Beware of Octagon Car Insurance

leslie1961

SimonSays wrote: »

So you bought cheap and now you are complaing.

All I can say is this is what happens when you buy cheap!!

My cheapest quote was from the AA,should I expect such a shoddy service?

wb237

Hi,

I took out a policy with them recently (which starts tomorrow) but after receiving an email from a company (My Premium Credit) asking me to set up a loan agreement for my insurance, I quickly Googled Octogan and found this thread.

I can't access my emails at the moment but does anyone know if I can cancel the policy without any fees given I only took it out a couple of days ago?

Any advice would be great, Thanks, W.

Quentin

You need to read the policy doc which will tell you what happens when you cancel.


If the policy starts before you cancel it then charges are inevitable.


(A loan agreement isn't unusual if you want to pay by instalments)

forgotmyname

Cancellation fees and possibly charged at a short term day rate also.

snorkybingo

Some companies give you 14 days to cancel without charge. You may be lucky! If you can help it don't ring them they charge a fortune. If you have to ring them to cancel and have Skype credit then ring using that, it's cheaper.

Rumag

My 24 year old son is meant to be buying a new (to him) car, which should be a good day for him. He was supposed to have completed the transaction yesterday but for Octagon! He obtained a quote through a comparison website and paid in full for the year's insurance the night before last. We went to complete the car purchase transaction yesterday lunchtime but couldn't as his bank card was declined! On phoning the bank (Lloyds....another story!!) he was told that 3 debit card payments had been taken, all for the same amount and for the same company - Octagon. His bank told him what he needed to do, i.e. ask Octagon to send a fax on company headed paper including the transaction numbers, which he did immediately. As he was on the phone to Octagon, they said they had sent the fax, so he called his bank again - they said they'd not received it yet. Due to work commitments, he couldn't call again until 5pm, but was still told by his bank that they'd not received the fax so it was another call back to Octagon who said they'd send it again whilst he was on the phone. By this time, the garage had closed. This morning, my son checked his bank account and still no joy. He rang the bank and they still claim they've not received a fax. He couldn't phone Octagon before work as their phone lines don't open until 9 a.m. and he starts work before then, so I'm guessing it'll be another lunch break he spends trying to get answers from them and the situation rectified. He's now paid 3 TIMES for insurance on a car that he can't even take ownership for. If this is how they treat new customers, I dread to think what will happen if he needs to contact them for anything else. The bank seems to think that there's a fault on Octagon's fax machine and has asked for us to check that Octagon are receiving 'fax sent' confirmation - surely if these people are working in an office, they must know how to use the machinery (faxes are hardly new technology!).
Certainly on my impressions thus far, I'd say AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!

manny46

I went on go compare and found Octagon Insurance to be the cheapest, but covered everything I wanted, until the policy documents were emailed, as they differed to what I had asked for.
Two hours after the quote I decided to cancel, and before the policy was due to start in two days time.
This is when it turned into a nightmare. I had paid in full on my credit card, which I thought I was protected on, but how wrong was I.
When I called customer services to cancel they used the excuse that they couldn't cancel it over the phone due to data protection, they said I needed to download a cancellation form off the website ( which were very difficult to find) ehen I did eventually find it and emailed it I heard nothing. I then emailed them, nothing. In the end I called the accounts department who said they would cancel it immediately. Mean while I had also asked my credit card to dispute this, when I saw it had been credited on my card I persumed the company had done this.
Six weeks later I get a call from my credit card saying that Octagon were challenging the dispute, so under their terms and conditions they were going to have give them the money back. I eventually got hold of Octagon and because I threatened them with the FSC and ombudsman they credited back. Be very careful as if you accept a quote with them even if you cancel before policy starts they will charge you an admin fee. Just think of all those admin fees of £50 they soon mount up, also its hard to get hold of the terms and conditions. I would never use this company.

taliz

Octagon came up as the cheapest on go compare and compare the market; on both occasions they had reset the annual millage down to 7500 from the 15000 I had entered on both comparison websites. This reduces the premium by £50 and puts them in the number one spot.

This 2 bit firm seem to specialize in attempting to sell invalid car insurance.

They disregard important data sent to them by the comparison site, and don't make checking the info on their system compulsory before processing a payment.

Disgraceful, immoral, dangerous and unfair business practices

biglugs

taliz wrote: »

Octagon came up as the cheapest on go compare and compare the market; on both occasions they had reset the annual millage down to 7500 from the 15000 I had entered on both comparison websites. This reduces the premium by £50 and puts them in the number one spot.

This 2 bit firm seem to specialize in attempting to sell invalid car insurance.

They disregard important data sent to them by the comparison site, and don't make checking the info on their system compulsory before processing a payment.

Disgraceful, immoral, dangerous and unfair business practices

Don't always blame the insurer for this. Comparison sites are notorious for not passing your quote details over properly to the insurer, so when you click through to buy you need to check all your details again very carefully. This might well have been the comparison site's fault.

biglugs

BTW - all of you people with gripes about Octagon might like to know that Insurance Times is reporting that the company has financial difficulties and needs to raise some more capital to keep the Gibraltar regulators happy. They might also be up for sale, but strangely their MD isn't returning any calls or replying to any emails to the Insurance Times reporter!

The article states, "Motor insurer Octagon is the hardest hit of the insurers studied, having slipped below its minimum solvency requirement in 2013, according to regulatory filings."