Avoid Hastings direct!

charli.21

I have had the most terrible experience with Hastings direct. Following accepting a renewal quote, Hastings accidentally cancelled my policy leaving me with no insurance. I was told they were unable to rectify the problem despite taking whole responsibility for the error. They told me I would have to pay double the original renewal quote. After 5 days with no insurance and being told that it is illegal if I drive my car and that there is nothing they can do to rectify the mistake. I logged a complaint and after 5 days I am still without car insurance and I am yet to hear anything from the complaints team. The customer care is atrocious. By far the worst insurance company I have ever had to deal with. If you want a good quality insurance company with good customer care, do not insure with Hastings direct!

Quentin

You have done the correct thing by making a complaint.

If they cancelled the policy by mistake as you say then you have grounds to expect them to pay all your extra costs incurred as a result

You do need to either insurer your car or sorn it to avoid any penalties under continuous insurance enforcement.

So if you want to drive then maybe take out cover elsewhere now, notify Hastings by way of another complaint that you want them to reimburse you the extra costs and await their responses to your complaints.

If they ignore you for 8 weeks or you are unhappy with the responses you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi Charlie,

I am very sorry to see this situation has arisen. Whilst I don't have the particular details of this incident, I can only apologise if an error has caused your policy to be cancelled, which we will of course take very seriously.

Now the incident is in the hands of our complaints team, I am confident they will provide a satisfactory resolution. However, if this is not the case, then you can take your complaint forward to the Financial Ombudsman.

~Connor

PG1973

Hi Charli,
I too have been extremely let down by Hastings Direct. I requested a quotation, listing my estimated claim history - it wasn't available to hand - and took out a policy with them using the Smart Miles scheme. Paid a reduced rate and fitted the little black box which I was extremely happy with. One day into the policy I have received a cancellation of policy letter as they have discovered two other claims in my history (from 4 yrs ago, which were non fault and I thought had expired) and now want to charge me £125 for the one day I was insured with them. They will not requote with the amended details and I am extremely disappointed.

paddyandstumpy

PG1973 wrote: »

Hi Charli,
I too have been extremely let down by Hastings Direct. I requested a quotation, listing my estimated claim history - it wasn't available to hand - and took out a policy with them using the Smart Miles scheme. Paid a reduced rate and fitted the little black box which I was extremely happy with. One day into the policy I have received a cancellation of policy letter as they have discovered two other claims in my history (from 4 yrs ago, which were non fault and I thought had expired) and now want to charge me £125 for the one day I was insured with them. They will not requote with the amended details and I am extremely disappointed.

Don't forget to disclose the cancelled policy along with the full claims history to the next insurer.

FlameCloud

PG1973 wrote: »

Hi Charli,
I too have been extremely let down by Hastings Direct. I requested a quotation, listing my estimated claim history - it wasn't available to hand - and took out a policy with them using the Smart Miles scheme. Paid a reduced rate and fitted the little black box which I was extremely happy with. One day into the policy I have received a cancellation of policy letter as they have discovered two other claims in my history (from 4 yrs ago, which were non fault and I thought had expired) and now want to charge me £125 for the one day I was insured with them. They will not requote with the amended details and I am extremely disappointed.

Did they ask you for your 'estimated' claims history or your actual claims history.

If you have enough claims that you forget about 2 you've probably fallen outside of their underwriting criteria.

DCFC79

PG1973 wrote: »

Hi Charli,
I too have been extremely let down by Hastings Direct. I requested a quotation, listing my estimated claim history - it wasn't available to hand - and took out a policy with them using the Smart Miles scheme. Paid a reduced rate and fitted the little black box which I was extremely happy with. One day into the policy I have received a cancellation of policy letter as they have discovered two other claims in my history (from 4 yrs ago, which were non fault and I thought had expired) and now want to charge me £125 for the one day I was insured with them. They will not requote with the amended details and I am extremely disappointed.

Your past claims will be on your current policy. Why did you not phone back at a convenient time and provide the claim details ?