Motor Insurance Rip Off

pfletch

Hi everyone, help needed. After getting a quote for motorcycle insurance off a motorcycle insurance website I promptly rang up the number along side it and went through all the details with the person on the other end and after second guessing the dates of an insurance claim in the past (as I didn't have details of them) I was told it wouldn't effect the premium anyway, I went ahead and paid the permium in full. This was the 23rd December. On New years eve I received a letter from the broker claiming the my insurer had received notification of claims that I had not disclosed to them. As it was the holiday period the first available office hours were Tuesday 4th Jan. I rang and was informed that I had not given the correct year for the claims I had disclosed but it was in fact a year earlier and they would now charge me an extra £250 on top of the £270 I had already paid (although I had explaind on the phone on 23rd December, it fell on deaf ears) and I left it at that. I have today received a cancellation notice from my insurer (not broker) that it will end on 7th Jan. There is no mention of any refund or of the 14 day cooling off period? Is the cooling off period 14 days dead or 14 working days? Any suggestions what to do next? I have also been online tonight and put the correct details in the same website and come up with a quote from the same company for £230. After ringing them straight away and asking them to confirm the quote they did so and then after mentining the above alot of backing out went on and they asked me to contact the customer services. How can they quote one thing and then try and charge another when all I did was got the dates mixed up? Any advice would be gratefully received.

gordikin

Keep talking to them and get it resolved. Having your insurance cancelled will be problematical (sp.) in future insurances (not just vehicle insurance either!). You will be asked if you have ever had a policy cancelled and insurance cos. don't like a 'yes' answer to that question. Keep calm, explain clearly. Ask them to stop the cancellation as you are keen to resolve the situation.

adamc260

You say that it turns out the claim was a year earlier than the date given, does that mean that the claim is for example... in 08 not 09 etc.. if so I dont see how £250 is justified?

dogbot

Sounds like there is confustion here.

You miss-discolsed the claim - it is your responsibility to get this information right. The person you spoke too was just a sales operative for a broker, they probably didn't care much that you weren't sure about the date - proabaly thinking you meant the exact date rather than the actual year! Hopefully though that call would be recorded. This doesn't change the fact that you need to present correct information to them when taking the policy out though.

So the confusion: The insurer or broker has then done a CUE check - checked the database that holds claims information from most UK insurers - or called previous insurers to check NCD entitlement, and found the correct details of the claim. To generate additional premium of £250 they must have added this claim in as an additional claim thinking you didn't disclose it, rather than thinking it was the same claim just a different date.

Unfortunatly it looks like they are cancelling the policy. You need to get this reversed as far as possible (though they can't backdate cover) as it will be a bad mark against you in the future as the above describes.

Keep calm and be polite and appologetic, emphasise that you made an innocent mistake about the dates and be clear that this was not an additional claim, just the same claim on correct date.

Good luck.