Just been scammed by Budget Insurance

Scots

I arranged car insurance recently using a comparison website which came up with Budget as the lowest price.

After completing all the questions etc I paid the premium but now they say I have to pay additional £27.58 because I didn't answer a question correctly and on top of that they want another £30 for making the change.

Last year a car ran into my parked car and the other driver paid for all damage done. I notified my insurance company at the time Swift but there was no claim or loss on my part.

When Budget asked me if I had made any claims or losses or had any accidents I said no, but they say that is not correct. I contacted Swift and they say I did not have any claims and that my NCB still stands, but Budget are sticking to their claim.

In my view Budget are simply scamming me.

I am writing to the insurance ombudsman about it and would warn others to be wary of Budget as they seem to be looking for ways to make unfair charges.

Wish I stayed with Swift now.

Joe_Horner

There's no scam I'm afraid. The question was (from your post):

"Budget asked me if I had made any claims or losses or had any accidents"

You haven't made a claim, but you have had a loss (paid for by the other driver's insurance) and you (or at least your car) has been involved in an accident. So the correct answer was "yes".

The fact that non-fault losses or accidents can affect your premium is well established, and the admin charge for correcting the policy due to the change in information will be a core term laid down in the contract.

Depending on how recently you took the policy out it might seem a bit harsh for them to be charging the admin fee for a presumably genuine misunderstanding, but the insurance market (particularly the budget style brokers) work on extremely tight margins so they're no more likely to waive it than Ryanair are to serve up an unexpected champagne breakfast

Scots

I think your wrong. When I reported the incident to Swift last May they said it was not a claim but merely a notification which they logged.

The other party paid for all the damage, therfore I did not have any claim, accident, or loss. In fact I needn't have even notified them at all about it.

On top of this I first heard of the additional charge about a fornight ago when I phoned in about something else and the guy mentioned the extra charge. When he expalined about it he said it was because I had made a claim and I was due to pay £24. I said I had not. So I phoned Swift and they agreed with me. They wrote me a letter saying there was no claim and my NCB stood as before. I copied this to Budget.

Now Budget are saying it's not because I made a claim, it's because I didn't tell them about the incident. So they changed their story and they have also added the £30 admin charge which wasn't there two weeks ago. And they have increased the additional premium from 2 weeks ago as well.

Presumably though they will have recordings of the phone calls which the Ombudsman can ask to listen to which will confirm what I'm saying ...... or will they conveniently have lost those ?

I say they are scammers.

marlot

Scots wrote: »

In fact I needn't have even notified them at all about it.

Not true.

Insurance companies want to know about incidents, even where you're not to blame. And they will raise the premiums as a result.

System

Since Budget probably got this info from MID then it looks as though Swift logged it as a loss or accident which should have been mentioned when getting your new insurance.

verityboo

Your lucky that the spotted the mistake now and are allowing you to pay the extra - they want to charge extra because statistically drivers who make no-fault claims are more likely to make fault claims.
If they had not spotted it now, and later you tried to claim, they would have cancelled your insurance immediately and would have refused to pay any claim relating to your vehicle. Being refused insurance would then have cost you dear

Scots

!!!!!! wrote: »

Since Budget probably got this info from MID then it looks as though Swift logged it as a loss or accident which should have been mentioned when getting your new insurance.

No they didn't. It was Swift who told me at the time of me notifying them that it was not a claim, it was only a notification and so long as it stayed as a notification and didn't develope into a claim then it would have no bearing on future premiums or my NCB.

And when I called Swift back to explain the Budget were charging extra because of what Swift had reported they checked their file and said they didn't see how Budget could charge extra because there was no fault or claim or loss on my part.

I've just dug out paperwork I've been sent by Budget.

The policy started 1st February.

On 9 Feb they wrote and said they had become aware of an undisclosed claim in May 2011 and they were raising the premium by £25.94 which would be collected on 23 Feb.

Then on 20 Feb they wrote again and said they had been notified of an update to a claim dated May 2011 and the premium was going up by £27.58, and due to updated information a fee of £30 would be applied.

Now I don't know if by update they mean the letter I sent them explaining what happened and enclosing the Swift letter. If thats the case then by me writing to explain they are charging £30 because the charge was not there before.

Also I notice that on the latest Statement of Insurance in the Details of all claims section the May 2011 incident is noted and it says At fault ? "Our Driver", which sounds to me as though I am being blamed for the incident which simply isn't true. Thats despite me sending them proof that I was blameless.

So I don't know if my premium went up because I am being blamed for something I didn't do.

Or I'm being penalised for not telling them about something they say I should have, which is what the operator said today on the phone, which differs from the first operator I spoke to before.

In any case if I did have a claim then surely my NCB would have been affected, which it hasn't.

No, I've been driving for nearly 40 years and never had any trouble with insurance companies, I've never had any claims or accidents or any reason to have special terms on my policy.

This smacks of profiteering for no good reason .... as somebody said they are like Ryanair ... to be avoided if at all possible.

McKneff

You are wrong OP, and you have not been scammed, its in the terms of all Insurance companies that you have to report all incidents.

You say you have been driving for 40 years, so you must never, ever in all that time read any terms and conditions.

You didnt, simple as that really.

You really should amend the title of your thread.

Scots

verityboo wrote: »

Your lucky that the spotted the mistake now and are allowing you to pay the extra - they want to charge extra because statistically drivers who make no-fault claims are more likely to make fault claims.
If they had not spotted it now, and later you tried to claim, they would have cancelled your insurance immediately and would have refused to pay any claim relating to your vehicle. Being refused insurance would then have cost you dear

You see this is where I see it different ..... I never made a claim. The other driver did. They hit me and their car was damaged as well as mine. The other driver wanted to put it through his insurance. His insurance company asked me to get some quotes which I did and sent them in and they paid for the repair. At no time did I make a claim, the other guy did.

Notmyrealname

Scots wrote: »

When Budget asked me if I had made any claims or losses or had any accidents I said no, but they say that is not correct. I contacted Swift and they say I did not have any claims and that my NCB still stands, but Budget are sticking to their claim.

In my view Budget are simply scamming me.

Budget are correct. You have had an accident even if it wasn't your fault and your insurance company did not pay out. When you say you've had an accident when getting quotes, in the list of descriptions is "Not at fault, amount recovered" or similar. You have failed to disclose this. Be grateful they've not reported you for making a false statement because technically you've committed fraud by deliberately stating you'd not had an accident when you had.

Scots

McKneff wrote: »

You are wrong OP, and you have not been scammed, its in the terms of all Insurance companies that you have to report all incidents.

You say you have been driving for 40 years, so you must never, ever in all that time read any terms and conditions.

You didnt, simple as that really.

You really should amend the title of your thread.

I did report the incident to my own insurance company at the time. They said that was the end of the matter and they are standing by that now.