Direct Line want to cancel insurance policy - very annoyed

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can advise on a problem with Direct Line. I help an elderly relative to arrange his car insurance each year as it's cheaper to obtain online quotes. This year the cheapest was with Direct Line.

The policy came through. The insured was then away on holiday when a letter arrived asking him to send proof of no claim bonus. As soon as he returned from holiday he did so, obtaining proof of postage. He sent it to the address on the bottom of the letter as no other address was given.

Insured away again for a few days. Another letter arrives saying they haven't received proof and will be charging an extra £150 but if the proof has been posted recently they apologised and to ignore letter. So the letter was ignored.

Now a third letter saying they are cancelling the policy in a matter of days as no proof of NCB was sent.

Relative now extremely concerned and will be unable to use car soon because of this and on which they heavily rely. He no longer has the NCB proof letter as he sent the original to Direct Line.

Very annoyed about this. Can we just find an alternative insurer and tell Direct Line to stuff their insurance? Will there be a problem if his insurance record shows that he had a policy cancelled and is there a problem that the records will then show a period of time lapsing between the last policy and this one?

Does anyone have an email address for Direct Line so I could blast something to them quickly to get this sorted? Relative doesn't want to ring them and am sure they won't speak to me as I am not the insured.

Any advice appreciated. Many thx.

alastairq

He no longer has the NCB proof letter as he sent the original to Direct Line.

This will present problems if applying with another company....how will your relative again provide proof of NCD?

He needs to contact Direct Line customer assistance asap, telling them exactly to what address he sent the proof to. [he already has proof of postage]

It is likely the address was an admin, or registered office address...and if your relative didn't address it FAO, then it may be sat somewhere awaiting eventual attention.

Yes, he needs to speak to them personally.

Contact is needed.....whatever way he jumps.

Quentin

As advised above, this needs sorting. Your relative needs to take a soft approach over this, and try and get this sorted amicably so his policy isn't cancelled!

Having a cancelled policy to declare to future insurers will cause big problems in finding any that will quote, not to mention high premiums with those prepared to!

rodenal

Tbh this can probably be solved with two phonecalls - One to direct line to explain what has happened and request that they either contact the department where the proof was sent to or wait another couple of weeks. Sometimes insurers will take the old policy details and check for themselves too.

Call the old insurers and ask for a copy of the proof, then forward this on to direct line either by phone or fax and all should be well. By all means cancel the policy if you like, but do this first.

wba31

If your relative doesnt wish to speak to them, why not ask him to ring while you are sat with, then once he has done the data protection checks he simply needs to tell the advisor that he wants you to speak on his behalf.

Tiexen

from the DirectLine website:

"If we have been unable to automatically obtain proof of your no claims discount, then you'll need to send us your most recent renewal notice or letter from your Insurance Company using the prepaid envelope enclosed with your welcome documents."

birkee

I copy the renewal quote, and send that. They can have as many as they want that way.