Car Insurance- 3 Speeding points

nobbysn*ts

kingstreet wrote: »

In cases of claims and complaint where there has been unintentional/innocent non-disclosure, the FOS has deemed the insurer's requirement for the increased premium for the time inbetween to be a reasonable compromise.

IMHO the request for the payment is reasonable here.

Why do you claim it's reasonable? Do you know how many years it covers, what the op's actual premium was, and what percentage £200 is annually? Do you know how much direct line load for 3 points? In the absence of these, OP, do a dummy quote, nearby address, car by type, not reg, made up name, but run without the points, then with. If it makes a difference, fair enough. If it doesn't, do a screen print, pay with bad grace, then made a complaint, escalate it to the FOS if you need to.

Quentin

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Why do you claim it's reasonable? Do you know how many years it covers, what the op's actual premium was, and what percentage £200 is annually? Do you know how much direct line load for 3 points? In the absence of these, OP, do a dummy quote, nearby address, car by type, not reg, made up name, but run without the points, then with. If it makes a difference, fair enough. If it doesn't, do a screen print, pay with bad grace, then made a complaint, escalate it to the FOS if you need to.

The flaw in this plan is that doing dummy quotes today proves nothing.

Nowadays 3 points makes little difference, but this £200 covers earlier years, (plus admin fees), when it may have made significant differences, but how can you compare todays dummy quotes with the premiums originally charged?

nobbysn*ts

You don't need to. Either it's right, the difference exists, op isn't being ripped off. Or it's wrong, there is no difference (no admin fees, as it would have been declared at the next renewal, not mid term), and it's worth a punt to the FOS. If the insurer can justify it to them, fair enough. OP doesn't have to prove anything either way though, and incurs no cost.

Quentin

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

You don't need to. Either it's right, the difference exists, op isn't being ripped off. Or it's wrong, there is no difference (no admin fees, as it would have been declared at the next renewal, not mid term), and it's worth a punt to the FOS. If the insurer can justify it to them, fair enough. OP doesn't have to prove anything either way though, and incurs no cost.

This charge has arisen because the OP didn't disclose it originally.

Your suggestion is the OP should do dummy quotes now to see what difference points make to the current premium - this proves nothing as posted.

(There will be admin charges involved as the insurer has been advised late, and changes do incur charges)

Though always worth making complaints and escalating them to the FOS as insurers are known to make goodwill gestures to nip complaints in the bud and avoid expensive management time (as well as money) defending them!

nobbysn*ts

Quentin wrote: »

This charge has arisen because the OP didn't disclose it originally.

Your suggestion is the OP should do dummy quotes now to see what difference points make to the current premium - this proves nothing as posted.

(There will be admin charges involved as the insurer has been advised late, and changes do incur charges)

Though always worth making complaints and escalating them to the FOS as insurers are known to make goodwill gestures to nip complaints in the bud and avoid expensive management time (as well as money) defending them!

The charge has arisen because the insurer want to charge. The three points prove nothing. The dummy quote will justify a complaint, or not, as posted.

rs65

Am I reading this right? She left DL in March then phoned them a few days ago to say she had points but forget to tell them?

Expedia

No she had the insurance with DL then rang them last week to inform them that she has had points back in 2012 and forgot to inform DL and they asked her to pay £200 for the increase in her last 2 years premium.
She paid the fee and cancelled her insurance the next day and now pays 1/3 of her DL premium for her new insurance (in fact her new premium is £290!).

Expedia

If she had cancelled her DL insurance and just got a new insurance with her 3 points from elsewhere she would have never had to pay out this £200 fee.

kingstreet

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

Why do you claim it's reasonable? Do you know how many years it covers, what the op's actual premium was, and what percentage £200 is annually? Do you know how much direct line load for 3 points? In the absence of these, OP, do a dummy quote, nearby address, car by type, not reg, made up name, but run without the points, then with. If it makes a difference, fair enough. If it doesn't, do a screen print, pay with bad grace, then made a complaint, escalate it to the FOS if you need to.

I said the request for payment is reasonable in the circumstances. I didn't say anything about the amount. Only the OP can realistically say what the premiums were over the period in question and whether the amount requested feels reasonable.

If the premium was £500 each year and £200 is the extra premium for a couple of years, then I'd say 20% per annum is a little on the high side and I'd be asking questions.

If the premium was £1,000 a year, then the addition is a lower proportion.

Unfortunately, we can't determine from here what amount would be reasonable without knowing the insured's circumstances.

I merely explained that charging a premium to make up what has been missed is acceptable to FOS in the case of what is deemed to be innocent or inadvertent non-disclosure.

Quentin

Expedia wrote: »

If she had cancelled her DL insurance and just got a new insurance with her 3 points from elsewhere she would have never had to pay out this £200 fee.

You should be telling her that, not us!