Direct Line - Removing named Driver from policy

Alfa1982

I recently passed my driving test and was added to my girlfriends Insurance as a named driver on the 3rd September costing £655 for the remaining 9 months. After a couple of weeks of asking to borrow her car we/I decided I probably needed my own car. After "buying" my own car this weekend (24th) We rang Direct Line to remove me from the girlfriends Policy. They said it wasn't a problem and would refund us for the remaining duration of the policy.. The issue is that they will only refund us £178

Now this is where the fun really began as we cannot speak to anyone that is any help. we have raised a complaint with them as they said this is the only thing they can do. We keep calling for updates but we don't seem to get anywhere.

Does anyone know the law/rules/policy is for removing a named driver? are we fighting a losing battle here? Direct Line have confirmed that the admin charge is £15, so god know where they got the rest from.

Any help would greatly be appreciated

mikey72

Make an official written complaint, and tell them you will refer it to the FOS as they are not treating the customer fairly.
If they don't give a reasonable refund (I'd be wanting pro rata of the £655, less the two admin costs) refer the complaint to the FOS.

InsideInsurance

Ultimately it is a case of them offering a service for a price and you deciding if you want to accept it or not.

I cannot say for DL explicitly but with some insurers if you make any changes then the whole policy is rerated with "todays" rates rather than the rates as they were when you first bought the policy. It could be DL has massively loaded the premiums since your original quote some time in June and so the big spike you saw when adding yourself as a ND was not really because of you personally being added but because a change was being made and so the ratings updated to reflect whatever change behind the scenes it was (could be they;re starting to balance M & F premiums, loaded your postcode area, loaded your vehicle type etc etc).

You can put your complaint in writing and threaten to take it to the FOS but ultimately my guess, not knowledge, is that it would be ruled a commercial decision and thus not one for the FOS to dictate terms for the insurer.

System

You could ask Direct Line how much refund you would get if you cancelled the whole policy and took your business elsewhere.

mikey72

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Ultimately it is a case of them offering a service for a price and you deciding if you want to accept it or not.

I cannot say for DL explicitly but with some insurers if you make any changes then the whole policy is rerated with "todays" rates rather than the rates as they were when you first bought the policy. It could be DL has massively loaded the premiums since your original quote some time in June and so the big spike you saw when adding yourself as a ND was not really because of you personally being added but because a change was being made and so the ratings updated to reflect whatever change behind the scenes it was (could be they;re starting to balance M & F premiums, loaded your postcode area, loaded your vehicle type etc etc).



You can put your complaint in writing and threaten to take it to the FOS but ultimately my guess, not knowledge, is that it would be ruled a commercial decision and thus not one for the FOS to dictate terms for the insurer.

I don't think it's the initial premium that was the problem, it's the fact it appears to have cost nearly £500 for three weeks.
That's a lot of change from the 3rd to the 27th.
My guess differs, it's not being fair, and holding a captive customer to ransom.
I agree it appears to be a commercial descion though, and would expect insurers to behave this way.
That's why we need the FOS to control them at times.

Alfa1982

Thank you all for your replies, they have been very helpful. I have no problem with the original premium that was charged as I knew it would be high. My issue is the charge for a 24 day period.

Originally when we first called it was just to remove me from the policy, now we are thinking its time to cancel everything that the family has with them.

Spiderham

mikey72 wrote: »

Make an official written complaint, and tell them you will refer it to the FOS as they are not treating the customer fairly.
If they don't give a reasonable refund (I'd be wanting pro rata of the £655, less the two admin costs) refer the complaint to the FOS.

Have to agree with this. Say £50 admin fee each time (fairly standard), I'd be expecting about £475 back. (Based on £605 premium + £50 admin fee, used 1/8 of it so £525 back minus £50 admin fee again).

Ask them for a breakdown of the costs.

forward_thinking_2

I wonder if you have been charged a temporary driver rate from the 3 weeks you were on the policy. Most insurers allow people to add driver for a week or two the limit is usually about a month but it's quite expensive compared to adding someone long term (kind of makes sense as temporary drivers may not be used to the car and there are admin costs).

Perhaps they thought you were trying to get round the temporary driver costs by adding yourself as a full-time driver and then taking yourself off soon after (very money saving). It might be the system does this automatically hence nobody could explain.

You could try calling up to find out how much it would be to add yourself for 3 weeks as a temp driver.