No claims discount refusal! Help!

shan84

My boyfriend recently changed his car and was surprised to find that his insurance premium stayed the same despite the fact that his new car had a much smaller engine, so he shopped around and found a better deal which he took up. He cancelled his previous insurance policy, and was told he had to pay £600 for doing so! He refused to pay this, but now his previous insurers are refusing to release details of his 3 years no claims, and the new insurance company says they need a letter dated within the last month to carry on with his policy! Is there any way he can make his old insurer give him that proof without paying them £500? x x x x

Quentin

They won't co-operate if he owes them money!


And if they are correct, and he does owe this money, they will pursue him for it. (Hard!)

Worse, without the NCD, his current insurer will take action (either cancel the policy, which will be bad news for him, or request a vastly increased premium, fail to pay this and again they will cancel the policy!

shan84

Ok, thanks. Are there any insurance companies that anyone knows of that will take a letter dated within the last 3 months as proof of no claims? He has one of those! lol. x x x x

corbyboy

shan84 wrote: »

Ok, thanks. Are there any insurance companies that anyone knows of that will take a letter dated within the last 3 months as proof of no claims? He has one of those! lol. x x x x

You are going about this the wrong way.

The solution isn't to trick a new insurance company into selling him a policy. He needs to sort things out with his old insurers. They will pursue him for the money and they won't let it lie. Buying his head in the sand isn't the thing to do.

Frankly, your boyfriend is insane for cancelling the old policy, especially if the premiums didn't even go up. There are many things that can change in the middle of a policy, but you are charged on your circumstances when you take the policy out.

For example I passed my driving test in December, but my insurance always renews in October. If I get a new quote two months after my policy starts then the quotes are much cheaper. But that's just tough luck. I can't cancel my policy and get a new one in December.

He needs to get in touch with the old insurers and see if he can start the policy back up again. Can he request a breakdown of the charges?

System

shan84 wrote: »

My boyfriend recently changed his car and was surprised to find that his insurance premium stayed the same despite the fact that his new car had a much smaller engine, so he shopped around and found a better deal which he took up. He cancelled his previous insurance policy, and was told he had to pay £600 for doing so! He refused to pay this, but now his previous insurers are refusing to release details of his 3 years no claims, and the new insurance company says they need a letter dated within the last month to carry on with his policy! Is there any way he can make his old insurer give him that proof without paying them £500? x x x x

He should have read the terms and conditions for his old policy to check what he may have to pay.

When considering changing his car, he should have got quotes to see how much the new car would be to insure.
He should have checked if he would need to pay anything to the old insurer before cancelling the policy. I assume he must have had a claim in the last 12 months and he was paying monthly and hence the old insurer are asking for the full annual premium to be paid. If he has not claimed, then ask for a breakdown of the cost to check why they want between £500 and £600

If you cancel a policy without having made a claim, then you would normally pay a cancellation / admin fee of up to approx. £50 but you would also normally receive a pro-rata refund of the premium that covers the unused part of the annual policy (Or if paying monthly, you would just pay a final monthly installment to cover the last month of cover)

Now that he has cancelled the old policy, and he has taken up a new policy, has he read the terms and conditions for the new policy ?
What are the cancellation terms for the new policy, because he may find he is now between a rock and a hard place, unable to restart the old policy because of the charges to cancel the new one :eek:

After checking the T&Cs for the old policy, if he does not pay what he legitimately owes, then the insurer will take action to recover the debt which will have further consequences on his credit record too.

shan84

BAA1 wrote: »

He should have read the terms and conditions for his old policy to check what he may have to pay.

When considering changing his car, he should have got quotes to see how much the new car would be to insure.
He should have checked if he would need to pay anything to the old insurer before cancelling the policy. I assume he must have had a claim in the last 12 months and he was paying monthly and hence the old insurer are asking for the full annual premium to be paid. If he has not claimed, then ask for a breakdown of the cost to check why they want between £500 and £600

If you cancel a policy without having made a claim, then you would normally pay a cancellation / admin fee of up to approx. £50 but you would also normally receive a pro-rata refund of the premium that covers the unused part of the annual policy (Or if paying monthly, you would just pay a final monthly installment to cover the last month of cover)

Now that he has cancelled the old policy, and he has taken up a new policy, has he read the terms and conditions for the new policy ?
What are the cancellation terms for the new policy, because he may find he is now between a rock and a hard place, unable to restart the old policy because of the charges to cancel the new one :eek:

After checking the T&Cs for the old policy, if he does not pay what he legitimately owes, then the insurer will take action to recover the debt which will have further consequences on his credit record too.

He was paying monthly, but he's made no claims at all in the last 3 years.....They aren't saying they want the rest of the premium to be paid.....£500 is the cancellation fee!

Quentin

A cancellation fee of £500 is too much!

Get the insurer to itemise this £500. Then take it from there.

deutsch

i've heard if the money owed eventually goes to a debt collection agency, then the insurer should be able to provide/release proof of his ncd then (but then at what expense if he still refuses to pay the collection agency?)

System

Because he cancelled part way through the insurance period the the company will base his insurance costs on short term insurance rates which are a lot higher than annual. This probably accounts for the majority of the £500 that they want

Johnnie587

deutsch wrote: »

i've heard if the money owed eventually goes to a debt collection agency, then the insurer should be able to provide/release proof of his ncd then (but then at what expense if he still refuses to pay the collection agency?)

I dont think that is right as i had this email from my old insurance company tonight.

Thank you for your recent email enquiry.

Unfortunately One Call is unable to issue the confirmation of your no claims bonus as you currently have an outstanding balance of £239.45. This amount is currently being dealt with by a debt recovery agency that will carry on adding further fees if no payment is made.

Please return a signed standing order form issued by Judgement Order Listings to avoid any further charges. Once the full outstanding amount has been paid, the proof can then be issued.

rushal

I see your boyfriend had his insurance with One Call. Be careful about the letter he received from a Debt Collection Agency with the name Judgement Order Listings.

Do a search on the company name and you will find it isn't actually a debt collection agency but part of One Call themselves.

This is what I have found out about them:

Judgement Order Listings

This Company appears to be trading without the necessary Authorities.

The letters that they send quote a Court Action Number which is all part of their intimidation as No Court Details are listed which would strongly indicate No Court Action is being taken.

There is No FSA Registration for this Company and they do not appear to have a Current Consumer Credit Licence.

The Direct Debit does not have a suitably worded Direct Debit Guarantee.

There website used for payments is not a secure site (you enter your details at your own risk).

JOL is not a registered company, it is a sole trading name of Mr John Radford the major shareholder of One Call Insurance.

JOL is literally run by his personal assistant from the One Call Insurance office.

There is no registered address because the company doesn’t exist, whilst it may chase genuine debtors on behalf of One Call Insurance, it has no enforcement powers and is not a genuine debt collection agency.

ie. They're not a proper Debt collection Agency just someone from One Call sending these letters out. Its up to you how you persue this, but Im sure your in for a interesting ride.........