Car Insurance non-declared points

dacouch

If the Insurer were asking for a reptrospective additional premium for your points it means they would have covered you for the conviction. This means they would not have voided the policy if you had a claim.

If the charges are reasonable your best bet is to pay them

dunstonh

What do you suggest I should do?

The insurance company are quite correct in what they are asking for. You obtained insurance using incorrect information that resulted in you paying less than you should. Once you declared it, they are quite within their rights to ask for the difference (this follows FOS actions in their non-disclosure guide).

You have a choice here. Pay them the money or have the policy voided, lose your no claims discount accrued for that period and have to tell your new insurer and your wife's insurer that you have had a policy cancelled by the insurer for non-disclosure and non-payment. That will also see your premiums rise and possibly see them refuse to offer you cover as well.

What you should have done at this renewal when you noticed the error is not tell the old insurer but change to a different one and declare it to the new one. Its still technically not right but it would mean you were covered properly from that point onwards and the old insurer is never going to know you had the points and wouldnt ask for the backpayment.

dacouch

Dunstonh I don't think not paying the extra and having the policy voided is an option, if they have asked for an extra premium it means they would have offered cover had they known about the conviction and would therefore have dealt with any claims (Subject to a satisfactory explanation of why they were not disclosed and payment of the extra premium). As the Insurers were in effect on cover for the twelve months and liable for any claims I cannot see that they would simply void the policy and refund the money.

The only options I can see are a) Pay the money in full b) Try and negoiate a reduced amount c) Try and get them to waive the charge which is very unlikely

mrrafs

im in the same position here.. 3 points innocent non-disclosure, no claims made.

They said that i owe them over £600 due to backdating the adjustment. I did a quick calculation using online quotes to see how much the difference would of cost me at today's premiums (taking into account that the closer you are to receiving your points the greater the insurance) and it was about £150-200.

I asked them how they calculated the £600 and they said that the computer calculated accurately how much it would of cost, but they could not say how it was calculated.

I did a mistake and i'm prepared to pay, just not get ripped off..

advice?

dunstonh

advice?

£150-200 may include first year discounting. So, its probably a higher figure than that on an existing premium. However, thats still a long way from £600.

Are they backdating over multiple policy years? i.e. was the non disclosure 2 years ago and you are having to pay two years worth of backpayment?

mrrafs

dunstonh wrote: »

£150-200 may include first year discounting. So, its probably a higher figure than that on an existing premium. However, that's still a long way from £600.

Are they backdating over multiple policy years? i.e. was the non disclosure 2 years ago and you are having to pay two years worth of backpayment?

thanks for the reply..

Yes its over 2 years, but my insurance was only £250 per year(my car is of little value). They phoned me back, and reduced the backpayment by just under £200. Simulated online quotes are about 30% increase(not including discounting) not the 70% they are now proposing.

If they meet me half way i.e. 50% increase even though that's 20% over(other online quotes), it would be acceptable. If they do not budge any more, then i will have to go thought their internal complaints procedure, and then the FSA?? I do not want to waste my time and their money doing this. Where can i get advice on this procedure or alternatives? ta.

dunstonh

They phoned me back, and reduced the backpayment by just under £200.

That seems more likely and what you would expect.

Simulated online quotes are about 30% increase(not including discounting) not the 70% they are now proposing.

You still have first year discount on those online quotes which you will not have with the existing insurer. That first year discount can be significant.

If they do not budge any more, then i will have to go thought their internal complaints procedure, and then the FSA??

The FSA do not handle consumer complaints. If you dont like the outcome of the internal complaints process then you can go to the FOS. However, the FOS have issued a guide to non disclosure and in that guide it says that for inadvertent non disclosure they can collect the difference of premium that should have been paid.

The problem is that currently you have a non disclosure on file. If you dont pay they can cancel the policy. So, in future you would have to declare to all providers that you have had a policy cancelled due to non disclosure. Suddenly you would find many wont offer cover and those that do charge you a heck of a lot more.

Basically, what you should be aiming for here is to pay the difference between what the premium should have been against what you paid and an admin charge (typically up to £50). Online quotes give you a guide to the difference but you need to use the same insurer and you need to factor out the first year discount.

One way is to get an online quote from that insurer now with the points and without. Then see what percentage difference there is. Then apply that to your premium.

mrrafs

:beer:
I went to their site and simulated the extra points with their system, to get an accurate price.

They got back to me, and said the backdated is a total of £250. i.e. an increase of 50%. Claiming it was a 'technical error'. gah...

This seems a fair price if a £50 admin charge is taken into account. Glad to say that persistence, polite patience, reason and good advice wins again.

thanks mr dunstonh..

twinnymum

I am experiencing a similar thing I am glad you have sorted out a reasonable price with them. We didnt disclose my husbands 3 points cu80 which he incurred over 3 and a half years ago - purely by accident it wasn't intentional at all and it only became apparent recently as we have had to make a claim as the car was stolen. I informed the insurance yesterday about this, after many sleepless nights with worry and they did not seem overly concerned but they did say they would have to add the extra premium on. I was very relieved at this as you can imagine as I thought they would take the opportunity to decline the claim.

This morning I went on Egg and put in all the same details as our current policy with the 3 points declared to see what type of extra premium we are talking about, and it has gone from 500 per year to 1300! So if this is accurate it means we will be paying at least this when the claim is settled, or maybe 1600 as we have had this car for 2 years. I really dont mind paying a few extra hundred pound, but 800 is far too steep - can anyone offer any advice on this?

thanks

Quentin

Had you correctly disclosed the points in the first place, then you would presumably have gone elsewhere, as it seems egg don't want customers with your profile (PLUS the points) unless they are prepared to pay the large loading they apparently add on.

If £800/year is their normal loading, then prepare to bite the bullet, (might have an extra admin fee to pay on top, sorry).