I GO4 Insurance - BEWARE - leave well alone

travellerboy

I was duped into taking their Home & Contents Insurance via GoCompare Web Site as it was a good price. I was NOT able to read the Policy wording or Summary prior to purchase, as they were not available. Then after paying they sent the T&C but not of the policy I bought but the T&C of their Agency. After numerous telephone calls with no response I decided to cancell the policy which had yet to commence. I was concerned that getting problems at the opening of a policy, god help what problems would arise in the event of a claim. At the time I was not concerned as the start date of the policy was 3 weeks away, and the policy was not active.

Distance Selling Regulations says they must be a cooling off period of 7 working days in which the consumer can withdraw from a contract without penalty. NOT with IGO4, be aware they couldn't care a damm about Consumer Protection.


In their T&C it says.......we will make a charge for the time you have been on cover plus £25.

What they said was that the key word is "plus". It means we can charge you even though the policy has NOT commenced.

...it is not just small print you need to be careful of but also their interpretation to suit themselves.

God help anybody who has to make a claim, with these people as they make the rules to suit themselves. Next action is to write to the FSA and make a complaint.

Will it do any good ? I don't know.

InsideInsurance

The Distance Selling Regulations do not apply to insurance (or other financial services) as they are covered in other areas under the the FSAs control.

The FSA stipulate that there is a cooling off period for insurance of a minimum of 14 days from the later of either your receipt of documents or commencement of the policy. That said the FSA do not prohibit charges being applied to cancellations made within the cooling off period. In fact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to whom consumers should complain after exhausting internal complaints procedures (or 8 weeks after making the complaint, which ever is sooner), have supported insurers charging up to £50 as a cancellation fee and to some degree encourage this approach rather than loading everybodys premium to cover the cost of the few that want to cancel.

You can certainly lodge an official complaint and threaten escalation to the FOS but your chances arent good. Better to check before you buy and walk away from anything that looks dodgy.

travellerboy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Better to check before you buy and walk away from anything that looks dodgy.

I agree totally and now realise that they are not covered by the Consumer Protection Act and FSA tend to ignore these biased practices.

I jumped without thinking and paid the price. Just a Warning to others that decent insurers like Churchill, Aegas etc. don't make their money by devious means like IGO4.

Just glad I jumped before I had deeper regrets, and put it down to a bad experience.

InsideInsurance

As I say, they actually encourage them. You will find that most insurers will charge a cancellation fee, anything up to £50 is common, there are some that charge even more than that. Certainly there are many however that will waive that fee if it is cancelled preinception though ultimately the sale will in many cases cost them money (MID, CUE, DVLA, Credit Referencing etc database fees, cost of documents, PPC/ advertising fees etc etc etc).

I dont know iGo4 personally, a quick online shows they used to be a white label of BDML (Budget) and so I expect they are a broker and given they don't give the policy docs before hand it could well be they don't have standard wording so each insurer not only returns a price but a unique policy wording too though having looked at their system it doesnt look like the later is the case and when you click through to the Buy page it has the links to the policy wordings.

dunstonh

agree totally and now realise that they are not covered by the Consumer Protection Act and FSA tend to ignore these biased practices.

It isnt bias. The FSA actually prefers explicit charges that are transparent. It dislikes costs factored into other areas. So, an explicit charge to cancel is actually fairer.

I jumped without thinking and paid the price. Just a Warning to others that decent insurers like Churchill, Aegas etc. don't make their money by devious means like IGO4.

Most nowadays have explicit charges for cancellation and admin. There are still some that dont. So, if you dont like explicit charging then you can still go with the increased premium model.

Personally, I like to go with a company I have heard of and doesnt have a silly name that just reminds me of adverts on daytime TV

InsideInsurance

Guess QuoteMeHappy.com isn't getting your business then despite just being a trading style for Aviva

oscarward

I agree with dunstonh, gimmicky names don't do anything for me. If anything it tends to put me off after horror stories of webuyanycar etc.

goldiehill

We have just had the worst experience ever with igo4 with whom our car was insured. My husband hit a deer which wrote the car off (it will cost £6000+ to repair) but igo4 refused to give us a hire car (even though it is stated we get one on the policy), refused to refund the remaining two and a half months insurance and we are now fighting to get any of the write-off value.

InsideInsurance

You've had a fault accident so you wont get any refund. Some insurers allow you to transfer the remaining time on cover to another vehicle in exchange for an admin fee, this may be an option with them.

What reason do they give for not giving a hire car? Normally its a courtesy car and these arent given in a total loss situation.

Obviously your not saying enough about the settlement for others to help you

rudekid48

[QUOTE=InsideInsurance;49103411

I dont know iGo4 personally, a quick online shows they used to be a white label of BDML (Budget) and so I expect they are a broker and given they don't give the policy docs before hand it could well be they don't have standard wording so each insurer not only returns a price but a unique policy wording too though having looked at their system it doesnt look like the later is the case and when you click through to the Buy page it has the links to the policy wordings.[/QUOTE]

BDML are owned by Capita not Budget.

IGO4 are a Broker based in Peterborough (but nothing to do with Budget!).

InsideInsurance

rudekid48 wrote: »

BDML are owned by Capita not Budget.

IGO4 are a Broker based in Peterborough (but nothing to do with Budget!).

Stand corrected on BDML -v- Budget (BISL) but when trying to correct a post from 2 years ago you really should check your facts:

http://www.postonline.co.uk wrote:

Igo4 opens call centre
IGO4 has opened a new contact centre in Peterborough to handle renewals business from existing home and motor insurance customers and offline completion of aggregator quotes, after transferring business from BDML.