Rant: Sick of Esure insurance and my policy hasn't even started yet!

vacheron

I received my car insurance renewal from Swiftcover on the 25th of July reminding me that my car insurance was due on the 22nd of August. The price seemed high so I hit the comparison sites and the cheapest came out as Esure at about half the renewal price. As I had the site open and the quote in front of me I paid for the policy in full straight away, even though it was almost a month until the policy start date.

In a couple of days the Esure pack arrived along with a letter stating that I needed to provide my renewal notice or proof of no claims letter from my current insurer to validate my no claims discount. I popped my Swiftcover renewal notice in Esure's postage paid envelope and returned it.

Fast forward to yesterday and I receive a text message followed an hour or so later by an e-mail threatening that I will have my insurance cancelled on the 18th of August if I don't contact them immediately. As my cover did not commence until the 22nd of August this seemed odd, so I called them.

The guy on the phone told me that the reason for the scaremongering letters was because I had not yet sent in my proof of no claims. I told him that I HAD sent it in, but even if I had not that their T's & C's stated clearly that said proof these must be received within 21 days of the commencement of cover, i.e August 22nd + 21 days = September 12th. So why was I being badgered on August the 7th! ?

He then went away and came back to state that my Renewal had been received but there was nothing regarding no claims in the documentation. I picked up the photocopy of the sheet I sent them with my name, policy number and no claims years circled thickly in red biro by me so that they would have no trouble finding it. It was only a single sheet so the fact that they had my e-sure policy number proved the correct sheet was received, however the adviser did not have a copy of the form I had sent in, just a note on the screen that the information was not provided. Because of this I have to send it in again.

So basically.

1: Esure don't understand their own terms and conditions and badger / threaten customers for documentation weeks before such documentation is required.

2: Esure cannot read a proof of no claims of a renewal notice, even when such information is circled in red pen by the customer to make it easy for them.

Basically I have lost all faith in their competence and my policy hasn't even started yet!

pimento

I'm surprised they didn't want the original. Direct Line wouldn't accept a print out of the pdf that Tesco car insurance emailed me; I had to ask Tesco to buck their system and senhd it by snail mail and then send it on to Direct Line.

It's a racket.

Here, found my original thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3645713

spike241

pimento wrote: »

I'm surprised they didn't want the original.

The OP may well have sent the original. The post just says they kept a photocopy

usefulmale

I think Pimento meant that they wouldn't accept the OP photocopy who now cannot send in an original as Esure have it.

vacheron

Correct. It appears that they must have discarded my original renewal quote when they decided (100% incorrectly) that it did not contain details of my current no claims discount. They then told me they would accept a PDF of my proof of no claims letter from my current insurer, providing it arrived by the 18th of August.

I pointed out that proof of no claims letter is only available once your existing policy has elapsed and my existing policy elapses on the 22nd of August, 4 days after their deadline and 4 days before their new policy even commences! The call centre guy then said I would have to call back on the 18th of August and request a 10 day extension to provide the documents, cap in hand, as if I was the guilty party!

This annoyed me and I pointed out, again, that their T's & C's clearly state that I have 21 days from the start date of the policy, not from the date of payment, to provide these documents and pointed him to their own FAQ here where the start of paragraph 3 clearly states this is the case.

I also explained that by applying their current logic, had I arranged the insurance on the 22nd (the day my existing policy expires), then I would have had until the 19th of September to do so. However because I gave them the full premium a month before their policy commenced for them to earn interest on in their account I was actually being penalised!

pimento

I think insurance companies assume you're a fraudster until you prove otherwise.

vikingaero

Problem with insurance companies are the human element who often have no consistency or common sense. The humans will make things up as they go along or depending on what side of the bed they got out of that morning.

We offloaded 4 cars from our family fleet policy to a single insurer. On two policies they accepted the proof of NCD. On the other two they said it wasn't acceptable.