Should car insurance companies be giving a rebate due to lockdown restrictions?

bradders1983

Direct Line have been giving refunds out. Got an email a fortnight ago saying if I am doing less miles at the moment they will look at it. So i filled the form in not expecting much, and on Friday they refunded a whole £10.08 to my bank account without telling me 🤣

Norman_Castle

"If they were going to refund because it was the “right” thing to do they would have done it near the start like Sky TV"

At the start insurers didn't know how drivers would behave or the effect on claims.

davidmcn

Norman_Castle said:

"If they were going to refund because it was the “right” thing to do they would have done it near the start like Sky TV"

At the start insurers didn't know how drivers would behave or the effect on claims.

And what's the "fair" way of doing it? Many drivers will be doing the same mileage as expected (or even more if they're e.g. avoiding public transport).

Plus millions will have renewed since lockdown came into effect, so may have accurately predicted what their mileage will be for the current year (though that's still largely guesswork).

Takmon

fun4everyone said:

I complained formally to my insurance company about them continuing to charge me full price whilst Government restrictions meant my car could only be used for “essential travel”.

In the end the response was strange.  My complaint was not upheld and the handler found nothing wrong with what was going on.  However in the same response I was told I would be receiving a £25 refund to my payment method due to government restrictions on vehicle travel during the lockdown period.  I was also told this would be happening for every single customer who was insured during April.  I have since received this credit.

a £25 refund seems perfectly fair to me and I have no idea why they didn’t do this to start with.  There would have been no hassle then.  Perhaps they were pressured in some way.  If they were going to refund because it was the “right” thing to do they would have done it near the start like Sky TV.

You made a formal complaint about this? How Ridiculous! and what a waste of the insurance companies resources looking into something like that. Any refund they have made is entirely at their own discretion and based on there risk data which can only be analysed after they have got the data.
Now is not the time to be making frivolous complaints to companies when their resources are more likely to be stretched and other customers will have genuine reasons to contact them. 

dunstonh

 Perhaps they were pressured in some way. 

There is no-one to pressure them other than the consumer

If they were going to refund because it was the “right” thing to do they would have done it near the start like Sky TV.

The problem is that some of us are still using their cars as frequently as they normally do.    Plus, car crime has been reported as having increased and speeding has increased (which results in more accidents of a costly nature).  

The FCA has set up some instructions for people to make amendments without charge.  So, those should filter down shortly. (such as reducing your mileage)

TELLIT01

I wonder if those expecting a reduction in their insurance will also be contacting their internet service providers, Sky, Virgin etc and offer to pay more for their package because they are at home and using it more?

[Deleted User]

If your insurance company allows free changes you can just call them up and reduce your mileage for this year, and ask for a refund of the difference.

csgohan4

You give people an inch, they want a mile. 

twhitehead

I got £10.08 from Direct Line as well.  What a coincidence, but better in my pocket than theirs.

bradders1983 said:

Direct Line have been giving refunds out. Got an email a fortnight ago saying if I am doing less miles at the moment they will look at it. So i filled the form in not expecting much, and on Friday they refunded a whole £10.08 to my bank account without telling me 🤣

Shedman

twhitehead said:

I got £10.08 from Direct Line as well.  What a coincidence, but better in my pocket than theirs.

bradders1983 said:

Direct Line have been giving refunds out. Got an email a fortnight ago saying if I am doing less miles at the moment they will look at it. So i filled the form in not expecting much, and on Friday they refunded a whole £10.08 to my bank account without telling me 🤣

I've just got £13.44 from DL today so I guess they're not just using £10.08 as a standard amount .  I'm down as 10,000 miles annually but have only done 20 miles so far since lockdown started so, as that was 7 weeks when I filled in the form,  I declared 3 miles a week.  

Can't see myself doing more than 7000 miles in total now for this insurance year so will have to look into whether it'll be worth making a further change when lockdown's over, although I reckon if they're taking lockdown as being maybe 10 weeks total then they've probably already allowed for roughly an equivalent 2000 mile annual reduction anyway being (10000/52*10)-(10*3)=1893.