Allianz - comprehensive policy has no 3rd part cover alert

derbylass

Hi, forgot
I did not ask for DOC as it has always been included in 30 years worth of policies.
My point is that: on the website, it is not made clear that 3rd party cover is not included as standard. On the phone, it is says the customer services.
DL

derbylass

Hi, dacouch
I agree, I got the quote through a comparison site.

DL

derbylass

neilmcl wrote: »

A lot of comp policiies now no longer include TP cover for driving other vehicles. More often than not it's now an optional extra.

OP, I'm not sure what you have to complain about. It's up to you to check what cover you're getting BEFORE taking out the policy. If not happy then you can of course cancel and go with another insurer.

Adrian C

This is the first time this has been an issue, the point I am making is that if they can be bothered to tell people on the phone that 3rd party is not covered, they need to do it on the website as well.

DL

derbylass

kev25v6 wrote: »

It's worth checking if the third party car has to be insured by someone else at the same time or not for your own policy to cover it while you are driving. I've always checked when renewing if it's covered or not just due to the fact I get through a lot of cars and not all are always insured by the owner when I want a test drive.

Hi,

Thanks for the advice.

DL

straighttalker

Given that many people buy insurance based solely on price alone, insurers strip out a lot of the extras to keep costs down. DOC cover being one of those extras. Nowadays, you'd have to check with the insurer that it is included in your policy rather than assume.

I'm with Swiftcover. Very competitive and they include DOC cover. They also mirror NCB for any second car you would insure with them. Would it be too late to cancel the policy? Perhaps incurring a small cancellation fee would be worthit in the long run if you could go to another insurer who offers what you want?

InsideInsurance

derbylass wrote: »

Adrian C

This is the first time this has been an issue, the point I am making is that if they can be bothered to tell people on the phone that 3rd party is not covered, they need to do it on the website as well.

DL

Firstly, as has already been said, it does cover third party otherwise it wouldnt be comprehensive insurance. What you are talking about is Driving Other Cars or DOC which extends your cover for TPO from your car to any other car not owned by or leased/hired to you

For many years now there has been a race to the bottom as customers become increasingly cost conscious and it becomes increasingly easy to compare costs. Whats the easiest way to reduce costs whilst keeping your shareholders happy? Reduce the quality of the product which in insurance terms is generally reducing the level of cover offered.

As such you are seeing many of the traditional standard features stripped from policies and changed into optional extras.... DOC, glass cover, Personal Accident, courtesy cars, key cover etc

Due to the differing priorities of people you may also find that the same insurer offers different products and/ or different default of opt in/ opt out for optional extras by distribution channel. Get a quote from an aggregator and your likely to find everything is stripped out to get them to the top of the list. Get a quote over the phone and you're more likely to find things included as those that still phone round rather than using aggregators typically are not as price sensitive and can be more easily sold to on features rather than just price.

Indout96

Whats the easiest way to reduce costs whilst keeping your shareholders happy?
Reduce the quality of the product which in insurance terms is generally reducing
the level of cover offered.

Or this could be rephrased as "charge us for many items we don't want / use" in the past.
We moved both our cars to Allianz in November via Compare the market. The online form does show exactly what is covered in the price and what you can add on if you need it. You could not get to the payment page without passing this. (unless they have changed the site)

I would hardly call being more open and not upselling in small print with "a race to the bottom"

InsideInsurance

Indout96 wrote: »

Or this could be rephrased as "charge us for many items we don't want / use" in the past.
We moved both our cars to Allianz in November via Compare the market. The online form does show exactly what is covered in the price and what you can add on if you need it. You could not get to the payment page without passing this. (unless they have changed the site)

I would hardly call being more open and not upselling in small print with "a race to the bottom"

A previous piece of work was to align products to brand positioning for a multibrand group which had come to realise that their "budget" brand actually had the highest level of cover. A piece of customer research was done and whilst awareness of what their policies covered was low when you inform people about things like PA or Glass cover they all say that they do want them.

You cant really class it as upselling when there was no historic way of buying Comp cover without things like Glass, PA etc

Adding things back as optional extras is one thing, there are plenty that are also stripping features/ coverages without the option to add them back in (admittedly more in Home than Motor) as optional extras

Indout96

You cant really class it as upselling when there was no historic way of
buying Comp cover without things like Glass, PA etc

When I was a working in insurance (1979 - 1983) Windscreen cover was an extra (sold as a separate policy - we used B&P)

I also think that this banding of product could be the next miss-selling claim ?? - we are already hearing claims companies on radio adverts talking about claiming for grouping of bank accounts with "free" travel insurance ect and saying that people may have a claim for miss-selling.
I managed to get Virgin to drop the price rise last year as they were bundling "Free" BT Sport in to my package which I did not ask for or require at the same time as putting the price up.

AdrianC

Indout96 wrote: »

I also think that this banding of product could be the next miss-selling claim ?? - we are already hearing claims companies on radio adverts talking about claiming for grouping of bank accounts with "free" travel insurance ect and saying that people may have a claim for miss-selling.

I took out an insurance policy the other year, which shouted loudly about "Free Breakdown Cover!". The guy on the phone confirmed that it was indeed on my policy. Except the small print said it only applied to vehicles <20yo, and the one I'd just insured was 21yo at the time.