Mis sold car insurance

Advicewanted_2

In September of 2010 I passed my driving test, found myself a nice little car and started looking around for car insurance. After searching through many comparison websites and receiving ridiculous quotes of over £2,000 (as 17 year old lads do), i was told i would have better luck trying to ring individual companies. After ringing around a few more companies to find out it would still be around £1,800 for my car insurance i was about to give up when i thought i had struck lucky with the final company i rang. I told them that i wanted car insurance which would cover me as the main driver and having my mom as an additional driver because i didn't want to risk being put as the additional driver on my moms policy and the policy being invalid (as many of my friends had done).
The salesman on the phone told me that this was fine and that i would be the main driver and gave me a quote of just under £1,400 which i thought was brilliant. Before agreeing to take out the policy i even checked again with him that I would definitely be the main driver with my mom as an additional driver which he again confirmed. I therefore took out the policy as I knew i was unlikely to get a better quote.

Two years later when i try to take out my next car insurance quote i tell the next company that i have 1 years no claims only to later find out that the first company had in fact ignored my request and put my mom as the main driver and i had been an additional driver therefore meaning i didn't have any no claims discount meaning my next quote was much higher that it should have been.

I was wondering if this would be classed as miss selling by the company? Would i be entitled to compensation? And does anyone have any advice for me regarding my next steps?

Thanks, Rob.

InsideInsurance

It wouldnt be miss selling, it would be an administrative error

What did the paperwork say that turned up when you bought the policy?

Ultimately raise a complaint with the company in question and follow their complaints procedure. As an outsider though it sounds odd you asked them a dozen times that they'd done it the right way round. Whilst mistakes can happen most wouldnt consider the competence of call centres to be so low that you need to ask that many times which makes me wonder if the story isnt 1000% true.

Thankfully most insurers and brokers store calls for a couple of years so it isnt too hard for them to listen to the tape of the conversation

TSx

Did you check the documentation they sent you? If not, you have some responsibility to bear - and if the documentation shows that your mom is the main driver, then your going to have a battle as you will need to prove that you said several times that you were to be the named driver.

Either way I would send a formal complaint in writing to the original company, asking them to check their records. Hopefully they'll still have the telephone call to listen to. You can escalate to the financial ombudsman if you are not satisfied with their response, which they have 8 weeks to provide.

In the meantime, you don't have a valid NCB to use so you will need to pay any extra premiums requested.

dunstonh

Would i be entitled to compensation?

No. That isnt how clerical errors work. You would expect the call to be reviewed and if they agree with you then a correction made. They may give you a small administration goodwill payment of say £25 if they are at fault to cover your time and phone call.

Advicewanted_2

Thanks for all the quick replies. As i said before, i first took the policy out in 2010 which was a while ago now and to be honest as an impatient and probably quite stupid 17 year old, I wasn't really bothered about the insurance once i had taken it out so i doubt i looked at the policy details paperwork but I normally keep most paperwork for a long time so will try and find it. In response to the reason i double checked with the guy, this was because there had been much debate whether to put me as the main driver or not and I have to admit that the quote he gave was suspiciously low so I felt i had to check for a second time to make sure the details were correct. I know this sounds weird but I had put a lot of effort into searching through many insurance quotes over about a month and wanted to make sure it was all genuine.

Thanks for the advice, i will try and get back in contact with the insurance company but i know that the odds are stacked against me as it is just my word against theirs. I was just shocked as the quote increases a lot if no 'no claims' can be proven.

InsideInsurance

Advicewanted wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, i will try and get back in contact with the insurance company but i know that the odds are stacked against me as it is just my word against theirs. I was just shocked as the quote increases a lot if no 'no claims' can be proven.

It may be or they may well have telephone records. Certainly most of the insurers I;ve worked for keep all call recordings for 7 years.

What does go against you is the 3 years of paperwork thats been sent and you've not noticed it there either.

There is another possible outcome which is your mother was the policyholder but you the main driver. This would have met your requirement of being legal/ not fronting but would mean, with most insurers, that your mother would be the one gaining the NCD as the PH even you you were the main driver

TSx

Just a further question as well - since you've had this for several years, what name are they putting on letters they send to you? It would be unusual for them to send the documents out to you in your name (as either the named driver, or the main driver but not the policyholder), and if they were in your moms name would that not have been a bit of a red flag?

Advicewanted_2

I only had the policy on that car for one year in 2010 as i then sold the car which is why i have not tried taking another insurance policy until recently. But yes you are both quite right, I think what happen was that my mom was the policyholder because the car was in her name also and the first letter they sent was addressed to my mom. I did not realise that i could be the main driver but not gain a no claims discount because the policy was in someone else's name. Thanks for your help everyone. Looks like i will be paying a higher premium for a while still then.

vaio

As above, complain to the insurer and escalate to FOS is still unhappy at response

Having said that, I suspect you will struggle as the certificate & policy docs will have been in your mothers name and insurer will argue you should have spotted it earlier.

Obviously, as you only paid the lower premium with your mother as main driver then they might try and reclaim the additional premium you should have paid originally

thenudeone

Advicewanted wrote: »

But yes you are both quite right, I think what happen was that my mom was the policyholder because the car was in her name

It is not essential for the policyholder to be the owner or registered keeper. It usually happens that way, but it doesn't have to be.

magpiecottage

Actually, it probably won't now make any difference.

The policy was taken out in September 2010 for one year. So it expired in September 2011.

The OP then had no policy until 2014.

Since most insurers seem to allow NCD to be held for up to two years I doubt the OP will have one available anyway.