Lloyds TSB car insurance - not fair! PLEASE help

jademorgan

Last week i noticed that x2 payments of £234 had been taken out of my bank account with BFSL as a reference... i contacted my bank who informed me that it was Lloyds tsb. When i phoned them, they informed me that my car insurance had been automatically renewed for £234 per month.(previously £111) They said they sent me a letter advising me that this was going to happen (which i didn't receive) and there was no way i can cancel this insurance unless i pay £700 cancellation fee (as i did not respond to this letter)!!! After lots of phone calls, they said i had claims on my account which could be affecting my premium - i made them look into this as i knew i have never had any claims etc. They advised me that this was an error and they removed these 'claims' off my account. Hoping that this would bring my monthly payments down, they then advised me that my monthly payment would be £202.
I have never received a letter informing me of this 100% monthly increase in price... and advised me that this is the best price they can insure me for.
I then went onto their website and put in all my details - where their quote for my car insurance came out at £49.50 per month!!
I feel this is extremely unfair that they see it acceptable to increase my insurance at this level, and that this has now effected my financial situation to the point where i cannot afford to pay for my daughters child care and will have to sell my car!!! please PLEASE can someone help me????

kind regards,

Jade

wealdroam

You knew your insurance was due for renewal, didn't you?

You knew your insurance would automatically renew if you did nothing, because that was what you agreed to a year ago.

Have you moved house in the last year such that they didn't know your new address to send to?

Your childcare costs are not relevent to this discussion.

If their website quotes a substantially lower premium for your car and circumstances, then get them to explain the difference.

Wig

So you did not renew with any other insurer?

Had it not been for the automatic renewal you would have expired your insurance and carried on driving uninsured....we have to assume this as you seem to have known nothing about the insurance policy expiring 2 months ago. You can therefore be thankful that they did auto renew, at least in this respect, saving you a lot more hassle from police attention and courts.

My only advice would be to write to them demanding that they match their own online price or cancel the insurance and reinsure with the online service, and then ask them for a refund of the cancellation fee & the over payments of the months so far paid out on the new policy
(if possible... refuse to pay the cancellation fee), if they refuse to refund you...... you should complain to the ombudsman, about their ludicrously inflated premiums & policy cancellation fees of which you recieved no notification. Subsequently reinsuring with Lloyds online will probably help to keep things simple, i.e. you can refer them to their own files for your proof of no claims and you can show the ombudsman how you reinsured with the same insurer for a quarter of the price. Thus why you think a refund of £150 per month already paid and a refund of the cancellation fee is justified.

Delivery_Driver

I paid no attention to a renewal letter form Dircet Line once and they did the same to me.I got the money back but I had to prove that I was insured with someone else for the period they were charging me for.If you can do the same you might get the money back.

It will be in their t's & c's but like most of us you probably didn't read them thoroughly and I am sure they bank on this for a lot of repeat business.

mikey72

Wig wrote: »

................My only advice would be to write to them demanding that they match their own online price or cancel the insurance and reinsure with the online service, and then ask them for a refund of the cancellation fee & the over payments of the months so far paid out on the new policy
(if possible... refuse to pay the cancellation fee), if they refuse to refund you...... you should complain to the ombudsman, about their ludicrously inflated premiums & policy cancellation fees of which you recieved no notification. Subsequently reinsuring with Lloyds online will probably help to keep things simple, i.e. you can refer them to their own files for your proof of no claims and you can show the ombudsman how you reinsured with the same insurer for a quarter of the price. Thus why you think a refund of £150 per month already paid and a refund of the cancellation fee is justified.

I think under "treating the customer fairly".
Overcharging at renewal is a gripe of mine, I'd be interested to hear the outcome.

worried_jim

If you make a complaint to Lloyds they will give you cash just to stop you taking it further to the ombudsman, so when you speak to them you have to make it clear that you are complaining about their service and that you are genuinely expressing dissatisfaction. Use these words and no matter what the outcome you will receive cash in the way of an apology- even if Lloyds are right.