Sentinel Gold Renewal

mcampney

Hi,
I have just received a renewal for my Sentinel Card Protection. It appears to be automatically upgraded to Sentinel 'Gold' with supposed better benefits but at extra cost. There is no info on renewing to the Sentinel 'Basic' that I had before and the website makes no mention of 'Gold' at all just talks about the basic protection!

Is this sharp practice by Sentinel?

Has anyone challenged Sentinel on both this automatic upgrade and the increased cost not to mention the never ending automatic payment mandate?

authentic

Spoke to Sentinel - the Gold cover for £30 a year additionally includes locksmith fees if you ever need one and increased £ benefits; they also state that the standard cover is no longer available but if they feel that they are to lose your business they are likely to honor the £20 a year cover. I find it rather cheeky and dishonest, and because of that I am two minds about renewing my cover. I avoid doing business with those who try to cheat me out of my money.

Sentinel renewal issues have also been discussed elsewhere. Have a look. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=17970
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=6607563

jaywhat

Just found £70 taken from my account.

Phoned Sentinel and was told they were having problem end of last year. They were prepared to offer me a reduction as a loyal longstanding customer (since 1989 !)

I said I was disgusted. I regarded increasing the price without telling me as fraudulent and i cancelled my policy there and then and was promised after a lot of questions and 'offers' that my £70 would be recredited. I wait in hope.

I think it was Dom, on the One Show, who said that all these sorts of insurance on bank cards etc are basically a waste of money so I:j feel happy today.

casablanca_2

I too received a renewal notice for £30, despite having been a member for many years. On calling and canceling they offered to reduce the premium to £25, with talk of the valuable card protection.

I pointed out that I had been the victim of card fraud recently and it was resolved at no cost to me by my bank and, furthermore, that I have all the household and travel insurance that I need.

I will now do no more than have some key and luggage tags made with my mobile number on.

Money saved!

Taks

casablanca wrote: »

I too received a renewal notice for £30, despite having been a member for many years. On calling and canceling they offered to reduce the premium to £25, with talk of the valuable card protection.

I pointed out that I had been the victim of card fraud recently and it was resolved at no cost to me by my bank and, furthermore, that I have all the household and travel insurance that I need.

I will now do no more than have some key and luggage tags made with my mobile number on.

Money saved!

Card protection and Identity fraud are 2 different situations. One happens when (obviosuly) your identity and details are stolen electronically - which is usually covered by your card providers up to a certainvalue - and the other happens when you loose or have yyour cards physically stolen.

for the latter, the banks DO NOT COVER for any fraud upon those cards between loss and the time you cancel them with the bank.

understandably, most peopel can avoid identity theft by following common sense reasoning, and by only dealing with people face to face rather than over the internet (the number one source of ID theft) But try as we might, we can never predict when or if we are to loose our cards or in worst case senarios have them stolen from us. In these cases, surely the minute fee of £30 would be more than reasonable.

Think how bad you would feel if your credit card was stolen and someone went on a £3000 spending spree only for your bank to turn around and say "sorry, we cant cover for that"

I'd probably cry.

KevinG

£30 - consider yourself lucky! They were going to charge me £35 for this new improved level of cover despite it saying £30 on the web site. When I phoned to query it I was told that it was because I had originally taken out the policy through Barclaycard 20 years ago (probably true) and that their version offered an additional mobile phone cover that was not included in the standard price. I said I didn't want this so they reduced it to £30. I probably should have held out for more but as I had already passed the 14-day cooling off period and paid £29 last year I let it go for now. I do object to them continually adding new cover which people haven't asked for and increasing the premium, which has now doubled in just a few years. I've only had to use the policy twice, once for an address change and once following theft of a wallet. Both times it worked efficiently and was easier than doing it all myself, but is it worth the money? Probably not.

jbarnsley_uk

thanks for the tip, I too was an original barclaycard member, and I rang to complain that I was quoted for £35 when the website says £30, they said I was put on Sentinel Plus, (transferring barclaycard people first) I said my letter did not say that only sentinel gold and after she went through old benefits and new ones (which weren't that much more cop for an extra £5), I said the leaflet does not say 'Plus' and I hinted I'd leave by asking how many days had I left to cancel as I wanted to check out more competitive prices and she immediately offered £29 instead with same (supposedly 'plus') benefits.

TerriD

Just had my renewal in and its £70.

I searched on internet found I could get card care for £49 with Halifax for family cover.

So I phoned Sentinel told them about the price and they immediately dropped the renewal for 3 yrs to £60, I said if they could not match £49 I would terminate the policy.

They said they could not do £49 but they would agree to do £50!

Done deal. :j

menhirs4sale

just had same experience with sentinel gold - asking me £35 for renewal - when i asked why £5 extra on web price, was told that this was because it was 'sentinel gold plus', and that in future all customers would be compulsorily upgraded to this. No mention of 'plus' on my paperwork, they are trying it on... ended up paying £70 for 3 years

Capitano

Thanks people, useful stuff. I have just had the same deal - renewal request at £80, was £50 3 years ago thats a 60% increase. I travel in some dodgy places so basic card protection is a good idea, but at this price? Phoned them, said I was looking at another providers policy, and that the "extras" that they were offering were of no use to me. They offered me a 3 year deal for £60, which i took.

CheapAsChips_4

They want £70/3 years from me !!

One alternative which I found is TravellerSOS (.co.uk) which is currently £14.95/year = £44.85/3 years.

Don't know if they are any good but I'm just looking around for alternatives at the moment.