Voided Hastings Direct Car Insurance

bibek

Hi,

We bought a new car insurance policy for my mrs starting from 26th Feb a few days ago. On comparison websites they were significantly lower than other competitors.
Went to Hastings site directly via a cashback site and got a quote which was a few quid more expensive (but about 30 or so cheaper after cashback) and purchased the policy with myself being a named driver.
Today mrs has receieved an email stating they're cancelling her policy and the reason theyve given is "Your circumstances have changed, or are differenct from what you originally stated".
To rub salt on the wound, theyre also charging £20 "policy arrangement" fee.
Seen quite a few posts online about Hastings pulling this. Mrs has been driving for 4 years and never had an issue. Not sure what the exact reason is (dont think theyll tell us) however will get on the phone as soon as the mrs is home from work.

Part of me thinks its because theyve sold policy for cheaper than what others were charging and now changed their minds ? £385 compared to approx £550+ from other insurers. Old article but see this (telegraph(dot)co(dot)uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/2793921/Hastings-Direct-fined-by-FSA-after-car-insurance-pricing-error.html)
After reading online and getting a dummy quote for her, im shocked now this little incident can double her premium if not more!

1) We obviously havent lied about anything so assuming its a mistake, can we take this further and get the cancellation recinded (will probably insure with someone else anwyay) ?
2) Any chance of getting the £20 fee back ? I see they dont even have a 14 days cooling off period which is bizzare when the policy doesnt even start for nearly a month! :mad:

Thanks for your input in advance.

Quentin

Whenever you are not happy with your insurance company the route to go down is a complaint in line with their complaints

Then if you are not happy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

As having a cancelled policy on your record to be disclosed to all other insurers you approach for quotes is such bad news you do need to do all that you can to get this cancellation rescinded

bibek

Quentin wrote: »

Whenever you are not happy with your insurance company the route to go down is a complaint in line with their complaints

Then if you are not happy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

As having a cancelled policy on your record to be disclosed to all other insurers you approach for quotes is such bad news you do need to do all that you can to get this cancellation rescinded

So it is possible to get this rescinded ? Obviously I don't think it will be easy, just wanted to know if it was a possibility. Logging a complaint to Hastings Direct tonight.

bibek

Update: Just got off the phone with Hastings Direct, apparently their underwriters do not give them a reason hence they haven't provided us with one. Good news though, lady from "New Business Review Team" said that we do not need to disclose this policy being cancelled for my wife as it had not even started. Cancellation/Void apparently only applies once the policy has started.

Have recorded the operators name/department/date/time of call for my records.

Oh, also managed to get £20 refunded without much effort.

Still think they've cancelled it as they sold the policy for cheap though..

QuagaarWarrior

Sounds like Hastings have got themselves in a mess again. Come on Hastings surely you don't want to go through all that again?

Hastings Direct fined by FSA after car insurance pricing error
One of the UK's largest direct motor insurers has been fined £735,000 after leaving thousands of its policyholders without car insurance after a pricing error.

The Financial Services Authority said Hastings Direct - which uses the 1066 number in its enquiry line - had failed to treat its customers fairly when it cancelling 4,550 policies after discovering they had been under-priced.

The problems occurred between July and September last year. Software problems meant that some customers were offered significantly lower premiums - in some cases by as much as £539.

A spokesman for the FSA said that the insurer "focused on the financial cost to itself and did not properly consider the detrimental effect on customers", many of whom had to arrange alternative cover at short notice. There was also a risk that with little notice some policyholders may have been left uninsured while the re-arranged cover.

The FSA said some customers may have had to pay higher premiums as they were obliged to declare that their last policy was cancelled.

Hastings is now contacting all customers affected, informing them that they could be entitled to compensation. Only those who complained about stress and inconvenience were previously offered any payment.

After FSA investigation Hastings also uncovered 150 cases of mis-selling where ancillary products were offered to customers when re-broking their cancelled policies.

Source: The Telegraph.co.uk - 28th July 2008

Jumblebumble

QuagaarWarrior wrote: »

Sounds like Hastings have got themselves in a mess again. Come on Hastings surely you don't want to go through all that again?

Hastings Direct fined by FSA after car insurance pricing error
One of the UK's largest direct motor insurers has been fined £735,000 after leaving thousands of its policyholders without car insurance after a pricing error.

The Financial Services Authority said Hastings Direct - which uses the 1066 number in its enquiry line - had failed to treat its customers fairly when it cancelling 4,550 policies after discovering they had been under-priced.

The problems occurred between July and September last year. Software problems meant that some customers were offered significantly lower premiums - in some cases by as much as £539.

A spokesman for the FSA said that the insurer "focused on the financial cost to itself and did not properly consider the detrimental effect on customers", many of whom had to arrange alternative cover at short notice. There was also a risk that with little notice some policyholders may have been left uninsured while the re-arranged cover.

The FSA said some customers may have had to pay higher premiums as they were obliged to declare that their last policy was cancelled.

Hastings is now contacting all customers affected, informing them that they could be entitled to compensation. Only those who complained about stress and inconvenience were previously offered any payment.

After FSA investigation Hastings also uncovered 150 cases of mis-selling where ancillary products were offered to customers when re-broking their cancelled policies.

Source: The Telegraph.co.uk - 28th July 2008

Wow just Wow
Have I understood this coirrectly?
Hastings are willing for their customers to incur higher premiums for the rest of their lives because they made a pricing error
They should have their license pulled for trying that on.
One of the things that makes me really happy in my life is that I have no fiscal need to use cheap and nasty insurance companies.
Buy cheap get cheap


Jumblebumble

rudekid48

Slow news day? Not worth getting excited about something that happened 10 years ago :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

rudekid48 wrote: »

Slow news day? Not worth getting excited about something that happened 10 years ago :rotfl:

No, but they could be up to their old tricks again. If they are, then yes, they should lose their licence for what amounts to criminal behaviour.

QuagaarWarrior

rudekid48 wrote: »

Slow news day? Not worth getting excited about something that happened 10 years ago :rotfl:

One of the more bizarre posts I've seen here.
So you don't care about a company's reputation, standing, ethics or way in which it treats customers?

rudekid48

QuagaarWarrior wrote: »

One of the more bizarre posts I've seen here.
So you don't care about a company's reputation, standing, ethics or way in which it treats customers?

I do, today, yes. Not that fussed about what happened 10 years ago. I trust that you no longer have any dealings with uk banks after 2008 seeing as history matters to you so much?

vicker

Sorry to divert thread, but Hastings pulled something similar on me.

Policy had already started and I ended up canceling the policy 4 weeks after it started as they wanted to charge me an extra £140. I cancelled rather than pay more. The wording on the letter says they have cancelled my policy. Is this now going to count against me for the rest of my life?! Even though I cancelled, not them???