Car insurance premium increased by £45.80 and charged £50 admin fee!!!!

noodlespink2

We have recently renewed our car insurance online. Before i took the policy out i called the insurance company to check if a claim was classed as at fault or not. Basically earlier this year my husband had parked in Tesco car park and returned to the car and had a large dent in the side (it wasnt there before he left as he had just washed it). We called our old insurance who sorted the claim on our behalf as the driver who caused the damage had driven off and left no details.
When speaking to 1st central (our new insurance company) they said it was classed as 'not at fault' so this is what i put down on our policy online as it was cheaper to take out online rather than via the phone with them.
The policy has been running since the start of this month and just received an email to say our premium was being increased by £45.80 because i wrongly stated it was a 'not at fault' claim and not 'at fault' claim. They also charging an extra £50 admin fee.

I called and disputed that i was wrongly told what to put the claim as and they didnt want to know. Fair enough having to pay the £45.80 but an extra £50 admin fee when they dont even send the policy through the post its by email seems to unfair. Is there anyway i can dispute and get the admin fee back?

Thanks in advance

agrinnall

Their website says:

"We want you to let us know immediately if you are unhappy with the service you have received and we will always do our best to resolve any complaint fairly. Please refer to your Policy Wording document for full details of 1st Central’s Complaints Procedure."

If they don't resolve it within 8 weeks, or if you can't agree a resolution, then you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (although I belive there are very lengthy delays in getting them to look at anything).

Actually, I've just looked at the very small and not easy to read print at the bottom of the page which says they are registered in Gibraltar and subject to "limited regulation" by the FSA, so you may be out of luck. Perhaps you should consider paying a bit more for a real insurer next time.

Tomby1

agrinnall wrote: »

Actually, I've just looked at the very small and not easy to read print at the bottom of the page which says they are registered in Gibraltar and subject to "limited regulation" by the FSA, so you may be out of luck. Perhaps you should consider paying a bit more for a real insurer next time.

It really does come down to this a lot of the time. The cheap-o insurers are great if you don't ever have to claim, never move house, change your car or change anything about your policy - but if you ever have any issues, you can guarantee it won't be cheap.

fb1969

Ditto the posts above.

1st Central Car Insurance have been mentioned on MSE before:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1669745

and

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2573777

Lum

Whoever you spoke to originally gave you bad advice.

Insurers consider all claims to be "at fault" unless you managed to get somebody else to pay up. This is why some word it as "NCB lost" which is just as confusing in the case of protected NCB, and others word it as "did you lose your excess?".

They should just word it as "did you manage to get anyone else to pay for this?" and be done with it. Everybody already knows that this is all they really care about.


This is also why, for car park dents, you either ignore then or just pay for the repairs yourself. £50 premium increase for 5 years = £250 probably more than what it would cost to get a decent independent bodyshop to fix the thing!