Advice sought on car insurance compensation

munkster

Hello - long time lurker, new registrant to the forum, hope someone can advise...

I took out car insurance via my bank's 3rd party insurers in Dec claiming they would beat my existing quote by a certain amount, which the quote did. All fine until the new year when we received letters informing us *we* had paid the wrong premium (despite this being the amount given during the online process) and that we owed another chunk of money, equating to just under 1/3 of the original premium.

After a few phone calls with the 3rd party explaining how I would not be paying any additional amount (which would have taken me to well over the previous premium) the sorry affair culminated in them claiming we didn't have a policy with them. Irritated and frustrated I put it back over to my bank and insisted they sorted it because I simply didn't want to deal with the insurers any more, and wanted to cancel.

The bank succeeded in getting answers, and found out that due to this belief we owed more money, the policy wasn't active and therefore we hadn't been covered for well over a month. The bank has now offered £25 in compensation but I am, I think understandably, livid about this.

What can I do, should I accept the £25? Can I take it further? Should I ask for more? Who is really at fault?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

MORPH3US

£25 is naff all considering the s**t you could of got in from driving without insurance (even if you didn't realise it)!!!

Take it further, what have you got to lose?!?!

munkster

Yeah, that's how i feel about it to be honest, I'm pretty livid, but the question is... "who" do I take it further with? Do I pressurise the bank?

Incidentally the bank has been a flawless servant to me for nigh-on 10 years which is probably why this leaves such a bitter taste.

MarkyMarkD

If you stated everything accurately during the online quotation process, and they quoted the premium based on those details, you have entered into an annual contract with them for the insurance.

They don't have the right to terminate the contract part-way through the year, other than in accordance with the terms of the contract - which require them to notify you in writing and to give you appropriate notice.

If they have purportedly terminated the agreement without doing this, their termination of the insurance is invalid and you are still covered, whatever they may say.

It is going to be a bit of a waste of time to go through your bank about this, other than as a means of seeking goodwill, but I would copy them in on any correspondence in case their complaints department lean on the insurer on your behalf.

I think that you should review the terms of your insurance agreement, confirm that the rights for them to cancel are as I've suggested, and then write to the insurers stating that you understand from your bank that the insurers believe that they have terminated your cover, but they have not done so in accordance with the insurance contract and you want them to clarify the position.

As things stand, you haven't necessarily lost anything financially - but if they write back stating that they still believe they've cancelled your cover, the situation will need some escalation.

Come back to us with progress, but if they do insist that they are in the right, the next step would be to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

munkster

Well, the thing is, after having such very poor experiences from the phone calls with the insurers (eg. when calling up them flatly telling me that I don't have a policy with them, despite the fact they've had over £250 off me, as opposed to informing me that I did have but that they have cancelled it) that I just wanted to cancel any dealings with them and told my bank that I wanted them to sort it out.

To their credit, the bank succeeded in doing this eventually, I'd totally lost patience with the insurers due to the above frustrations, and now I am simply wondering whether to accept the £25 or to take it further. I've taken out another policy with my previous insurers (elephant) so I am now insured and want nothing more to do with the other ones.

tom188

Make sure that the insurer does not have you as a customer who has had insurance annulled or cancelled by the insurer. Otherwise this will have a big effect on future premiums. You could also have your new insurance invalidated in the event of a claim if your new insurer believes you have incorrectly disclosed material facts.

MarkyMarkD

Very good points, Tom. You have to disclose whether you've ever had insurance refused, cancelled or accepted on adverse terms when you take out a new policy, and this won't do your premium any good. You want the insurer to accept that they made a mistake leading YOU to cancel the policy when they asked for an increase in premium to cover their error, rather than the other way around.

munkster

wow, thanks, those are solid gold bits of advice, looks like i WILL have to make contact with them after all...

one thing though, nowhere on the online process for elephant did i have to explicitly answer these questions so did i implicitly do so by clicking the "agree to terms" box?

the fact that i have already taken out the policy seems like it's almost too late, do i need to get a letter off to the problem insurers asap to confirm that i haven't had my policy annulled and that it was ME who did the cancelling? I will cc the bank obviously.

tom188

Yes this is normally in the terms and conditions box if it is not a specific question. For your own peace of mind I would verify that it has not been annulled.