Beware - Dial Direct car insurance renewal quote 'included' Payment Protection

ginray59

This is the first time I've come across this & can't find an existing thread - apologies if there is one.

We received our Car Insurance renewal quote today from Dial Direct quoting a total price of £344.84 if paying monthly. Under the 'What's included in this price' section were the usual Comprehensive cover and Motor Legal Protction prices, underneath which was 'Payment Protection monthly payments only £8', in much smaller print. Their documentation clearly states they would automatically renew the policy for us unless we contacted them to advise them not to.

I phoned Dial Direct (on the given 0870 no.) to query this inclusion only to be told by their advisor that PP was not showing on his screen, was not included within the quote, and that the premium should read £344.84 (i.e. exactly the same as I had on their written quote). He couldn't explain why the premiums worked out the same with/without PP, nor why it had been included in the written renewal quote (nor did he seem to care or express any surprise). He just said it must be wrong!

I then asked him what would have happened if I hadn't rung, the policy had automatically been renewed and it subsequently became necessary to use the Payment Protection which we would have thought we had. He couldn't answer this either! He then told me that he would mark his screen to show that the policy was to be renewed unless we rang to advise otherwise and that as a result of this he had to go through a script with me - (one that had recently changed so he had to read it out to me). I said (1) that I would be getting others quotes & (2) if he wanted to do his script he could call me back as I was ringing on an 0870 number and wouldn't have had to listen to it if I hadn't have rung & the policy had auto-renewed. He said he couldn't do that & then proceeded to read out most of the info contained in my letter. I had to interupt as I was getting a bit angry by this stage and told him to call me back if he wanted to talk further. He said that this was his job, couldn't call me back and that he had finished but then said he needed to check my bank account number (yes, this was also clearly printed on the renewal quote and had been paying the Direct Debit every month since the policy started nearly a year ago!). At this point I hung up, which was far less rude than if I had told him what I thought.

Sorry, this has ended up longer than I planned, but I wanted to warn others that our Dial Direct Car Insurance renewal quote included Payment Protection (or did it?!!) and that they will do their utmost to keep you on the phone when you ring their 0870 number. This is yet another way that companies are trying to sell Payment Protection - except this way, they don't even offer it - they just include it on renewal!!