insurance going to be cancelled

philipeason27

i have taken out car insurance in april 2011 and this month i have had a letter saying that my insurance was going to be increased by £515 and they needed a payment now due to me giving them the wrong conviction date and i have contacted them as i used a comparison site to do all the forms and they didnt ask for this they asked for date of offence and that was different to the conviction date and on the 08/08/2011 my insurance will stop as they will not accept that it is not my fault and also they have had a copy of my driving licence with all these dates on back in april and have only just contacted me about this mater
can any one help me with this as i have two children with cystic fibrosis and would find it very hard to get around without a car
i need to know can i get this reversed as it is a internet based insurer and refuse that it is my fault
any help please asap getting close to cancellation date
thanks phil

raskazz

Which comparison site did you use?

If you can let us know then we can check how the question is worded.

Quentin

Are you sure the issue is the date of the offence v date of conviction? Most insurers want the conviction date.

Could it be the date declared is the issue, and somehow you have given the wrong year (and the contact you have had is interchanging "offence" and "conviction" when referring to this?)

You should be able to see for yourself the date they have down by checking your details in the paperwork (see if there is a "schedule" with drivers details).

raskazz

Quentin wrote: »

Are you sure the issue is the date of the offence v date of conviction? Most insurers want the offence date.

That's not my experience. Most will require the conviction date as this is the date that is relevant to the requirements of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. They then cover the issue of the potential delay between offence and conviction by including "pending" convictions in the proposal question set.

philipeason27

moneysupermarket.com

Quentin

raskazz wrote: »

That's not my experience. Most will require the conviction date .....

You are right - my unintended slip up. (Now substituted "conviction" for offence).

philipeason27

yes i have checked the date on the web site and it asked me for date of offence but looking at the paperwork they have written on as date of conviction but the date showing is date of offence at no point was i asked for date of conviction


any ideas as to what i can do as it is not a mistake by me but by them as i have 3 different dates on my licence date of offence 03/02/07 date of conviction 24/09/07 and sentenced 18/01/08 the date they have is 03/02/07 as my conviction date


they now want over £2100 for the year for insurance which was originally £1600 thats a huge increase for their mistake between them and the comparison site money suppermarket


the insurer is ecarinurance.co.uk and it cost £1.09 pm to call then and my landline wont call the number so have to use mobile to be told they are experencing high volumes of calls so could take hours to get through and they make more money that way to




as you have guessed not a happy bunny at the momment please some one help me

thanks phil

raskazz

Use this number to call ecarinsurance: 01454 634887

Explain to them that the information was disclosed correctly in response the the questions asked and therefore you will not be paying the additional premium and if they cancel the policy then you will refer the complaint the Financial Ombudsman at the earliest opportunity.

This sort of stuff is exactly what gives the impression that comparison sites are basically run by a bunch of chancers. Why moneysupermarket asks for the date of offence rather than conviction is beyond me.

InsideInsurance

The challenge is that you ultimately have responsibility for checking all the details are correct. Different insurers want different information and one of the issues of using aggregators is the fact that they are never going to be able to accurately cater for every insurer and so assumptions will always be made.

If you cannot afford the hike in premiums then firstly check online for the next lowest premiums (and make sure all details are correct if your using aggregators). Find another telephone number for ecar (saynoto0870 is a good starting place) and discuss with them and include the consideration of cancelling the policy and buying elsewhere

raskazz

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The challenge is that you ultimately have responsibility for checking all the details are correct.

This is true but IMO, now that we are, what, 5 or 6 years into comparison site usage, for insurers to still be using the "you should then double check information on our site" line is frankly a massive cop-out and unfair on the consumer.

If an insurer cannot verify that the correct material information is being pulled across from a comparison site then they should remove themselves from the site. They have had years to sort this nonsense out.

InsideInsurance

Aggregators are not powerful enough to make every single insurance company ask exactly the same questions and accept exactly the same answers. Not even every aggregator ask the same questions with the same options as answers. Both insurers and aggregators want to differentiate themselves and this idea of everything being homogeneous isnt going to ever happen.

We will always have situations where an insurer only uses the traditional "garage, driveway or on street" options and will have to interpret the response "private car park" that it receives because Confused (owned by Admiral Insurance Group) want to have the additional options because the Admiral group of brands (Admiral, Bell Direct, Elephant, Diamond etc) have different rating factors for these.