Missing data on car insurance?

Ms-Pacman

Hiya, I am after opinions on what I have found out after trying to renew my partner's car insurance with a popular well known insurance company.

We've had car and home insurance with this company for over 5 years, possibly up to 10 yrs with no claims to date.

Every year we renew it, go over details etc make sure all correct and last year the renewal went up which they said was due to the speeding S30 fine in Oct 08. No problems, we accepted it (painfully but then it was his fault!).

This year after comparing online again, I tried to get them to price match the internet quote as the moneysavingsupermarket page kept coming up with error messages for all deals so I thought I'd ring the insurance company instead even though I'd lose the car wash offer...

After 1hr and a half of them faffing about they then mentioned that the S30 conviction was not on the previous policy for the last 3 years or the renewal on their systems and that this would now add a further additional amount to the new poilcy. £5 extra each month different to the renewal they sent out last week!

What we are trying to find out is why was the speeding conviction not on the policy despite the fact that we did inform them, on the day we received the speeding ticket and also when last years premium was increased they said it was due to the conviction. We know this for definate as huffed about it at the time but as I said earlier he was speeding so will have to pay the price for it. Ironically his proffession is as a driver and this is the only speeding ticket he has received in 10 yrs.

The call centre rep said it was definately NOT on there or has ever been so does that mean that since Oct 09 all of our policies were void?
What would have happened if we made a claim? :eek::eek::eek:

It sounds a bit dodgy and had we claimed would we have been successful? They said they would usually honour it but my partner's experience of working in insurance as underwriter for 10 years says it would be unlikely they would pay up if could get out of it so basically we have paid for insurance that would never had paid up since Oct 08!

One thing is we should have checked the paperwork. We have now and there is no where on there that would show the conviction and all other data is correct. I asked the question where would it show and they said it probably wouldn't have.

Incidentally we are not after compensation, we just want to find out how this happened and would the company of definately paid out had we made a claim since Oct 08.

I have kept all of the quotes plus the one they used to price match last year which clearly shows the conviction.

Any opinions on what to do now?
What would you do?

greyteam1959

Short answer ??
Forget about it........an SP30 does not really affect most premiums.

Quentin

This may or may not have had any impact on a claim (depending on whether they took the non disclosure to be deliberate), but it's irrelevant now.

To make life easier, why not go elsewhere, then if your current insurer pursues you for backdated premium you can argue with them from a position of relative safety! (Presumably they aren't going to let you renew without paying what they say you owe them)

Ms-Pacman

We have renewed with them as to be fair the offer is good. There were a few cheaper but not by much and we do have home insurance with them.
The question I am trying to find out was if we had made a claim would this have affected it.

We know we disclosed it on one renewal and during the policy before the previous renewal.
I still have the quotes as were in my insurance folder for various companies plus the one they used to price match.
They definately were told about the conviction and said that was why last years increased.

I have been advised elsewhere to ask fro phone logs but is that a step too far?
I'm just a bit shocked that had I made a claim then it would have been turned down.

System

When you declare something like an SP30 you may not receive any documents to confirm the info at the time you declare it, BUT when you receive renewal documents they should list all the material facts that you have declared which effect the policy.
So, check your renewal documents that you received after the SP30 (whenever you received the docs), the docs should include a section which states what you have told the insurance company.

The renewal documents should also say something like :

"Please check the information contained in these renewal documents and let us know if anything has changed or is incorrect"

If the SP30 was not shown on the renewal, then it was your responsibility to check it and inform the insurance company of their error.

Having said that, an SP30 should not make much difference to the premiums.