Marshmallow car insurance!

croshaj

On signup Marshmallow baited us with statements that our payments would be 12 x £32.97, the cost stated even encouraged us to add other add-ons. Their own schedule of payments as supplied by Marshmallow customer service shows the same payments of £32.97 per month, this schedule even states that it comes from PremFina. Once they send you the credit agreement to sign with PremFina the first payment is indeed £32.97 but followed by ten payments of £128.11, over three times higher than what you signed up for. Despite many pointless back and forth arguments with customer service and assurances that is ok just sign it, "trust us you won't actually have to pay what you are signing for", we eventually had to give up and admit we have been scammed and have lost the initial deposit and the £50 cancellation fee (this cancellation fee ensures they always gain financially despite the deception).

HyperSpace88

When buying insurance, it is important to read the policy. The question is not what is included, but what is excluded. 
I read the Aviva insurance policy some years ago and it is better then some of the others.

MightyMiffed

Just wanted to add my comments in case someone else turns up here who is considering Marshmallow. 

Personally, I do trust TrustPilot reviews if there are enough of them. All my negative reviews are still there - one was temporarily removed at the request of the company who claimed the case wasn't real, but once I proved it was, then it was re-posted in it's entirety. 

As for Marshmallow - it's not just claiming that you will have problems with them. I bought their cover back in April because they were the cheapest of those that included European cover. The first issue I noticed was that my NCB protection doesn't include overseas cover - ie, if I ever made a claim for an accident overseas, I risked losing my 20+ years of NCB. Next up was actually travelling abroad. Where most other insurers provided free Green Cards, Marshmallow charge £25. Not a problem now I hear you say, because as from 2nd August, Green Cards aren't required. Oh yes they are - if you're insured with Marshmallow. And just to be clear, they absolutely, categorically confirmed that if I went on the trip I planned (starting on the 12th August) without purchasing a Green Card, I would not be able to make a claim if I had an accident! Not surprisingly I'm in the process of changing my insurance company - which of course will cost me £50 just to cancel. It might be more than the £25 for a Green Card, but I'm likely to be making several trips between now and next April, so money saved overall. And in any case, if I need to make a claim, chances are I will be wishing I was with someone else anyway. 

Avoid like the plague! 

I-LOV-MONEY

Siobhan7 said:

Thank you. I have decided to go through them. I need to tighten my belt a bit and most reviews were good. Time will only tell if they are any good!

Over a year on, Siobhan, are you glad you went with them?  Have you had any problems?

bernard_ric

I have never dealt with Marshmallow and it is sometime since I used a comparison web site. Despite this I have just been notified that Marshmallow carried out a 'Soft Search on my credit report on the 2nd August 2021and cannot understand why?

dunstonh

bernard_ric said:

I have never dealt with Marshmallow and it is sometime since I used a comparison web site. Despite this I have just been notified that Marshmallow carried out a 'Soft Search on my credit report on the 2nd August 2021and cannot understand why?

When you did use the comparison site, you agreed for your details to be passed on.  Soft searches are often identify checks or marketing checks to see if they want to offer services or what price they offer their services.

Colsy73

Please please please, I implore whomever is looking for car insurance... do not go with Marshmallow Insurance. 

When I joined the questions asked. 1, where is the car registered and 2, where is the car parked over night. 

As I live on a boat in a marina, the car was registered at my mums in Aylesbury, but I put down that the car was parked over night at the marina I lived on.  The car was stolen from the marina, after nearly five months of too and throwing, they doctored the policy documents and removed the fact that I said the car was parked at the marina refused to pay out and said I had lied. 

Please don't go on the price alone.  Look at all the negative reviews on Trustpilot before getting wowed with their high scoring, all the negative reviews are from people that have tried making claims with Marshmallow.  It seems that Marshmallow don't pay out and will constantly make excuses or pass the blame. 

Currently I am in the middle of fighting with them via my solicitor and with the Financial Services Ombudsman.  Currently the Financial Services Ombudsman has what they call "a very freakishly high' level of complaints going through against Marshmallow... Currently it stands at 192 active complaints.  Marshmallow also are on the watch list for the Financial Services Conduct which means that things are bad. 

I can only surmise that Marshmallow are this years 'wework', it's all shiny on the surface, but damn, underneath it's just hell on earth. 

lmortimer92

Absolute legal scam! Literally have an option on the app to turn off auto renew (which was done!) Only to find out they auto renewed the policy anyway with no correspondence! Upon finding this out i reached out to get answers only to be told it was basically all my fault and only way you can turn off auto renew is by speaking to an advisor which is total lies! As there is literally an option on the mobile app. I was then told via email that i would get a response in 2 days to my complaint (taking it to approx 3rd / 4th of June) 

So i wait and wait and wait for a matter of weeks with no response at all, i reach out again only to be told that it is now an 8 week wait for a response! 

I have decided to cut my losses today and cancel the policy after being ignored for 16 days only to be told that it is going to cost me £125 cancellation fee rather then the £30 admin fee that was stated when the complaint was first logged! 

It is literally 1 thing after the other with this company and all because of a mistake that they made! 

Shocking company and even worse customer service! 

NPZ

They auto renewed my insurance and would not provide me a contact number to call and cancel. They didnt send me any postal correspondance to inform me. They took out over 1000£ as premium from my bank account. Only chat facility available to corresspond which is slow. I cancelled the insurance over chat immediately (within cooling off period) but they still charged me £30 admin fee. They also gave me a huge bill for 2 days' insurance they charged pro-rata. Raised a complaint and they took months to respond. They didnt do anything. They took a long time refunding the money as well and still charged Admin fee (even though I was withing 7 day cooling off period). Thieves. Stay away from them

DullGreyGuy

NPZ said:

They auto renewed my insurance and would not provide me a contact number to call and cancel. They didnt send me any postal correspondance to inform me. They took out over 1000£ as premium from my bank account. Only chat facility available to corresspond which is slow. I cancelled the insurance over chat immediately (within cooling off period) but they still charged me £30 admin fee. They also gave me a huge bill for 2 days' insurance they charged pro-rata. Raised a complaint and they took months to respond. They didnt do anything. They took a long time refunding the money as well and still charged Admin fee (even though I was withing 7 day cooling off period). Thieves. Stay away from them

Marshmallow are a modern intermediary, renewal correspondence will be sent digitally not by post... fairly sure there is no choice on that matter. 

Cooling off periods give you a right to cancel but it doesn't have to be fee free. In principle after the cooling off you'd have no statutory right of cancellation but for most classes of consumer insurance companies do allow cancellation post cooling off period. £30 is fairly reasonable given that circa 18 years ago £50 was considered reasonable and inflation would obvs have increased that. 

Everyone should diary when their renewal dates are because almost all companies use auto-renewal, post/emails sometimes dont arrive and if you are head in the sand about it then you will get renewed and a bill if you cancel post renewal.