Be Wiser - BE WARNED!

Quentin

Regarding the latest dd they have taken and shouldn't:

Don't waste time with them, but contact the bank and tell them the dd was not authorised and you want to use the dd guarantee to get it immediately refunded.

The bank should put the money back in the account straight away and sort it out with be wiser direct.

Regarding the claim on your record, you need to progress this separately.

They have asked for your "representation", so make it in writing and ask them to tell you the claim details, and which insurer has recorded it so that you can resolve this.

Sirlaughalot

artgil wrote: »

wish i would google be wiser before not only i bought our policy but also renew it...
I have a policy since feb 2012(aviva) first problem occurred when i had a breakdown in sept 2012. My policy was with a full breakdown cover by RAC. My wheel fall off of the vehicle in the middle of nowhere!! Luckily nobody got hurt as was driving very slow. When i rang a be-wiser i was told that they will send RAC asap. after an hour RAC man came n informed my that there is nothing hew can do as my vehicle it too long n without even looking at it drove of. (???!!!) I rang be-wiser again for some explanation and i was told that actually i don't have breakdown cover as my vehicle is too long and somebody should have inform me when i was buying my policy- unfortunately they didn't ;/ although they have send one more RAC man to see what can be done. After an hour finally man came and put the wheel back one so I was able to get to garage and fix it. Unfortunately i had to pay over £300. Would avoid that cost if i would have breakdown cover as i thought.

Now lets start with my second issue.
When it came to renewal unfortunately i did accept it.... And that was my big mistake again!!! Mainly because i was short of cash and i didnt have to pay no premium. Yea i know stupid excuse but thats how it goes.

Before i agree to renew my policy i did tell them that i want to change bank account details to set a direct debit. No problem they said. Because first and second time money was coming of my wifes account they rang her to confirm new details for the direct debit. that was wednesday and she was informed that first payment will be taken around monday tuesday. how surprised we where when we discovered on thursday that not only DD has been set up from the new account but also from the old one!!! More than that they have already took the payment from the old account( the one that not supposed to be used)!!!!! I rang them straight gave my details and when i said that I'm expecting refund asap they hang up on me!!! Every time i call them is the same story. as soon as i mention refund -because they are using my wife bank account details without her permission and thats FRAUD- they hang up on me. Finally after 9 or 10 calls somebody speak to me and lady said that yes DD has been canceled now and refund will be immediately. but it never happened. My wife started to ring them also and demand her money back and as soon as she ask for refund they hang up!!!! I send an email to [EMAIL="dawn.g@bewiser.co.uk"]dawn.g@bewiser.co.uk[/EMAIL] which i have found in here. After 4 days somebody rang me regards to the complain and reassure that money will be refunded immediately... But it havent. It took another week to refund the money. They took first payment on the 21/02/2012 and refunded on the 5th of MArch!!!
But thats not all. To make it even funnier the man who rang me last said that unfortunately they see a claim against me from JUNE 2012!!!!! and that they r going to increase premium of £250 until i make a representation. So i asked him how come im not aware of it. And why they didn't tell me when they were giving me quotation week earlier??? No answer.

Going back to refund. Yes my wife got the money on the 5th of march £204 just to find out that at the some time they have set one more DD and took £240 out of her account ( Im still talking about account that should be disregarded. As they still have a DD on her second account.) Not it seems like we are paying one insurance twice as much because we are being charged from two accounts at a time!!!
I would have cancel DD long time back but im afraid that they will cancel my insurance without informing me.

Can anyone please help us. As we dont know that to do. We cannot drive without insurance. and whenever we call BeWiser they simply hang up as soon as they hear about refund!!!!

I dont even want to mention how much additional cost for all the phone calls we have.
Please can somebody help.

Will highly appreciate.

Hi Artgil,
I`m sorry to hear of your experiences with this outfit shocking! Hopefully Quentin will see you right.
I read somewhere(Sunday Times i think) that BeWiser had been highlighted as one of the fastest growing companies and Sir Richard Branson had made a comment allegedly.
Perhaps there expansion has come at the cost of customer service i doubt whether the boss of Virgin would be aware of that!

geralltrugby

Like most insurance companies I suppose you don't realise what service you are getting till it comes time to claim. I thought I'd be dealing with one interface however with my recent claim I was constantly on the phone to either Aviva, Be Wiser or the garage. None of these agencies appeared to talk to each other and I had to chase every step of the way. They didn't even know the claim had been settled some three weeks ago and were still charging the premium for a written off car.

Disappointed enough with the whole experience and to cap it all dealt with a really rude and surly manager (M Murray) whose whole demeanour was a disgrace. If this is the example the "managers" set God help the rest of the organisation. Avoid like the plague I'd say.

ianstaley

So after the fact yes you guessed it I used be wiser, what an idiot, so they on-line quoted me for my Toyota Camry which was very good.

So I have answered all their questions as truthfully as I am able, note the word here is able. I told them I had an accident in December 2012 which resulted in the loss of that car and I considered it not my fault, however Admiral told me that that issue was as yet unknown, yes from Dec 2012 till October 2013 they haven't even told me what they intend to do other than 50/50 but they intend to take the other party to court maybe some time in the next millennia or so.

So my Camry was vandalised in February 13, door forced, car ransacked and steering wheel ripped off. I was going to Holland about 4 days later so I called Admiral and they arranged for it to be taken to a body shop, I told the contact person that if the car was unrepairable (14 years old) DO NOT SCRAP the car as it was repairable to me. So during my visit to Holland I get an e mail telling me they were scraping the car on the grounds of uneconomic cost.

I quickly phoned from Holland and told them do nothing till I return. On my return I paid all the recovery costs and the storage charges. I recovered the car my self and repaired it at my cost. Re MOT's the car and nothing more said.

Back to Be Wiser, they now say I have not informed them of the stolen Camry, WHTF! what stolen Camry, so I ring be wiser and ask for the definition of stolen, I told him bit difficult the car I am insuring has been stolen? So now I am a lyer! So I call Admiral turns out that Admiral has decided that the car was an attempted theft! no one told me about that so why an attempted theft well we don't have a vandal department so it goes to the attempted theft department, so it is registered as an attempted theft even though my NCB is fully covered, well yes came the reply we registered the incident as an attempted theft, after 5 attempts they eventually issued me with a new NCB certificate without the words cost of claim £5.00 Why £5.00 oh that's a service charge?

So now I inform be wiser what admiral had done and it is their responsibility to query Admiral themselves and not get me to do their job for them.

They then send me a e mail stating that my insurance would now cost an extra £115.38 this is a renegotiation on one side, this to me is a NEW quote, I had agreed to the first quote and the finance for that quote, I was not prepared to renegotiate the policy even though they decided that it was their right to increase the policy charge.

I immediately cancelled the policy by phoning Ageas the policy holder, to be told you can'y do that it has to be done by Be Wiser, I told them I had done my duty to inform the policy holder as they insured ME. end of phone call. I then also cancelled the DD on my bank for the get this "financial agreement". Nest thing I get is an e mail to say that the original quote could stand AFTER I cancelled it.

So now be wiser wants £143 quid to cancel a policy that cost initially £220.nn even after I had paid them £114 as my deposit.

I told them that moving the goal post by re quoting me is renegotiating a policy without my permission, had I agreed to the increase they would be in their rights. However, as I cancelled the policy on the same date that they TOLD me my policy would cost more I have cancelled within the 14 days allowed by remote selling and my cooling off period.

Now the Close Finance are trying to tell me I owe them money and I can't cancel a financial agreement between them and me it must come from you guessed it be wiser.

I have told them to take me to court, so now they want to send a debt recovery heavy team to my door. It won't be opened and if they don't leave then I will call the cops why well I have a fire arms cert !! which means such people cannot make entrance without my express permission, secondly I do not have a contract with the debt collectors so they can sod off.


Be Warned and Be WISE don't go to BE Wise they will rip you off. :mad:

Astra1992

ianstaley wrote: »

So after the fact yes you guessed it I used be wiser, what an idiot, so they on-line quoted me for my Toyota Camry which was very good.

So I have answered all their questions as truthfully as I am able, note the word here is able. I told them I had an accident in December 2012 which resulted in the loss of that car and I considered it not my fault, however Admiral told me that that issue was as yet unknown, yes from Dec 2012 till October 2013 they haven't even told me what they intend to do other than 50/50 but they intend to take the other party to court maybe some time in the next millennia or so.

So my Camry was vandalised in February 13, door forced, car ransacked and steering wheel ripped off. I was going to Holland about 4 days later so I called Admiral and they arranged for it to be taken to a body shop, I told the contact person that if the car was unrepairable (14 years old) DO NOT SCRAP the car as it was repairable to me. So during my visit to Holland I get an e mail telling me they were scraping the car on the grounds of uneconomic cost.

I quickly phoned from Holland and told them do nothing till I return. On my return I paid all the recovery costs and the storage charges. I recovered the car my self and repaired it at my cost. Re MOT's the car and nothing more said.

Back to Be Wiser, they now say I have not informed them of the stolen Camry, WHTF! what stolen Camry, so I ring be wiser and ask for the definition of stolen, I told him bit difficult the car I am insuring has been stolen? So now I am a lyer! So I call Admiral turns out that Admiral has decided that the car was an attempted theft! no one told me about that so why an attempted theft well we don't have a vandal department so it goes to the attempted theft department, so it is registered as an attempted theft even though my NCB is fully covered, well yes came the reply we registered the incident as an attempted theft, after 5 attempts they eventually issued me with a new NCB certificate without the words cost of claim £5.00 Why £5.00 oh that's a service charge?

So now I inform be wiser what admiral had done and it is their responsibility to query Admiral themselves and not get me to do their job for them.

They then send me a e mail stating that my insurance would now cost an extra £115.38 this is a renegotiation on one side, this to me is a NEW quote, I had agreed to the first quote and the finance for that quote, I was not prepared to renegotiate the policy even though they decided that it was their right to increase the policy charge.

I immediately cancelled the policy by phoning Ageas the policy holder, to be told you can'y do that it has to be done by Be Wiser, I told them I had done my duty to inform the policy holder as they insured ME. end of phone call. I then also cancelled the DD on my bank for the get this "financial agreement". Nest thing I get is an e mail to say that the original quote could stand AFTER I cancelled it.

So now be wiser wants £143 quid to cancel a policy that cost initially £220.nn even after I had paid them £114 as my deposit.

I told them that moving the goal post by re quoting me is renegotiating a policy without my permission, had I agreed to the increase they would be in their rights. However, as I cancelled the policy on the same date that they TOLD me my policy would cost more I have cancelled within the 14 days allowed by remote selling and my cooling off period.

Now the Close Finance are trying to tell me I owe them money and I can't cancel a financial agreement between them and me it must come from you guessed it be wiser.

I have told them to take me to court, so now they want to send a debt recovery heavy team to my door. It won't be opened and if they don't leave then I will call the cops why well I have a fire arms cert !! which means such people cannot make entrance without my express permission, secondly I do not have a contract with the debt collectors so they can sod off.


Be Warned and Be WISE don't go to BE Wise they will rip you off. :mad:

Hi IanStaley,

From what it sounds like, and from what I understand from your post, and my experience of what I've seen from situations like this is the claim you had with Admiral was still being investigated. Therefore it is a fault claim until it is resolved as a non fault claim. So at the time of of buying the policy with Be wiser you needed to disclose this claim as fault until it was resolved as non fault (50/50 is marked as fault claim too). Be Wiser have checked the claims underwriting exchange database and seen this claim you had with Admiral, thereby rating your policy a higher 'risk' as to them you had a fault claim - this could be a why there was an increase of £115.38 as essentially the quote you received would of be higher by roughly this amount if you had put this claim on there

Also on a side note, if Ageas are the underwriters/sister company to be wiser, by calling them to cancel does not necessary mean they can cancel you policy - they may not even have access to see your policy as essential you are bewisers customer

Adding to this, I don't know many insurance companies (if any) that would allow you to cancel an insurance policy just by cancelling the direct debit. I think be wiser are a broker too any they may have high cancellation fee's too

note this is just my understanding and may not be relevant to all insurers

simonk20

I second that worst insurance company I've ever used

sku_mick

hi ive been with bewiser 3 years and had no hassle or problems when i first went with them it was all straight forward and i cant knock them i have had problems with one call though , they let me x cancell my insurance even though the premium was payed and they would not listen to me at all so id avoid ONE CALL just wanted to say not everyone has had problems with be wiser thankyou .

dacouch

What a coincidence, there's also been a lot of new registered one time posters on Moneysupermarket posting praise for Bewiser in the last week.

Then in the last few days one of their reps has started posting offering help.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/avoid-be-wiser-insurance-48603.aspx

It's worth reading the posts from Anonymous98765 who allegedly is an ex employee who allegations about some of their business practices are alarming to say the least and seem to have prompted the flood of happy posters praising Be Wiser

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/avoid-be-wiser-insurance-48603.aspx?PageIndex=2

jlj76

Bewiser is alright until you have an issue, then they want to charge you for everything.
I've had insurance with them for awhile, and recently moved to a new home and got that as well.
Anyway, had stated that there was no flat roof when in fact there was, so I call up when I realised there was a small flat roof out back, and these guys were going to charge me 50quid to update my home and the contents.
There was no change in premium, but an admin charge to update it however if you went direct with an insurance company, they dont charge for this!
They said as they were updating both policies at the same time, they would do me a solid and charge me 25.
I hope that 25 quid makes up for me never renewing another policy with them again.
Short sighted clowns, surely the bad PR and loss of long term clients cant be worth it.
Anyway, I know better now, and am sure to pass on my knowledge to any would be bewiser customers.

mattreid1983

I was conned like this too, They are still doing this.here's my story:
I first came across this be wiser on a comparison website, typed my details in correctly and they came up with a competitive quote so I gave them a ring.

After reading through my details I was told that my quote was invalid as it was based on a full no claims bonus and I actually had 0 no claims.

Thinking I'd made the mistake we spent ages on the phone getting much higher prices. The sales person was friendly but pushy. Eventually we got to a price with aviva, which I was told would mirror my wifes 8 years no claims bonus the following year if I did not make a claim in year one.

Although it seemed like a good deal I was feeling pushed into buying now as the sales advisor had told me she was on the phone to aviva to get this good price and deal and that it could only be gauranteed if I bought whilst still on the phone. Feeling pushed I decided to think about it.

I rang back later and was told that they could still do the same offer and it was a really good deal as although it was much more expensive than the competition, if I didn't make a claim in the first year then next year I would actually have 8 years no claims bonus as opposed to one. (no mention that I had to reniew with them). Seemed a good deal right!
Well I bought it.

The policy approached the end and I did get a renewal including the 8 years ncd but it was a very high price, almost as much as the first year so I went with someone else over £200 cheaper.

Be wiser refused to send me proof of no claims until the policy lapsed, no worries. So the policy lapsed, my new policy with another insurer began and no proof of no claims arrived for several days.

After badgering them I finally got the proof of no claims for not the 8 years I was expecting but just 1 year.

On complaining I was told that I cannot take a mirrored ncd with me if I leave as I have not earned it. Although having looked into it I find that this is true, This is not what I was led to believe when taking out the policy and I feel conned.

After having looked at my quote on the comparison website, I found that I had not initially made a mistake on no claims as I did clearly fill in the box as 0 ncb. Too late to cancel by then as there was an admin fee which wouldn't make it worth the bother so I lived with it.

Knowing what I know now and reading other reviews I can see that it appears they try to entice you with a quote based on incorrect ncb, then miss sell policies by not explaining the details fully.

They offer to give good no claims discount and do, however a no claims discount is a percentage off of the premium so they simply give a silly high quote and knock the discount off of that so that you still end up paying more.

I feel totally conned and ripped off. I have gotten no where with complaining. It is now in the hands of the ombudsman but I expect they know legal loop holes around it so won't hold my breath.

If they reply to this saying it has been resolved, it has not. I have had my final written response from them which states they have done nothing wrong and advises me to take it to the ombudsman if I am not happy so they must be pretty confident.

Maybe they haven't done anything legally wrong but this is what happened and that's how I've been left so make up your own mind. Just check out online reviews for yourself before getting involved with these people. I wish I had.

Lesson learned