Have Admiral kept money they shouldn't have?

steveeeee

Hi all,

A quick question (but a long story leading up to it) about a refund I believe I should've had from Admiral after making a few changes to my policy details recently. I've swapped cars with my wife (the 5-door makes it easier to get our baby's car seat in and out) and needed to let Admiral know, so I called them up on August 15th and changed the car on my policy from a Mazda 6 to a VW Polo.

My renewal date was September 3rd and I asked about that and was told it was too early to renew as I hadn't received my renewal reminder letter yet, so I let that lie. A few days later I got a letter from Admiral which said "thank you for letting us know about your car change, this has decreased your premium by £110 and we will refund this to your credit card shortly".

I then got the renewal letter with a new premium of £570 for fully comp. This was higher than last year because I had an SP30 a few months ago. After a bit of research online and some dickering with the renewals dept I got them to price match an online quote of £380 :money: (£190 saving!!!) , confirmed that this would be taken from my card on September 3rd, and thought no more about it...

...Until the other day when I was sorting out my paperwork and was reminded about this refund. I checked all my cards and it's not showing anywhere, so I never received it. I called Admiral to query this and was told that the £110 refund were rolled into my renewal discount. No mention of this was made when I was haggling.

So what they're saying is I've had the refund and had a discount of £80 (original premium £570 - £110 refund = £460. £460 - £80 discount = new premium £380). But in my mind they still owe me £110 as I should've paid £380 and had the refund as well. Which is right?

My brain hurts so any advice would be much appreciated!

mrbadexample

Sounds to me like you're quite right. If they didn't mention the £110 refund being included in your renewal offer, then that amount is outstanding. I'd be writing to the company director about now....

Wig

You write a letter (write is better). Give them a copy of the letter saying 110 refund, and say this amount is still outstanding and owed to me as per copy of letter enclosed. Please pay this money promptly.

Don't mention the recent phone call - don't mention they have said it was "rolled over"

Wait for the written reply then you can take things further.

If they pay up fine
If they say in the written letter about it being rolled over.

Write a reply saying you did not agree to this and ask them for evidence they have of you ever having agreed to this. As far as you were concerned you were asking them to price match a quote, and the 110 amount was never mentioned, because you considered the two matters completely seperate.

steveeeee

Thanks Wig and mrbadexample for the replies. I'm glad someone agrees me with me, I thought I was going mad! Sounds like a letter is the way to go - I'll write and post it tomorrow.

Wig

Unless they have taken £270 off your card for this years premium

steveeeee

Wig wrote: »

Unless they have taken £270 off your card for this years premium

Good call. Just checked and it was definitely £380, though.

mrbadexample

steveeeee wrote: »

Sounds like a letter is the way to go - I'll write and post it tomorrow.

Make sure you send it to the biggest cheese you can find. Start at the top: !!!!!! rolls downhill.

steveeeee

OK, I was too impatient to wait til tomorrow so I called customer services again to query the missing refund. This time I was told to call renewals. Bloke in renewals told me that the wording on the letter was incorrect and that when it said "refund" it meant "credit towards your renewal". I pointed out that I didn't care what it meant; what it said was "refund". He said there wasn't anything he could do.

Next I called the policy complaints line and went through all the details again. The guy had a look at the letter I'd received and admitted that the wording was incorrect and misleading and the £110 was a credit towards my next renewal. He also spotted that if it had been a refund, the amount should have been a lot less. The £110 was calculated across the whole year, not just for the 2 weeks left between the date of the change and my renewal date. The actual refund amount would have been only £16.

He told me that he had never had a complaint about this specific letter before but he would personally follow it up and get the template changed to better reflect its meaning.

Since I got confirmation of the £110 refund in writing, I assume there may be some legal route for me to push back and actually get the full amount (small claims court?) but to be honest, I've got enough going on at the moment to bother. Also, reading about banks closing customers' accounts after successful claims for overdraft charges refunds etc makes me wonder if Admiral might refuse to renew my policy next year if I kicked up a fuss. Admiral are the cheapest for my car insurance by at least £100 and it would be pointless to fight for £110 now only to have to spend an extra £100 later on.

So thanks again for the replies, and sorry to disappoint by wimping out!

mrbadexample

Ahhh....well....errr....If you put it like that, I think the best you can hope for is your £16 quid, plus a little something for the aggro. Hint, very, very nicely and see what happens.

Wig

I was going to ask you How the heck you got a £110 refund on a policy which you changed just 18 days before renewal. I was thinking that would make your 1st car's premium something like £2,400

£16 makes much more sense. And I agree it's too much hassle to make a fuss about. Forget it.

Actually what he has said is that you theoretically were given a £110 discount on your renewal, but you should have only been given £16 which means your original renewal figure included the mistake by £94 in your favour.

However all of that benefit from the mistake became irrelevant when you asked them to price match £370, so you have actually paid £386

And I'm not sure if it is legal for them to automatically re-direct your refund to your renewal premium. What if you decide not to renew with them? And shouldn't they indicate on the renewal notice that this premium includes a rolled over amount - which is yours to keep if you decide not to renew with us. ?