One Call Insurance Nightmare...

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  I used a comparison website to search for buildings insurance. The best result came from One Call Insurance, with a premium of £165.49.  I accepted this quote and signed up online with the documents being available to download online. 

  About three weeks later, I received a letter (by post) headed ‘Alteration to your policy - Misrepresented claim history’ 
  I thought back to when I completed the proposal on the comparison website and realised that I had failed to mention a claim I had made with the previous insurer in 2019. This was an honest oversight. In the circumstances, I would then expect to be charged an amended, higher premium but this insurer was proposing to charge me an extra £103.03 plus an admin. fee of £39! Therefore, an additional charge of £142.03 on an original premium of £165.49. 

  Out of interest, I used another comparison site to obtain quotes for the same buildings insurance but of course including details of the prior claim. The most competitive quote was for £139 and the quote by One Call was for £183. 

  Further down the One Call letter was a paragraph stating that ‘The additional premium will be debited from the card details we currently hold for you on your file in 14 days time. Should I have any objection to this, I was invited to contact One Call vie the ‘Live Chat’ facility on the website. 

  I certainly did want to contact them; there was a landline number on the letter which I tried first. This was a waste of time as it was stated that calls would not be answered ‘because of the COVID-19 situation’ - how convenient! I had already tried the ‘Live Chat’ but this was unavailable. The recorded message on the phone stated that customers could get in contact via Facebook - which I have nothing to do with - or by post - yes, old fashioned post! No email address was given. 

  I did write a letter and sent it recorded delivery protesting that the increased premium was more like a fine and that they had no authorisation to retain my card details and then threaten to debit it. I await their reply with interest. 

  I strongly recommend that no one should place any further business with this company. 

Sandtree

Insurance is based on trust, you’ve been caught out on one “slip of memory” and they’ll be worried there may be others. On the plus side they didn’t void the policy for non-disclosure.

check the cancellation costs and work out if it’s better to terminate the policy and buy new or see this one out and learn for next year. I wouldn’t be surprised if cancelling was expensive though