Budget - Money grabbing Ar****les !!

mr_flibble

Yes I am just a little cross.

I now have a lease car as part of my job so I gave my old "very old" motor to my Dad as his had just gone Kaput! And he is happy to have another car for pootling about in. One of the old Giffer in a flat cap brigade, gets great milage!!.

So I dutifully cancelled my insurance, confirmed by post and returned their letter to confirm I no longer had the insurance certificate.

As I had paid monthly over 10 months all of the payments had been paid.

I phoned today to find out why I had not yet got a refund for the over payment.

This is what I was told,

They keep the first £25 of any refund.
They also keep an additional 15% of the refund.
And if the remainder is £20 or less they don't refund it.

So of my £40 odd quid that I had overpaid them they took their £25 and then another £6 odd leaving just over £10 which they are going to keep as well.

"All in the terms and conditions sir"

So anyway if I were you I would avoid them and use a more reputable insurance company instead. Or at least one that is more upfront about how they operate.

I really hate these kind of charges that are hidden away in the small print.

I could really have done with that money, wouldn't be on MSE if I could afford to lose £40 just like that.

Just a vent and a warning to others using Budget or any insurer with a monthly plan.

Next time I will make a point of asking about early cancellation before I buy.

Rant over.

Kel.

Astaroth

Most insurers will charge both an administration fee and also a proportion of the outstanding/ remaining cover. Whilst this certainly sounds relatively high it is by no means the highest I have ever heard of.

mr_flibble

Feel all better now I've had my rant.

Thanks for reading.

Kel.

leebarton

We have had our van insured with budget for one month. It cost £65 upfront - no problem. I didn't know that you had to declare spent points on the licence. In addition nig (another no-hope insurance company) sat on the proof of no claims for three weeks.

Budget charged us £93 because we didn't manage to get the no claims to them on time and now have cancelled our policy because we hadn't declared the additional points and charged us an additional £20. That is nearly £180 for one months insurance.

So the message is simple:
DON'T USE BUDGET!!!!

Heinz

Now we all know how they pay for all those TV ads.

Rallya

I have only ever heard bad things about Budget, its one company I would never even think of using.

scooter100_2

once cancelled house insurance with budget after paying the full premium, they then wanted an extra £25 on top.needless to say they are still waiting for it.muppets.

Bossyboots

My local independent broker was taken over by Budget. They renewal was excessive so I changed insurers. I needed proof of my no claims which was 15 years. They sent me a letter saying it was four! I rang them and asked them to put it right. They wrote again saying it was five! In the meantime my new insurer was threatening to put up my premium because of the lack of proof. I ended up going direct to my insurer who immediately wrote to me confirming the correct figure.

I agree with the sentiments expressed here AVOID BUDGET!!

Astaroth

In slight defence of the 5 years "issue" - the majority of insurers only count up to 5 years and anything above doesnt count for anything therefore their IT systems were only designed to count up to 5 as customers can understand 5 years -2 for a claim = 3 years ncd (plus it is easier from an IT point of view to limit the count to 5 in one place rather than having lots of "IF NCD >= TO 5 THEN....." type statements all over the place)

Bossyboots

Astaroth wrote:

In slight defence of the 5 years "issue" - the majority of insurers only count up to 5 years and anything above doesnt count for anything therefore their IT systems were only designed to count up to 5 as customers can understand 5 years -2 for a claim = 3 years ncd (plus it is easier from an IT point of view to limit the count to 5 in one place rather than having lots of "IF NCD >= TO 5 THEN....." type statements all over the place)

I might accept that argument if they hadn't accepted more than 5 when I started with them and the letter sent out was individually produced. Added to which, when I telephoned the insurer direct they instantly confirmed the figure I had given to my new insurer and could not understand why Budget had given something different. They were not happy about it and processed my call as a complaint so they could look into it. Also, I got a reduction in premium because it was over 9 years, not five.