We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
Churchill Car Insurance and Company Car NCD
PhilC2709
Posts: 12 Forumite
This one's a bit epic, so go make yourself a cuppa and choose a comfy chair.
Ready? Ok, I'll begin.
Just over a year ago I changed jobs. For the previous 10 years or so I had been "blessed" with a company car and the associate insurance, so didn't have any normal no claims discount (NCD). My new role came with a car allowance rather than a company car, so I needed to go find some insurance.
After a bit of searching, I discovered that a surprisingly small number of insurers accept proof of NCD from employers, and then only from your most recent employer, but as I had 4 years of history with my former employer I at least had a bit of credit to use. Of the insurers I searched, Churchill were the cheapest, so I went for them.
After sorting out the quote online, I spoke to a very friendly lad in one of their call centres and got the lowdown on what I needed to do to prove my NCD, which was to get a letter on headed notepaper stating that I'd had sole use of a car for personal and business use, that I'd had no claims or convictions and that I no longer had use of that car. My former employers happily printed that off for me and it was sent to Churchill.
A month later I received a very snotty letter from Churchill to the effect that my letter of NCD was no use because it wasn't correctly worded and that my premiums had increased by over 300% because I had no NCD. To add to the insult, not only did they not say what the correct wording actually was, they had also torn the original letter in two.
After three frustrating phone calls over the next week or so, I finally managed to get someone to email me the text of what needed to be said in the letter, and my former employers reluctantly wrote out another version with the "correct" wording. That was posted off the same day and I assumed all would be well. No such luck.
A week later I called to confirm that the letter had been received, and surprise surprise it hadn't. Fortunately I had thought to be prudent this time and had asked for a copy from my former employers, so the copy was duly sent, this time by special delivery signed for service so that there could be no doubt that it had arrived at their offices.
After confirming the date and time of the delivery and the name of the signatory, I waited a couple of days to allow it to process through their systems and called again. Want to guess the next bit?
They didn't have it.
I called again every day for the next week, and finally they reluctantly admitted that it must have been "lost", and could I send another one? Ypu can imagine that by this time my former employers were getting a bit fed up with running around after someone who no longer worked for them, and they said sorry, but no. Another helpful girl in the call centre said "don't worry, I'll get it confirmed verbally and sign it off". I gave her the contact details and she called him that day. She then phoned me back the following day and told me it was all sorted and that my premiums would be adjusted, but it was too late for this month's payment, so watch to see that it had changed the following month. "Don't worry, it's all fine now"
6 weeks later I checked my bank account and the original payment quantity was still going out. You can imagine how unhappy I was. After some deep breaths and a period to calm down I called again.
"Hello Mr C. Yes, I can see all the notes on our system, yes, I can see we have verbal confirmation of your NCD. Unfortunately it is now over 3 months since your policy started and your NCD has not been confirmed on our system, so it's no longer valid"
I was furious. I always avoid venting my anger on anonymous call centre reps, because it's highly unlikely that it was actually them who made the error, but I was particularly strident with this final person who to their credit accepted it with understanding and good grace. One of the final things she said to me confirmed what I had begun to expect.
"I get about six calls like this every week, always from people who had proof of NCD on a company car. I haven't ever seen one that actually got their NCD credited. It's ridiculous"
Based on my own personal experience and in my perhaps rather biased opinion, this is a scam. No company loses two letters from the same person, especially when one of them is signed for, and the delay in telling me that my original letter wasn't valid was clearly intended to get me closer to the three month invalidity period. Destroying that letter before sending it back strikes me as another way of making sure I couldn't go elsewhere.
As a result of their incompetence and/or dishonesty, I have lost all of my previous good driving credit and have had to start again from scratch. A quick calculation suggests that this episode will cost me approximately £3,000 in extra premiums while I build up my NCD again.
My renewal came through today, and of course I told them thanks but no thanks. I will NEVER deal with any company related to UK Insurance (Churchill, Direct Line or Green Flag) ever again.
All of the bove is just my experience of course, but if you want a less biased opinion, just click on this link and you will see a FSA ruling detailing how they fraudulently altered complaint records requested by the FSA and were fined £2.2m as a result.
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/FsaWeb/Shared/Documents/pubs/final/uk-insurance.pdf
Would you trust them to pay out if you ever needed to make a claim? I'll leave that for you to decide.
Company car drivers beware; insuring with Churchill or Direct line could end up being a very costly mistake.
Ready? Ok, I'll begin.
Just over a year ago I changed jobs. For the previous 10 years or so I had been "blessed" with a company car and the associate insurance, so didn't have any normal no claims discount (NCD). My new role came with a car allowance rather than a company car, so I needed to go find some insurance.
After a bit of searching, I discovered that a surprisingly small number of insurers accept proof of NCD from employers, and then only from your most recent employer, but as I had 4 years of history with my former employer I at least had a bit of credit to use. Of the insurers I searched, Churchill were the cheapest, so I went for them.
After sorting out the quote online, I spoke to a very friendly lad in one of their call centres and got the lowdown on what I needed to do to prove my NCD, which was to get a letter on headed notepaper stating that I'd had sole use of a car for personal and business use, that I'd had no claims or convictions and that I no longer had use of that car. My former employers happily printed that off for me and it was sent to Churchill.
A month later I received a very snotty letter from Churchill to the effect that my letter of NCD was no use because it wasn't correctly worded and that my premiums had increased by over 300% because I had no NCD. To add to the insult, not only did they not say what the correct wording actually was, they had also torn the original letter in two.
After three frustrating phone calls over the next week or so, I finally managed to get someone to email me the text of what needed to be said in the letter, and my former employers reluctantly wrote out another version with the "correct" wording. That was posted off the same day and I assumed all would be well. No such luck.
A week later I called to confirm that the letter had been received, and surprise surprise it hadn't. Fortunately I had thought to be prudent this time and had asked for a copy from my former employers, so the copy was duly sent, this time by special delivery signed for service so that there could be no doubt that it had arrived at their offices.
After confirming the date and time of the delivery and the name of the signatory, I waited a couple of days to allow it to process through their systems and called again. Want to guess the next bit?
They didn't have it.
I called again every day for the next week, and finally they reluctantly admitted that it must have been "lost", and could I send another one? Ypu can imagine that by this time my former employers were getting a bit fed up with running around after someone who no longer worked for them, and they said sorry, but no. Another helpful girl in the call centre said "don't worry, I'll get it confirmed verbally and sign it off". I gave her the contact details and she called him that day. She then phoned me back the following day and told me it was all sorted and that my premiums would be adjusted, but it was too late for this month's payment, so watch to see that it had changed the following month. "Don't worry, it's all fine now"
6 weeks later I checked my bank account and the original payment quantity was still going out. You can imagine how unhappy I was. After some deep breaths and a period to calm down I called again.
"Hello Mr C. Yes, I can see all the notes on our system, yes, I can see we have verbal confirmation of your NCD. Unfortunately it is now over 3 months since your policy started and your NCD has not been confirmed on our system, so it's no longer valid"
I was furious. I always avoid venting my anger on anonymous call centre reps, because it's highly unlikely that it was actually them who made the error, but I was particularly strident with this final person who to their credit accepted it with understanding and good grace. One of the final things she said to me confirmed what I had begun to expect.
"I get about six calls like this every week, always from people who had proof of NCD on a company car. I haven't ever seen one that actually got their NCD credited. It's ridiculous"
Based on my own personal experience and in my perhaps rather biased opinion, this is a scam. No company loses two letters from the same person, especially when one of them is signed for, and the delay in telling me that my original letter wasn't valid was clearly intended to get me closer to the three month invalidity period. Destroying that letter before sending it back strikes me as another way of making sure I couldn't go elsewhere.
As a result of their incompetence and/or dishonesty, I have lost all of my previous good driving credit and have had to start again from scratch. A quick calculation suggests that this episode will cost me approximately £3,000 in extra premiums while I build up my NCD again.
My renewal came through today, and of course I told them thanks but no thanks. I will NEVER deal with any company related to UK Insurance (Churchill, Direct Line or Green Flag) ever again.
All of the bove is just my experience of course, but if you want a less biased opinion, just click on this link and you will see a FSA ruling detailing how they fraudulently altered complaint records requested by the FSA and were fined £2.2m as a result.
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/FsaWeb/Shared/Documents/pubs/final/uk-insurance.pdf
Would you trust them to pay out if you ever needed to make a claim? I'll leave that for you to decide.
Company car drivers beware; insuring with Churchill or Direct line could end up being a very costly mistake.
0
Comments
-
Stick a formal complaint in and refer to FOS if it doesn't get sorted to your satisfaction0
-
Why not try another insurer and explain you have company car experience plus one year with Churchill and see if they'll give you a decent NCB?As a result of their incompetence and/or dishonesty, I have lost all of my previous good driving credit and have had to start again from scratch. A quick calculation suggests that this episode will cost me approximately £3,000 in extra premiums while I build up my NCD again.0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 349.8K Banking & Borrowing
- 252.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453K Spending & Discounts
- 242.8K Work, Benefits & Business
- 619.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.4K Life & Family
- 255.7K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards