are like Marmite - you either love them or hate them. Next time you watch one, think back to this thread. Comparethemarket.com are also BISL under another name.

Final point - this is my view; not anyone elses. You are entitled to your own view. I won't, personally, having anything to do with BISL for my own insurance needs. I know that the Insurers they use can be very good, but I'd rather insure with them direct than rely on anyone at BISL to have any ability above the meerkats they parade around our TV screens.

joanne_d_3

Thanks Guy's i just needed to get that wee rant out lol.

Never again will i use budget. I actually am stuck with them for another year now as i only took out the policy yesterday.

I would have thought that the point someone made above about being able to switch myself and my husband round on the original policy would have been a more hassle free solution to our problem.

See? This is what we get for trying to stick within the law lol , in the past , as per my other post , my husband owned and insured BOTH the household car and it was litterally a case of whoever was going out first in the day grabbed the keys of whichever car was closest to the driveway enterance.

The only reason i contacted budget to check the insurance was because hubby wasnt going to be driving the non-taxi car as much as he used to so we knew that would be "fonting" for me .

We only try to do the legal thing and all of this mess erupts!

Dont know what im guna do now....hubby has only started self employment so profits are not that great as yet and budget have £193 of my money and are planning to take another £261 in the next day or two.....which was most of our family money for food and stuff :mad:.

Think i will ring budget again and try to speak to someone more knowledgable.

Thanks for the support .

AND TO ANYONE ELSE READING WHO HASNT QUITE GOT THE JIST YET...........AVOID BUDGET INSURANCE .....THEY DONT GIVE A STUFF IF YOUR 3 CHILDREN HAVE TO STARVE BECAUSE OF A BALLS UP MADE BY THEM!:rotfl:

JOANNE X

joanne_d_3

UPDATE:

Well , i have just visited my bank to see if they can help me get my £193.50 returned as budget claim they have only "reserved" this amount and not actually TAKEN it yet....The bank were unable to help , they say that its up to budget to "un-reserve" it again!

Phoned back to budget and spoke to a different advisor who again seems to do nothing but read from a script -she actually sounded bored and robotic lol.

Once again , no joy . They are still saying that theres nothing they can do to help . The have left me without money for my normal living expenses and they are going to take another payment of £261 on 19th April...they dont seem to understand that i cant manage to MAKE this payment to them until they REFUND the bloody £193 !!

I explained that i had no other money available at the minuite , i told them my kids need food and money for school dinners etc etc but all she could say is Mrs ******** , i do apologise for your situation and we will do all we can to return the £193 WITHIN ten working days , in the meantime , we suggest be patient !!

Good god , i am sooooooooooo angry and !!!!ed off with this company!

Any more suggestions from anyone who has experience of insurance companies?

joanne

joanne_d_3

just a little BUMP!

nelbo009

Hmm... Go back to your bank first off - if Budget have only reserved the payment, then they should be able to recall it if you protest hard enough. I also can't believe that they aren't willing to budge on the payment date of the £261; or the commuting thing. Did you manage to speak to a manager at all?

joanne_d_3

nelbo009 wrote: »

Hmm... Go back to your bank first off - if Budget have only reserved the payment, then they should be able to recall it if you protest hard enough. I also can't believe that they aren't willing to budge on the payment date of the £261; or the commuting thing. Did you manage to speak to a manager at all?

Hi Nelbo009.

With regards to your comment about me going back to my bank..... i have already been up there twice . They say that Budget have put a reserve on that amount and so until either :

a) The ten day period in which budget have to actually TAKE the funds out expires

0r

b) Budget UN-reserve the funds from their end , uthorizing the money to show back into my account.

Theres nothing the bank can do !

According to them , they are required to hold the money for the 10 days.

When i heard this , i got back onto budget and i told them exactly what the bank had told me . I insisted that a manager come on the phone to sort this out . After keeping me on hold for half an hour , a team leader came on the line . She wasnt a great help either , she said she would email budget's technical team and see if they can un-reserve the money any quicker.

Totally useless!!!

dOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE BUDGET INSURANCE CALL CENTRE ACTUALLY IS ? EVERYONE I HAVE SPOKEN TO SOUNDS TO BE INDIAN , WOULD THAT BE CORRECT?

Thanks

joanne

joanne_d_3

Well.....a further update...

Today ANOTHER £30 has been taken out of my bank account by budget insurance. !! To say i am freaking out is an under statement.

To date that is now 3 incorrect payments they have taken :

1 x £193.50
1 x £261.00
1 x £ 30.00

Grand total £484.50!


I should NEVER have given them my debit card details !

I phoned budget up again today and once again it was a waste of time . The people who work in the call centre (which is in south africa) are totally clueless .

Apparently , the guy i spoke to earlier today has assured me that i will have all the money refunded to my account by wednesday at the latest but im not convinced.

I feel so ill with all this hassle , im literally watching budget clear my account bit by bit and theres nothing i can do to stop them:mad:

I thought about ringing the number for lost and stolen cards but if i cancel the debit card i have NO chance of getting the £484.50 refunded.

I just dont know what to do .

Does anyone know if theres anyone i can report this to ?

Budget should nt be allowed to treat people like this PLEASE DO NOT EVER CONSIDER TAKING OUT INSURANCE WITH THEM.

Joanne

adamc260

I've had dealings with BISL via HSBC Car insurance - all I can say is never again! =/

joanne_d_3

adamc260 wrote: »

I've had dealings with BISL via HSBC Car insurance - all I can say is never again! =/

Hi Adam , how are you ?

Yeah i agree with you , budget/Bisl are useless !

Wish i ahd read reviews before i bought the bloody insurance .

Things just keep getting worse . Have just checked my online bank account and they have taken another £30 . Thats £484 now within 2 days and to top it all off , i still dont have any car insurance cover !

Today when i phoned them , they told me the only way to sort this mess out was to cancel my policy (for the 2nd or 3rd time this week) and to take a new policy out . So , thats what i did and then while i was on the phone arranging the new policy they told me that they would request the payment from my bank account on wednesday of next week......when i told them i couldnt pay them on wednesday of next week BECAUSE THEY HAD CLEARED OUT MY BANK ACCOUNT THEY CANCELLED MY POLICY !!!!!!

so as it stands now , budget have almost £500 of my money and i have NO INSURANCE ON MY CAR....I have a disabled child who is ill at the minute.

Lets hope i casn manage without my car until i get the money together to re-insure it.

THE PEOPLE AT BUDGET SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THE WAY THEY TREAT THEIR CUSTOMERS.


Joanne