8 years no claims bonus.... thought I had 9, hit hard

savings_my_hobby

Hi everyone,

does this sound fair? I needed to renew my van insurance at the end of may, I switched insurance providers to get what I thought was a better deal. My original insurance providers quoted me £309.71
which was ok but I knew I could do better, the thing which really aggravated me was the fact the original providers tried to auto renew something I always ask specifically to opt out of as I prefer to shop around.

so i go on confused.com, found a better quote and contacted the new company, the quote was £247.21 with all the extras I required and always have. so they send me a letter asking for proof my non claims bonus (I told them it was 9 years, as I believed to be true having never received proof before) so I phoned them up when I realise I could only prove 8 years so then they try to charge me £56 extra = over 20% extra for one measly year, now surely this is excessive?

I mean 8 years is a pretty good record right? I'm pretty sure if i'd have told them 8 years right off the bat it would have not have amounted to £303.21.

in the end we agreed £36.10 extra but that was after I threatened to cancel and they threatened to charge me £90 cancellation fee, although I cant for the life of me find this £90 charge in the terms and conditions and nor could the insurance call centre guy point out where this was written. very stressful and expensive experience.

by the way the previous insurance company would not send me proof until my policy with them expired so I could not wait for the proof to arrive (which took 6 days)

all in all I saved £26.40 instead of £62.50

Marktheshark

As they could have cancelled the insurance outright leaving you calling the specialist drunk driver type brokers, I would say you got away quite lightly.

savings_my_hobby

while I appreciate your point, surely doesn't this reveal a flaw in the system? surely the original insurance provider should a) send me proof my non claims upon request? instead of expecting me to go 6 days without cover

and b) honor my specific request to opt out of the auto renewal, had they have done so I may not have been so keen to run to the next insurer.

not to mention my lost year of non claims (last claim was jan 2005).
Had they have got this correct there would not even be an issue.
(a +20% on top issue)

also I really do not think these greedy souls are in the business of handing back lump sums, especially when dealing with a driver who has not claimed for 8 (9) years, therefore effectively giving them money (if I only gave them £70 per year for the last 8 years it would amount to over £500 free money)

Quentin

The 20% on top won't all be down to the incorrect ncd.

It is likely that on top of any premium increase you also triggered an admin fee for making a mid term change to your details.

They look to start at around £25 and can be much more

agrinnall

Most insurers will have no or negligible difference in the discount for 8 and 9 years NCD, so the chances are that the Quentin is right and that in fact the vast majority of the charge is for admin.

Marktheshark

Sounds to me, you have a very fair insurer, more a happy ending tale than I got ripped off.

savings_my_hobby

Quentin wrote: »

The 20% on top won't all be down to the incorrect ncd.

It is likely that on top of any premium increase you also triggered an admin fee for making a mid term change to your details.

They look to start at around £25 and can be much more

the admin fee is £13.59 according to the term and conditions

also according to T's&C's if a cancellation is made within 14 days then you are required to pay the admin fee (£13.59) plus the cover you have received

in this case 247.21/365 =0.677 x 10 (number of days cover received) =£6.77

£6.77 +13.59 = £20.36 to cancel. a far cry from the £90 quoted by the call center operator who could not ever quote a source for his figure

but even so, the points listed in post #3 should be taken into account

savings_my_hobby

Marktheshark wrote: »

Sounds to me, you have a very fair insurer, more a happy ending tale than I got ripped off.

I asked was it fair? not stated I got ripped off.

I beg to differ with you

notbritishgas

savings_my_hobby wrote: »

by the way the previous insurance company would not send me proof until my policy with them expired so I could not wait for the proof to arrive (which took 6 days)

I am with SAGA and am concerned that they do not send proof of NCB years with the renewal (first insurance Co I have dealt with to do this).
To change insurer like the OP I would have to ask for the proof after the new insurance commenced and then hope it was received before the deadline set by the new insurer.
I can't help thinking this is designed to make changing as difficult and stressful as possible.
Is this a trend with all insurers now and if so has anyone had problems.

shortcrust

Yes I think it's fair. As mentioned, this would have been disastrous for you if they'd cancelled your policy. I'm surprised that isn't the aspect of this that you're focussing on.

Funny that you think you're 'effectively giving them money' because you've not claimed. Odd way to think about insurance.

savings_my_hobby

shortcrust wrote: »

Yes I think it's fair. As mentioned, this would have been disastrous for you if they'd cancelled your policy. I'm surprised that isn't the aspect of this that you're focussing on.

Funny that you think you're 'effectively giving them money' because you've not claimed. Odd way to think about insurance.

the only way to think about insurance in my opinion. its a question of value for money, try getting a paper insurance certificate out of them and if I have such issues in getting the correct non claims bonus or receiving it in good time imagine the issues I could get when actually making a claim... "but sir you have bird poo on your roof, you did not declare this as a modification, therefore you policy is invalid"
then there is the undisclosed £90 cancellation fee.
lets not forget I phoned them and informed them of the discrepancy, they did not discover it so to assume they would kick me out is veering away from reality, a driver with 8 years non claims is quite a gift horse.

I'm surprised no one has picked up on the auto renewal aspect, had I have left them to their own devices they would have committed me to them for a further 12 months despite me opting out surely this is not standard practice? they also wanted me to phone an 0844 number if I did not want to renew, surely another tactic of squeezing more money

so to conclude, you think its fair to;
- automatically auto renew against my wishes
- not disclose a £90 cancellation fee
- not receive correct proof of NCB
- have to wait for the policy to expire to find out the is a discrepancy between what you know and what you can prove
- be held to ransom by the new insurance company because of said discrepancy (ok £50 is not exactly being held to ransom but imagine if it was a £1000 policy and they wanted to add 20%, like i used to pay before I accrued my NCB )