What to do if declined insurance wrongly

maxstaples

Hi everyone,
I would like your advice.

I recently bought a new car from a major dealer and I was given a number to call to insure the car for the first seven days for free -- or so I thought.

I called the number and gave them my details.

I better not give the details but when I told them what my job was (and it is a very ordinary job) they said that they couldn't insure me -- and gave me a very silly reason. I have never been turned down for insurance before -- or had problems of any nature.

It was so ridiculous that I just ended the conversation, figuring that the week's worth of insurance wasn't really worth arguing about and that I would just buy the same insurance I would have had to get anyway after the end of the week.

I didn't really think about it, but of course that was daft because now when I apply for insurance I'm asked if I have ever been turned down. If I had continued the conversation with the woman I may well have been able to explain to her why she was wrong, but I didn't and so I suppose in theory I have indeed been turned down for insurance.

My question is what should I do now.

Saying that I have been turned down adds 100s of pounds to my insurance quote. Saying that I haven't, I assume, means that my insurance might not be valid.

So what do you all think I should do? And do companies share information?

It is obviously infuriating because were it not for that call for what is essentially a sales gimmick for the company concerned I would not have had any problems.

Now potentially I will have 100s of pounds added to my insurance quote every year for life.

And I have to pick up the car in just a couple of days.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks very much.

PNPSUKNET

aviva take it, what reason did they say

vaio

I'd read the question carefully, I've got a fast car and using the comparison sites I get lots of companies who won't cover it/my job/my use/my address etc. Some say why, others don't.

Do they count as refusals? I've always assumed not

Quentin

This was not a "declarable" refusal.

For whatever reason they didn't like either your occupation or the combination of your occupation and your new car. They don't have to insure everyone, but this won't need to be mentioned elsewhere.

maxstaples

Thanks for those replies. I'm a financial journalist and the woman I was talking to said that meant that I might have "Alan Sugar in my car" which would mean a big payout if I had a crash with him in the car. I'm not making this up.

That was ridiculous on so many levels -- especially as I live in London, have no parking space at the office and therefore don't ever take the car to work.

So is there a difference between the woman saying "no" on the phone and a "declarable" refusal?

That would be great news. But how is declarable refusal defined?

Thanks again for your advice.

maxstaples

Can you explain that last bit to me -- why does it make a difference going through a broker? Don't I end up making the same declaration: "I have been refused insurance".

Thank you.

maxstaples

Sorry to reply to my own post, but it might be useful for other people in a similar position who happen across this.

After your posts above, I checked more carefully what the sites told me.

They said: you confirm "you have not been refused car insurance renewal or had a policy cancelled"

Previously, I think I must have stopped reading at "refused car insurance" without noticing the word "renewal". In fact, I haven't been refused a renewal (or had a policy cancelled), so I'm alright.

I'm tempted to apologise for wasting your time. But that wouldn't be right, because your replies helped me workout my misunderstandings.

For that I'm grateful. Thanks very much again.

dunstonh

I'm a financial journalist

Higher risk occupation.

especially as I live in London

Higher risk location

When the risks tot up, some providers will just refuse to offer cover whilst others will offer silly prices (as a passive blocker rather than saying no). The 7 day free insurance that many dealers now offer are generically more likely to be more concerned with higher risk cases. Remember that whilst it is free to you, it is being paid for by the firm. So, they make the decisions largely on what is or is not an acceptable risk by deciding if they want to pay the insurer to cover those risks.

foggytown

dunstonh wrote: »

Higher risk occupation.

The 7 day free insurance that many dealers now offer are generically more likely to be more concerned with higher risk cases. Remember that whilst it is free to you, it is being paid for by the firm. So, they make the decisions largely on what is or is not an acceptable risk by deciding if they want to pay the insurer to cover those risks.

Therefore is it best to ask the salesman to confirm that you would qualify for the free seven days cover before committing to the sale? If he had to tell you that you didn't qualify, he might be so embarassed as to give some other little freebie in lieu.

oscarward

I've (or my family) have used the 7 day insurance recently twice. The first time in 2007 was at a Peugeot dealer so they obviously used peugeot insurance. Just sign a simple form at the dealer (I don't think it asked occupation) and everything went ahead with no further input from me. The only issue was a £500 excess but we knew about it upfront and my own insurance was put in to force anyway for when I picked the car up, I just didn't have a cert to tax the car with as it took a couple of weeks to arrive. I only did it to save a trip to take the cert in and a delay.

The second time was in 2009 at a Hyundai dealer and the dealership used Aviva. We ended up spending hours on the phone to a call centre in India trying to get the 7 day cover sorted. They didn't seem to understand that it was a free 7 day policy and kept trying to sell us a full years policy or life insurance !!!!!!!, it wasn't helped by being already insured with Aviva and trying to transfer the policy to the new car, I think that confused them. We only went with the 7 day policy as the dealer told us it they would get the cert via email and could tax the car whereas transferring the policy would take up to a week for the new cert to arrive and not being able to tax the car until then meaning a trip to take it in then another trip to collect the car.

In the end the dealer ended up talking to the Aviva directly and told them the group would cancel the deal with aviva unless etc.. I think they talked to someone in the UK who talked to India and then told dealer to talk to a named individual in India who knew what to do.

The dealer told me afterwards they had that problem every time they tried to do it, the sales man was not very complimentary.

The whole experience made me take the decision I would only use an insurance company with a call centre in the UK. My wife uses Peugeot insurance to this day.