Sabre/DriveSmart Cancellation of Car insurance

Jamie_98fernandes

I had taken out Black Box Insurance with DriveSmart(Sabre) through comparethemarket in June 2018 and have been using it for 4 months now without any problems. It was only until the 3rd of October that they sent a formal warning to my email stating that in 7 days they would cancel my insurance unless I get a service call booked in by Vodafone.

As soon I received this email I contacted them straight away to rectify this situation while speaking to them to book a date for the service call. They had to call Vodafone and book a date which was within the time frame, the date that vodafone gave me was the 5th of October. Which was within the time frame and this information was told to DriveSmart and were aware of the service call date.

So the person from vodafone came and serviced the black box and once it was complete I didn't really think about it. Until last week when I tried to login to the DriveSmart portal which was not working and tried to reset the password and wasn't sending me a reminder.

I forgot about until I saw on my bank statement that they refunded some money back to me. Which I thought was part of the premium they would refund because of my driving score. But out of curiosity I went onto the askMid website and found out that my car has not got valid insurance.

I was unsure why it was showing this so this morning I called them up to find out why askMid was showing this. Which is when they informed me that the Car Insurance had been canceled. They gave the reason that it was canceled due to me not telling them that the service call had been completed. This baffled me because they knew the date when the service call was and they are the owners of the box and should verify that the engineer had serviced it.

I would like to point out that they never formally informed me that the car insurance had been canceled by email or post.

My question is how will this affect my Car Insurance quotes now that they canceled a policy?
Could I contact the financial ombudsman and get this cancellation revoked from my record as currently the quotes are 5x-7x what I paid for this one.

Keep in mind that I am 19years old and passed in May 2018

Inner_Zone

Jamie_98fernandes wrote: »

I had taken out Black Box Insurance with DriveSmart(Sabre) through comparethemarket in June 2018 and have been using it for 4 months now without any problems. It was only until the 3rd of October that they sent a formal warning to my email stating that in 7 days they would cancel my insurance unless I get a service call booked in by Vodafone.

As soon I received this email I contacted them straight away to rectify this situation while speaking to them to book a date for the service call. They had to call Vodafone and book a date which was within the time frame, the date that vodafone gave me was the 5th of October. Which was within the time frame and this information was told to DriveSmart and were aware of the service call date.

So the person from vodafone came and serviced the black box and once it was complete I didn't really think about it. Until last week when I tried to login to the DriveSmart portal which was not working and tried to reset the password and wasn't sending me a reminder.

I forgot about until I saw on my bank statement that they refunded some money back to me. Which I thought was part of the premium they would refund because of my driving score. But out of curiosity I went onto the askMid website and found out that my car has not got valid insurance.

I was unsure why it was showing this so this morning I called them up to find out why askMid was showing this. Which is when they informed me that the Car Insurance had been canceled. They gave the reason that it was canceled due to me not telling them that the service call had been completed. This baffled me because they knew the date when the service call was and they are the owners of the box and should verify that the engineer had serviced it.

I would like to point out that they never formally informed me that the car insurance had been canceled by email or post.

My question is how will this affect my Car Insurance quotes now that they canceled a policy?
Could I contact the financial ombudsman and get this cancellation revoked from my record as currently the quotes are 5x-7x what I paid for this one.

Keep in mind that I am 19years old and passed in May 2018

What do the T&C's say?

Jamie_98fernandes

"""
1) Telematics
Where it is a condition of the Policy that a telematic device is fitted
or smartphone app enabled, it is your responsibility to ensure that
any party who has an interest in the ownership of your vehicle (such
as your partner or a hire purchase company) has agreed that a device
can be installed or enabled. If a box is to be installed this must take
place within 28 days of cover commencing. If a smartphone app is
being used this must be enabled and registered within 15 days of
cover commencing. Failure to comply with this condition will result in
the Policy being cancelled.
The telematic device or smartphone app must remain switched on
and in use at all times to allow us to monitor driving performance and
consider whether your premium should be adjusted. Premiums may
go up or down, dependent upon driving behaviour.
Box installation will be carried out by an approved network service.
You will be required to present the following original documentation to
the engineer at the time of installation.

"""

DoaM

Nothing else? Nothing at all about servicing of the box?

Ectophile

Before you contact the ombudsman, you need to make a formal complaint to the insurance company, and wait for their reply.


If you don't like their reply, or they don't close the case in 8 weeks, then you can go to the ombudsman.

Jamie_98fernandes

DoaM wrote: »

Nothing else? Nothing at all about servicing of the box?

Nothing Else about the Servicing the Telematics Box

Jamie_98fernandes

Ectophile wrote: »

Before you contact the ombudsman, you need to make a formal complaint to the insurance company, and wait for their reply.


If you don't like their reply, or they don't close the case in 8 weeks, then you can go to the ombudsman.

Yes I will make a formal complaint to DriveSmart.
Do you know whether this will stay on my record for cancellation of insurance?

AdrianC

So...

The insurer told you to get the box "serviced" within 7 days. (There were clearly some fault codes being transmitted, or nothing at all had been transmitted - so more of a repair than routine maintenance)
You arranged for the work to be done within that time window.
The installer failed to confirm to the insurer that it had been done.
The insurer did not know the work had been done, so cancelled as they'd warned you.

This is not your fault, and the insurer should reinstate the policy immediately as if the error had never happened - so there should be no cancellation ever recorded as happening. Obviously, you need to repay the refunded premium.

But... if there's something that you might have forgotten to mention, or have spun slightly, then that may well affect the situation.


The relevant bit of the Ts & Cs you quote is...

Jamie_98fernandes wrote: »

The telematic device or smartphone app must remain switched on and in use at all times to allow us to monitor driving performance and consider whether your premium should be adjusted.

James1968

If I remember correctly, if the insurer fails to notify you in writing, giving 7 days notice of cancellation, then the insurance policy is still in force.

I believe this was the outcome of a landmark desicion by the ombudsman a few years back.

Jamie_98fernandes

I forgot to update this but the outcome of this was good, the insurance company had reinstated the policy, all I had to do was repay the refunded premium