Admiral - Bait-and-Switch Tactics??

AndyHarv

Our Buildings and Contents Insurance is due mid August so I used Compare the Market to find alternative quotes.  Answered all questions honestly and Admiral came out equal cheapest at £175.92. I tried to buy on-line but it came back as "can't do it online so please telephone one of our advisors on....".  Went through the same questions all over again until he asked me if I'd had a claim back in 2017 for pet damage?  "No" I replied, quite puzzled because I haven't claimed on my home insurance since 2005.  Then I remembered our (then) 8 month old German Shep Rescue Pup had "eaten" my quite new (£500) bifocal specs, a few years back and I had telephoned my then insurer (British Gas I think) to ask if "Dog eaten my specs" was covered.  Of course, it turned out it wasn't so I had to pay for a new pair myself and thought no more about it.  However, despite the fact it wasn't covered anyway, it would seem that telephone call, over three years ago, is now on some Insurance Database somewhere and regarded by some Insurance Companies as previous "Intent" to claim?!? As such Admiral modified their quotation to £210!!  Obviously, I considered this to be grossly unfair and unjust and told Admiral as much. They didn't get my Custom and I tried the second Insurer on the list (Policy Expert). I got as far as online payment but the hourglass thing just kept going round and didn't finalise my payment.  Sensing an emerging pattern, I telephoned them. To save time, I opened the conversation explaining my previous "problem" with Admiral.  Policy Expert also have a similar "policy" but heinous crimes like asking your insurer a question are not considered relevant after three years have elapsed since aforementioned crime.  I have now obtained proof (original receipt) that I bought my replacement specs in March 2017......over three years ago.  Unfortunately, I'm told by Insurance Expert, this is not enough to prove that I asked my insurance company if I was insured over three years ago!!  At no point had either company asked If I had ever, at any time, contacted my Insurer to seek clarification that I was insured for something or not!  Bizarrely, my existing Insurer (Legal & General) have NEVER once raised it as an issue in the two years I have been with them!  Shame their non-negotiable renewal quote is £205 for less cover and higher excess than the unusable quotes from Money Supermarket's screen scraper!   So, I am now "trapped" with their uncompetitive renewal quote without fair or reasonable cause.  How do I find where this damning entry about me is and the date it relates to?   Is there some central database all the Insurers use?  PLEASE HELP!

Ditzy_Mitzy

This is very difficult to read, sorry, but the gist of the matter is that you considered making a claim on your home insurance in 2017, reported it to your insurer at the time but then elected not to proceed with the claim. 
You then attempted to purchase an Admiral policy this year, and when asked the question 'have you had any claims or other incidents in the last x years?', or words to the effect of, you answered 'no'.  You should have answered 'yes', because that's the correct, and true, response to said question.  Admiral found out you hadn't disclosed all the facts and increased the quote by approximately £30.  What else should Admiral have done?
And no, it's not coming off the database - why should it if your only justification for it coming off is to allow you to make factually incorrect disclosure to insurance companies?

Sandtree

For most classes of insurance you are not asked only about what claims you have had but any incidents you have had that may have resulted in a claim. Therefore dog eats glasses is something that may be covered by some home insurance policies (not all exclude pet damage) and so would need to be declared.

Home insurance the question is a little less common... to me it probably shouldn't exist... as let be honest how many people haven't dropped a glass of wine and stained a carpet or dropped and damaged a phone/tablet or bumped a table into a wall leaving a little dent... all of these could lead to a claim so if the question is asked unfortunately you in theory have to disclose.

In the world of aggregators where everyone is trying to get to the cheapest price its not surprising this sort of question is asked though. The fact you have declared the incident to a prior insurer now means it is logged in CUE as something that happened but you didn't/couldn't claim... depending on how your previous insurers logged it it may be down as an incident unclaimed or it could be a claim that was repudiated as no cover. 

Given the record is there you need to declare it whenever you are asked. You may find off of aggregators other insurers are less worried about incidents and so don't ask or don't load the premiums if you declare but in the race to the bottom it'll always count.

chrisw

Whenever I've phoned an insurance company to see whether something's covered, I've never given my name or any personal details. They're usually quite happy to tell you without you giving that information. 

AndyHarv

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

This is very difficult to read, sorry, but the gist of the matter is that you considered making a claim on your home insurance in 2017, reported it to your insurer at the time but then elected not to proceed with the claim. 
You then attempted to purchase an Admiral policy this year, and when asked the question 'have you had any claims or other incidents in the last x years?', or words to the effect of, you answered 'no'.  You should have answered 'yes', because that's the correct, and true, response to said question.  Admiral found out you hadn't disclosed all the facts and increased the quote by approximately £30.  What else should Admiral have done?
And no, it's not coming off the database - why should it if your only justification for it coming off is to allow you to make factually incorrect disclosure to insurance companies?

I’m sorry you had difficulty reading my post. This may account for your confusion regarding what actually happened.

Essentially, I telephoned my then insurer back in 2017 to ask if I was covered for the total loss of my specs caused by my puppy chewing them. Having been insured continuously since 1983 and only ever making one previous claim, I valued whatever clarification I could get on a policy written in “Legalese”. The answer came back as “no” I wasn’t covered. So I didn’t even attempt to claim on my policy and paid my Optician £398 for replacement specs myself. That was the end of the matter.....or so I thought. 

Now, I can fully understand and support insurance claims and/or fraudulent or suspicious activity being recorded on an industry-wide database. However, to log that a Customer once telephoned to ask if they were insured seems questionable at best. For ANY Insurer to then use that non-event as an excuse to impose a cost penalty for any future insurance policy quotation to that Customer is unfair, unjust and unethical as far as I am concerned. To impose it three years after the event seems sharp practice. If that is how Admiral conducts its business, it will never get mine. Reassuringly a torrent of agreement came back when I posted my less than Admiral experience on Facebook.  

Insurance Expert called me back yesterday morning. They listened to, understood and accepted my explanation that it was over three years ago, I didn’t claim and my dog is no longer a puppy and no longer chews specs in his spare time. They got my business (I selected increased cover with an increased premium as well).  They also got my recommendation on Facebook.

AndyHarv

Sandtree said:

For most classes of insurance you are not asked only about what claims you have had but any incidents you have had that may have resulted in a claim. Therefore dog eats glasses is something that may be covered by some home insurance policies (not all exclude pet damage) and so would need to be declared.

Home insurance the question is a little less common... to me it probably shouldn't exist... as let be honest how many people haven't dropped a glass of wine and stained a carpet or dropped and damaged a phone/tablet or bumped a table into a wall leaving a little dent... all of these could lead to a claim so if the question is asked unfortunately you in theory have to disclose.

In the world of aggregators where everyone is trying to get to the cheapest price its not surprising this sort of question is asked though. The fact you have declared the incident to a prior insurer now means it is logged in CUE as something that happened but you didn't/couldn't claim... depending on how your previous insurers logged it it may be down as an incident unclaimed or it could be a claim that was repudiated as no cover. 

Given the record is there you need to declare it whenever you are asked. You may find off of aggregators other insurers are less worried about incidents and so don't ask or don't load the premiums if you declare but in the race to the bottom it'll always count.

Thanks for the information and insight. I really do understand and agree insurers need to guard against fraudulent claims and will increase premiums following a claim.  This, coupled with the policy excess, is there to reduce the number of claims and petty/minor claims in particular? However, this should never give them carte-blance to use the word “any“ loss/es as a unilateral excuse to try and rip genuine Customers off for daring to ask about the extent of their cover.  Such sharp practice is a prima facie reason for growing Public mistrust and dislike of the Insurance industry and it’s conduct. I say growing because I and numerous friends have just joined the list.  Interestingly and it might be something and nothing but the Policy Expert CSA advised they do not work on a bonus or commission scheme.  I wonder if the same can be said for Admiral - they didn’t say?

AndyHarv

chrisw said:

Whenever I've phoned an insurance company to see whether something's covered, I've never given my name or any personal details. They're usually quite happy to tell you without you giving that information. 

Thank you for the advice, which is greatly appreciated and will be used in future