car insurance how to complain

dreamfairy

Took out motor insurance with right choice. I thought that the two years on my dad's insurance qualified me for two years no claims discount. once i had submitted this proof to the company they said my premium would increase by almost 50% from £750 (which I had already paid in full) to £1,100. out of curiosity i completed an additional online application form with the same company, entering '0' no claims. their quote for this second application was £739. so the insurance was actually cheaper without the no claims. when i pointed this out to the insurance company they said it didn't matter because i was at fault for falsely entering two years no claims. when i explained this was an honest mistake as i wasn't aware that two years on my dad's insurance didn't count they told me 'well that is your fault as it is common knowledge to everyone else'. well sorry not to me and i cannot find any definition of 'no claims' on their website. accepting that i made a mistake i appealed to them to negotiate on what seemed to me to be a gross increase. they would not let me hang up the phone without paying the balance in full otherwise they would cancel the policy and retain 55% of what i paid for just 4 weeks of insurance cover. i felt backed into a corner and without the funds to pay the difference i was forced to cancel. this has cost me £412. immediately following the telephone conversation i completed an online form with confused.com and received quotes for £584. How can this company justify bullying me into either i. paying almost 50% on top of the £750 and ii. retain £412 upon cancellation of the £750 policy i have already paid. is there anything i can do?

jamhun

Unfortunately they are brokers, not an insurance company. Therefore they will probably have something hidden away in their terms and conditions about cancellation charges. You could quote them the part of the FSA about treating customers fairly and ask to raise a complaint, they must look in to it and if you are not happy with the outcome, then contact the FOS.

James

Pyrkie

Put your complaint in writing asap and as pp said, quote the FS Ombudsman.

I would also do some homework on the Office of Fair Trading website
(it won't let me link as I'm a new user) - look at 'Unfair contract terms' and see what it says. Try calling them too - I would think they'll be quite helpful.

It's likely if you write that they will initially write back telling you to get lost, but don't - write again and don't accept their first response.

Good luck and don't give up until you get some money back!

jamhun

Don't write to them (post gets lost), phone them, they must take your complaint over the phone and as all calls are recorded, you will also have your proof of contacting them.

James

Bigdazman1

First of all it doesn't matter why you entered 2 yrs ncb. The fact is now they are aware you're insurance is set up with false details it has to be amended and this is obviously going to result in an increase as you are removing a "discount"

In regards to you beleiving you entred the exact same details twice , but all you changed was the number of ncb from 0 to 2. Then obviously you haven't entered everything the same, an insurance company will not give you a cheaper price based on zero years rather than actually having a no claims discount. That is ridiculous.

Charges to cancel will have been disclosed to you at point of sale so of you bought online, you would have to have read the charges or over the phone they would have been explained. Also they will 100 percent be detailed in your documents.

As for making a complaint. Why wast time writing letters when all they are going to phone you back anyway. No point in speaking to Fsa or Fso as they will advise you to go through the companies complaints procedure first. In all honesty though I can't see you having a leg to stand on I'm afraid.

dt3887

Bigdazman1 wrote: »

In regards to you beleiving you entred the exact same details twice , but all you changed was the number of ncb from 0 to 2. Then obviously you haven't entered everything the same, an insurance company will not give you a cheaper price based on zero years rather than actually having a no claims discount. That is ridiculous.

bollox.

as the company is a Broker, and prices change all the time. when the OP first approached the broker with details, Insurer A would have offered their price based on 2 years as that suited them.
when the OP re entered details with 0 NCD, it coul dbe that Insurer B gave the lower price as the OP with 0 ncd is more suitable for them.

dreamfairy

i tried complaining over the phone to the complaints manager who is also the sales manager and he told me i could write all i like but nothing would be done. going to try the other suggestions FOS and Office for Fair Trading. Thank you to dt3887 for this useful post. In fact Right Choice admitted themselves that the second quote was a different insurer.

dreamfairy

i have just found a lengthy discussion on the moneysupermarket.com community forum about the unfair treatment of customers by rightchoice. i cannot paste the link as I am a new user but if you do a search in the engine you will get it. there is some useful info in here about how to complain

Bigdazman1

dt3887 wrote: »

bollox.

as the company is a Broker, and prices change all the time. when the OP first approached the broker with details, Insurer A would have offered their price based on 2 years as that suited them.
when the OP re entered details with 0 NCD, it coul dbe that Insurer B gave the lower price as the OP with 0 ncd is more suitable for them.

Let me ask you this, they said nothing will be done.

What is it you want them to do? YOU are the one who is in the wrong.

Why should they do something for you? Because you didn't know something which is common knowledge.