Diamond Insurance Taking My Partner For A Ride

Stoke

My girlfriend decided to take a brand new policy out with Diamond Insurance at the end of last month. She used Compare The Market and their deal came out the cheapest.

After just a week or two of the policy, she is now having problems. They initially quoted just over £300 which she was happy to pay in one lump sump. They have since debited her account another £81. On the phone, they told her this was because her named driver (her father) had been involved in an accident and her mother (who isn't named on the policy) was also involved in an accident.

Her father was involved in an accident, but this was a non-fault claim and she definitely listed this when filling out the insurance. Her mother was also involved in a separate accident, again, non-fault but exactly what has this got to do with her policy? Her mother is not a named driver on the policy and how they got hold of this information is rather worrying.

To make matters worse, she has now received an e-mail telling her that her driving license is 'Exchangeable'. According to Google, this means her license is 'foreign' and needs to be exchanged for a British one. My girlfriend was born in England, has lived here her whole life and has never even driven in a foreign country, let alone got a driving license in one. Her driving license is just the same as every other British citizen in this country.

She has been informed that she has till the 17th of March to provide proof of her license validity, otherwise her insurance will be cancelled. As you can imagine, the stress and worry this is causing her to panic, as we all know that insurance cancellation is the big killer.

Right now, I'd be happy for her to cancel this insurance with Diamond under the cooling off period, because they're treating her absolutely disgustingly in my opinion. Is this an option? The insurance has only been valid for about 10 days, so doesn't she have another 4 until that cooling off period finishes?

Right now, what do you suggest we do? Apart from NEVER go with Diamond insurance again!!!!

David_InsDef

When she took the policy out, they will have issued a Statement of Fact document showing all of the information contributing to the quote.

Was her father's non fault accident on this document?

InsideInsurance

You need to go through the schedule and check whats there and not in particular with the claims, named drivers and licenses.

You can cancel the policy, the cooling off period is irrelevant to most Motor policies though some will charge things slightly differently after the period has expired.

As a guess to your mothers claim, was that on your fathers policy? If it were then that could be their argument as to why it needed to be a claim declared against him.

Admiral Group, the one behind Diamond, are particularly good at identifying discrepancies between the bought policy and prior quotes, one of the key reasons not to "play" using your real details.

Stoke

The mothers claim was a non-fault claim on her own policy, not related to her fathers policy at all. They have separate policies and are not named drivers on each others vehicles. Ultimately, this is a policy which has absolutely no links to my partners so why are they crawling for information that they shouldn't?

My partner has had another phone call and they claim that she misrepresented the claim involving her father. It was non-fault claim therefore she only put that he had been involved in a Non-fault accident in the last 5 years and didn't put any further details such as date. They claim the fact that it was a non-fault claim is irrelevant and that he is 3x more likely to have an accident. She is going to phone back and ask if she can get her £81 back if she takes him off because he has third party anyway.

They also claim that my girlfriend put on the form that her driving license is exchangeable, something she disputes. I also find it hard to believe. She's had insurance from various companies in the past and never made that mistake before. She asked them why they couldn't look on their own system as to the validity of her license and apparently this goes against 'Data Protection'. Didn't stop them raking up a policy that wasn't at all related though did it? Slimy !!!!!!s.

To be fair, they've lost a customer now. I was very close to taking a policy out with them. I'll now go for Tesco who are a few pounds more but will be less hassle by the sounds of it.

InsideInsurance

I think there is a fair amount of misinformation going on given you cannot progress on the Admiral or Compare the Market site without putting details of a declared claim in so your g/friend saying she didnt bother putting anything in because it was only a non-fault claim isnt the truth.

So she either did give the right information or she made something up as she didnt think it was important.

If she isnt being 100% honest on this part it does make the rest of the elements slightly questionable.

Stoke

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I think there is a fair amount of misinformation going on given you cannot progress on the Admiral or Compare the Market site without putting details of a declared claim in so your g/friend saying she didnt bother putting anything in because it was only a non-fault claim isnt the truth.

So she either did give the right information or she made something up as she didnt think it was important.

If she isnt being 100% honest on this part it does make the rest of the elements slightly questionable.

OK, well then I don't know. She tells me she put the details but that it was a non-fault claim, which it was and she put nothing more than was required. They've come back and said they're not happy.

I'm not exactly sure what you're accusing me of? Fraud? We've never had this on an insurance policy before ever and we've never had a problem.

InsideInsurance

Stoke wrote: »

OK, well then I don't know. She tells me she put the details but that it was a non-fault claim, which it was and she put nothing more than was required. They've come back and said they're not happy.

I'm not exactly sure what you're accusing me of? Fraud? We've never had this on an insurance policy before ever and we've never had a problem.

Not accusing you of anything simply pointing out that the story as presented, eg the date of claim wasnt given, cannot be true and therefore it makes it hard to assist.

Many people dont pay much attention when filling in forms etc and so it could be she forgot what she did, she got confused/ distracted when doing and doesnt want to admit it now, that she isnt wanting to tell you the truth for some reason or it could even be your retelling of her story is slightly inaccurate. There is no accusation there just a statement that as presented it cannot be true and so if one bit is erroneous then is possibly other bits? etc

Stoke

Another phone call. They're unwilling to refund the entire £81, just £24 if she removes her father. How the hell does that work?

Turns out she didn't make a mistake. She put the correct details down but Admiral/Diamond whatever are disputing that it's a non-fault claim. It's shown up as a fault claim, which is incorrect, he was run in the back of by a young driver. No idea where we go from here.

They'll never have me as a customer though.

kingstreet

Stoke wrote: »

Admiral/Diamond whatever are disputing that it's a non-fault claim. It's shown up as a fault claim, which is incorrect, he was run in the back of by a young drive

It's possible the entry on CUE they are using for the claims data was incorrectly set up by the insurer concerned with the claim.

InsideInsurance

Stoke wrote: »

Turns out she didn't make a mistake. She put the correct details down but Admiral/Diamond whatever are disputing that it's a non-fault claim. It's shown up as a fault claim, which is incorrect, he was run in the back of by a young driver. No idea where we go from here.

How long ago was the incident?

A claim only becomes "non fault" in most insurers eyes when they have paid out for the repairs and then gotten all their money back from the third party/ their insurers. Whilst liability can be quickly established the payments bit can take months, if not years.

They will have looked on CUE to find the details, your father should check with the insurer that dealt with the claim to ensure (a) its closed and (b) they have now noted it as non-fault on CUE

Stoke

I forget the exact date of the accident but it was December. What you've said sounds plausible.

I guess we'll have to phone them back and explain. Bloody nightmare this is lol.

I appreciate your help, and apologies for snapping before. This has been pretty stressful.