Hastings Car Insurance - new insurance problems

louis3

Hi


Can anyone help, am I the only one with this problem with Hastings.


I recently took out car insurance with Hastings Direct, paid the deposit and the first payment is due out tomorrow, however, I received an email saying this:

As part of our validation checks we are requesting:

• Provide clarification of all drivers’ occupations - Clarification of yours and any named drivers current occupations and lines of business.
• Please provide us with a copy of your renewal notice or a No Claims Discount proof letter from your most recent insurer or alternatively you can contact us to discuss the outstanding information.

I provided this information and then received this:

As part of our validation checks we are requesting:

• Your urgent action is required - Please contact us within 7 days from the date of this email to discuss the information we require from you.
• Your previous insurers have been unable to validate the amount of No claims Discount you have declared on your policy.
• Your previous insurers have advised there has been a break in your insurance cover of 2 months or more.

I am getting phone calls and email messages left saying they require more information. I have said I have a really bad signal where I am and being at work cannot take calls. They have said I can contact them by email or fax which I have yet still nothing! My payment is due tomorrow and am thinking of just cancelling it. I have never had any problems with insurance in the past so what is all this rubbish about a break in insurance and no claim discount! My previous insurance was Swinton and they were bad enough but managed to get a letter with no claims from them. No one at Hastings will tell me exactly what they require! Its stressing me out.


They are not responding to any of my emails (I even faxed my last email over to them).


I am in my 40's and been driving for well over 20 years (I have another car with over 12 years ncd!) I really don't know what to do.


Any ideas?

Quentin

If you read up here and on the net the reviews of hastings you may feel that biting the bullet and going elsewhere will be a cost effective move.

(Frying pan to fire sums up your move to them from swinton!)

fivetide

I haven't had any issues with the to be fair (they do some decent bike deals).


Looks like there might be an issue with the info from Swinton. Give them a kicking too. They should be able to sort the issue with Hastings themselves.

forgotmyname

Before you cancel ask for the costs involved. It maybe more than you think.

Time on cover and admin charges, Any non refundable services etc.

Are you trying to use the 12 years no claims or do you have alternative insurance for this vehicle? Was there a gap in cover?

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi Louis3,

Thanks for sharing your story here and I think I could be of service to you in this case. We manually confirm details such as claims history and No Claims Bonus (NCB) over the phone and some insurers do not share or only partially share information with us. Usually with Swinton we need specific branch details that we might not have and that would perhaps explain our first statement. However when there is a break in cover we must do our duty to investigate it for your insurer. This is because the NCB may have transferred to an unknown insurer during this time and been reduced. I appreciate that you feel it is stressful, however we would likely be able to resolve the issue with even just one call. If you would like to forward your email to me at help@hastingsdirect.com and provide your details I can look further into it or arrange for us to give you a ring. I'd be glad to help get it sorted out for you and I apologise if your correspondence hasn't been processed correctly. I will also be able to ensure that this is looked into for you.

Regards,

Joe

GrouchoMinx

No you're not alone.

I've just set up a new policy with them and had similar emails.

They insisted on Driver's licence, proof of NCD and V5 which I supplied.

Now they're saying discrepancy of date of vehicle ownership means I have to pay £25.

Phoned them and was told that the underwriters load according to length of car ownership time. IMO this is an admin fee, a nice little earner ...

As I had to pay DVLA for new logbook I'm saving nothing on the changeover. It's all about using small print to screw the customer, am not impressed with their customer service - if this is how they treat new ones, what are their current claimers experiencing?

I've got till Jan 5 to reorganise insurance - Happy Holiday!

Joe - your link isn't working, I'll see if you are on Twitter later

forgotmyname

Link works fine it opens your preferred email program.

Or just copy and paste the email address into your preferred email client.

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

GrouchoMinx wrote: »

No you're not alone.

I've just set up a new policy with them and had similar emails.

They insisted on Driver's licence, proof of NCD and V5 which I supplied.

Now they're saying discrepancy of date of vehicle ownership means I have to pay £25.

Phoned them and was told that the underwriters load according to length of car ownership time. IMO this is an admin fee, a nice little earner ...

As I had to pay DVLA for new logbook I'm saving nothing on the changeover. It's all about using small print to screw the customer, am not impressed with their customer service - if this is how they treat new ones, what are their current claimers experiencing?

I've got till Jan 5 to reorganise insurance - Happy Holiday!

Joe - your link isn't working, I'll see if you are on Twitter later

Hi GrouchoMinx,

Thanks for posting your thoughts, if you would like us to look into this for you we are on Twitter all day today or you can use the email address provided in the previous post.

Many Thanks,
Jamie

GrouchoMinx

Yes, link is working now. It wasn't earlier, maybe tablet or server problem.