Insurance Claim - begining of a nightmare

Pesto2606

Hi

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice early so that I can try and make this process as painless as possible.

Unfortunately I was a victim of a burglary recently and the *****s also stole my car. Lucky for me it has a tracker so we were able to locate and recover the car quickly. Due to the perpetrator still having the key I needed to get the locks and keys changed. (Not cheap on a Volvo start/stop system) Anyway, I was told from day 1 by More Than car insurance that I would be covered up to £400 on my locks and keys cover (I had no idea I had this) and that if I used this cover I could keep my no claims bonus, They also said if it was more I could pay the difference. Winner!!

Not winning now! Cutting a long story short I consistently kept calling More Than back to check that this was right information and to keep asking if they knew the cost of the repair yet and I was told it was right and they didn’t know the costs yet. More Than use a company called RSA who are some how owned by them and RSA carry out the work. I repeatedly rang More than and RSA and the RSA local garage to try and find out how much I needed to pay. Everyone basically kept saying I'd find out after the repair and it would be invoiced to More than. The day I picked the car up (RSA garage) they asked me to pay the excess, (£200) I was a bit sceptical and once again asked for the full invoice. They advised they didn't know the cost and they only repair the vehicles and the invoicing would be done by another part of RSA and sent back to More than and I'd need to settle it with them. I reluctantly paid and then called More than the next day to find out the invoice amount. They didn’t at that time.

I've called more than today who are now saying that this isn't the case and this has been processed as an actual theft claim. They've also told me that irrespective of which way it gets handled i.e. a claim or settling the difference I will lose my no claims?? (Surely that cant be right, you don't lose your NCB on additional windscreen cover.) They've also said they have no mechanism of taking / settling this payment with me. I'm so confused, this whole extra lock and key cover / pay the difference process seems totally disjointed. They are now saying they will listen to a call that took place 04/06/2015 and get back to me.

Does anyone work in insurance that could shed some light on this for me? Or Has anyone been in a similar situation. I genuinely have tried to cover my back at each stage of contact with more than and try to get a better understanding of exactly how this would work and what I needed to do. I've asked them to listen to ALL of the calls that have taken place but I doubt they will do.

I feel a complaint coming on - Especially if they've said I can do this and it wont affect my NCB and I end up losing them. (My fault for not protecting, I get it) but based on the conversations I've had this shouldn't be the case.

Please send any help or advice my way, if it does turn in to a complaint who can I go to? Will Citizens Advice help me? Is there someone I can get to check this out?

thanks

Mr_Mink

Are there any defining terms on the key cover? Maybe it says specifically for lost keys rather than stolen? That could possibly explain what has happened.

Pesto2606

Mr_Mink wrote: »

Are there any defining terms on the key cover? Maybe it says specifically for lost keys rather than stolen? That could possibly explain what has happened.

Thanks for the reply Mr Mink. My policy documents dont mention anything at all about this cover, but a valid point you make. I will ask More Than to send me the terms.

UPDATE

As I was typing this More Than called me back, The gent looking in to it was under the impression i would still lose my NCB and also quoted different invoice / settlement figure. He put my on hold and asked 2 other colleagues who all seemed to have different opinions so it appears there is slight confusion within the company. A complaint will be raised for me. If they listen to all of the calls I hope they honor what's been said on the phone

Johno100

More Th>n is the trading name of RSA Insurance Group Plc (Royal and Sun Alliance).

Throughout your novella you have not once mentioned your home insurers, the keys were stolen in a burglary, what have they had to say about covering the consequential cost of having to change your car locks?

EdGasket

Johno100 wrote: »

More Th>n is the trading name of RSA Insurance Group Plc (Royal and Sun Alliance).

Throughout your novella you have not once mentioned your home insurers, the keys were stolen in a burglary, what have they had to say about covering the consequential cost of having to change your car locks?

Home insurance usually excludes claims relating to cars.

Pesto2606

Johno100 wrote: »

More Th>n is the trading name of RSA Insurance Group Plc (Royal and Sun Alliance).

Throughout your novella you have not once mentioned your home insurers, the keys were stolen in a burglary, what have they had to say about covering the consequential cost of having to change your car locks?

Johno100 - This is the first time I've ever had to make a house or car insurance claim, so still trying to get my head around everything as well as the trauma of the whole situation. Dealing with these people isnt an easy job when you have no experience with this kind of stuff. I have got a house insurance claim going on so based on your comment I will now go and speak to them about covering the additional cost. But you don't know what you dont know!

The main thing here isn't the money, I'd pay the difference no problem. I'm just more confused about the promise to not lose my NCB and what other people's experiences have been.

AdrianC

Pesto2606 wrote: »

I'm just more confused about the promise to not lose my NCB

Never mind what your game of chinese whispers with the call centre led you to believe, what do your policy Ts & Cs say?

Pesto2606

AdrianC wrote: »

Never mind what your game of chinese whispers with the call centre led you to believe, what do your policy Ts & Cs say?

As i said above the policy itself doesnt mention the mysterious 'locks and keys' cover

Not sure why coming on here for advice opens me up to the line of fire. I'm asking for help / advice / experiences, I thought that was the point of this forum?

I'm a single young female, living on my own (away from family) and had intruders in the house while I slept upstairs, never had to make claims before and simply reaching out for people that would 'like' to help.

AdrianC

Pesto2606 wrote: »

As i said above the policy itself doesnt mention the mysterious 'locks and keys' cover

There's your authoritative answer, then.

Not sure why coming on here for advice opens me up to the line of fire. I'm asking for help / advice / experiences, I thought that was the point of this forum?

No "line of fire" that I can see... Call-centre monkeys can tell you whatever they like, and it might even bear a resemblance to the reality, if you're lucky. The paperwork you received is the authoritative answer.

A different policy from the same insurer may well include the lock cover - perhaps it's a paid-for extra. Yours, it appears, doesn't.

Aretnap

I would suggest that if the call centre drone did indeed assure the OP that the claim would not affect her NCD, and the OP chose to go ahead with the claim on the basis of that assurance, then the Ombudsman is likely to require the insurer to honour the assurance, even if the call centre drone got it wrong.

I would suggest making a formal complaint to the insurer as a first step (details of how to do this should be in the policy book), and if you're not happy with their response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman in due course. Obviously this depends on the call centre drone actually having told you what you remember hearing, so ask for a copy of the record of your phone call.

Pesto2606

AdrianC wrote: »

There's your authoritative answer, then.

I've just double checked the policy and it doesnt mention locks and keys specifically but I did notice a section under 'emergency care' which says

Replacement locks
We will pay benefit up to the amount shown as ‘Replacement locks’ in your Schedule. (which is the £400 I mentioned earlier)
We cover theft of your car key(s).
We will settle the claim by paying to replace the appropriate locks or locking mechanism provided that the identity or
location of your car is known to any person who may have obtained the keys without your permission.

WHAT IS NOT COVERED
We do not cover accidental loss of your car key(s)

So no mention of the NCD :mad: I guess I'll have to ride this one out and see what happens

Aretnap wrote: »

I would suggest that if the call centre drone did indeed assure the OP that the claim would not affect her NCD, and the OP chose to go ahead with the claim on the basis of that assurance, then the Ombudsman is likely to require the insurer to honour the assurance, even if the call centre drone got it wrong.

I would suggest making a formal complaint to the insurer as a first step (details of how to do this should be in the policy book), and if you're not happy with their response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman in due course. Obviously this depends on the call centre drone actually having told you what you remember hearing, so ask for a copy of the record of your phone call.

Hopefully you are right Aretnap, I've asked them to listen to all calls, They've raised a complaint this afternoon so I'll see what they come back to me with. If they say it wont be honoured then I'll ask for my notes and recordings to be sent to me and go from there.