Tesco Pet Insurance Revise Renewal due to thier Mistake

maxscottdog

Hi All, I received a automatic renewal notice from Tesco Pet Insurance on the 3rd July increasing my bills from 17.53 to 29.18 a month.

I then received a further mail today (16 July - 14 days prior to renewal) from Customer Services Director stating that an introductory discount had been place for the last 3 years! This was to be removed and upon a recalculation it is now 47.71 a month !!!!

Have phoned Tesco Pet Insurance, who were prepared for complaints and had appropriate procedures to take complaints which would be responded to with in 48 hours with a call.

I wondered if the community was able to bring light to the following questions, your support is greatly received.

• do Tesco have the right to reamend quotations
• are quotations not legally binding and part of automatic renewal of contract
• who would be the best body to contact on this issue

Fire_Fox

A quotation is not a contract, it can form part of the contract if you accept the quotation/ renewal. AFAIK the only right you have is to use Tesco's in house complaints procedure but, even if you win a reduction this year, they will probably only hike the premiums next year. Does your pet have any pre-existing conditions? If not switch to a decent insurer like AXA. Some of the smaller players are pulling out of the pet insurance market.

Bromley86

IANAL.

1. I would assume so as long as the quotation has not been accepted (at which point it might become a contract). Given that this was a renewal, I doubt you wrote back to accept, so it seems reasonable that they can amend the quote.

2. I'd assume that, in the absence of any other communication, the quote changes from an offer to a contract on the date that the renewal comes into force. So if they tried to change it on 31st July, that'd be a breach of contract.

If they tried to change it on 28th, that would not (although there's probably a requirement for them to give you sufficient notification). As they gave you 2 weeks, that's likely sufficient.

3. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/


The other thing to consider is whether you can afford £48 next year. Even if everything goes your way and they drop it to £18 this year, there's little to stop them increasing it to £48 next (or more, in order to recover the £30/month discount you'd have got this year).

Given that pet insurance is all about preexisting conditions, I'd suggest that you might not want to take the risk that a condition might develop this year.

I'd also be surprised if you couldn't get a better insurance policy for that money.

If your dog already has a condition, it may still be an idea to move; you'll have to do the sums.

PetGuru

Fire_Fox wrote: »

A quotation is not a contract, it can form part of the contract if you accept the quotation/ renewal. AFAIK the only right you have is to use Tesco's in house complaints procedure but, even if you win a reduction this year, they will probably only hike the premiums next year. Does your pet have any pre-existing conditions? If not switch to a decent insurer like AXA. Some of the smaller players are pulling out of the pet insurance market.

Def agree you should speak to them first however not sure on the AXA comment - RSA is the biggest cat/dog insurer in the market. Agree you should avoid smaller players and would count AXA as one of them...

Bromley86

FireFox was merely highlighting the observable fact that it doesn't matter how sound the underwriter is if the company offering insurance withdraws from the market. For example, HSBC and Halifax, pretty decent brands at the front end that were underwritten (IIRC) by AXA, have both withdrawn from the market. If you'd claimed on those insurances, you now have a big problem.

PetGuru

A very emotional response! HSBC (underwritten by Agria, not AXA) had a small pet book which probably had a bearing on it's withdrawal. The tesco book is massive and therefore very unlikely to be withdrawn - and is backed by RSA (the biggest... sorry if this response offends you...). Firefox didn't say any of the things you mention above but did say that they should move to AXA - a strange piece of advice...

Bromley86

A very emotional response!

Not really. If it hadn't been censored (and then deleted), you'd have seen that the word was not an expletive, merely a reference to a type of contest where people try to see who can urinate furthest. As your post reads very much like one from the RSA marketing department, I think it was justified.

You've dodged the issue that FF was referring to. What's your guru take on the assertion that is often made on the forum that, as insurance companies can change their underwriters, you're better off selecting someone that's both insurer and underwriter?

Your point about who underwrote HSBC highlights this. Within 6 months of signing up with them they'd changed from Aviva to Agria (I'm not sure that HSBC policies themselves were ever actually underwritten by Agria, but that's not important). HSBC then withdrew from the market. They were good guys, in that they arranged for continuous cover regarding preexisting conditions, but Halifax shows that doesn't always happen.

PetGuru

Beginning with an 'F'?

I can see the logic that a direct insurer is less of a 'withdrawal' risk than a brand+insurer model. I simply picked up the point that any 'small' player be they direct or brand+underwriter presents a high risk and AXA statistically are a small player. As a direct brand Tesco are a one of if not the biggest brand provider - therefore my point is that this combo, like it or not, is probably the most secure.

It's all opinion and mine is offered helpfully without malice or desire to cause affront so please respond accordingly.

Bromley86

Beginning with an 'F'?

No, with a "P"!

Regarding relative sizes, I don't have access to any figures to confirm or deny what you say. A quick dip into wiki shows that AXA is a massively larger organisation than RSA, but that's not what you said.

In the pet insurance arena, AXA seem to underwrite a load of other insurers (RSPCA, Post Office, John Lewis, Debenhams, eSure, Swiftcover, even KwikFit! And a bunch of others). So are they statistically a small player?

Bromley86

And now I do have the figures and it looks like you're absolutely wrong when you say RSA is the biggest insurer and AXA is small. 2011 market share:

AXA Insurance UK 32%
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance 3%

http://www.defaqto.com/Documents/Provider%20publications/2/DefaqtoPetInsuranceMiniReport2011.pdf, page 6

I know I said it's not a urinating contest, but how do you like them apples? Seriously, am I misreading this? It looks like almost everyone is bigger than RSA.

Fire_Fox

PetGuru wrote: »

Firefox didn't say any of the things you mention above but did say that they should move to AXA - a strange piece of advice...

NO I did NOT say that, I said LIKE. Try researching the market before pontificating, AXA is highly respected and underwrites other pet insurers. Not only have their been problems in recent years with insurers withdrawing from the pet market, but also changing underwriters and hence the terms and conditions. Do you work for RSA by any chance?