Car insurance company changed policy and charged me £150

Moragg

My car insurance

Aylesbury_Duck

Moragg said:

My car insurance changed my policy from 10k to 15k miles driven per year. There was a letter on the account online, but I am embarrassed to say I didn't even look. 

I should be more switched on, however, I still think it's actually stealing to do this. 

I wrote them an email to complain and they sent a highly detailed one back which baffled me to be honest. 

I mean seriously, look at the length of it!
Presently they are going to give me back the admin fee of £30 but I think this is awful 

Have I got any rights? Any advice. 

I wrote to them...

I am furious to see that you have charged me nearly £150 to change my policy without even asking me. 

I noticed it on the website, that you had just gone ahead and done it. I’m pretty sure this is illegal as I should have received written notice but I received absolutely nothing in the post at all.

 This is totally unacceptable.

 If I drove 15,000 miles a year I would have TOLD you that I drove 15k miles a year and I wouldn’t have put 10 K a year on my application.

 I will be seeking legal advice on this matter and I expect to hear from you as soon as possible to rectify this matter.

 Considering the year we have been through with Covid and jobs, etc, I think it is a disgrace that a company should be so underhand and sly to do such a thing.

their reply was...

Thank you for your patience while your complaint has been allocated to me, I hope you are keeping well?

I have started to investigate into your complaint and would like to share my findings so far.

From reviewing our records, I understand you are unhappy with the additional premium which has been applied to your policy.

In order to make sure you have the right cover at the best price, we’ll routinely check the details your covers based on. This can be anything from your address, to who owns your car, how long you’ve lived in the UK or your driving history. These checks also help to prevent fraud and can be carried out at any point in your policy year, as confirmed in the policy booklet.

We try to prevent the need for you to send in documents by checking the information we can on external databases, like the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) to check claims history or contacting your previous insurer to check things like your No Claims Discount (NCD). Sometimes, your previous insurer won’t discuss details with us, or we can’t get the information we need without asking you. When this happens, we request documents from you to check the details of your policy, we are unaware of any differences until the information has been reviewed.

I can see your underwriter (Advantage) was looking for confirmation of your expected annual mileage. This is because they have access to quote data whereby, you entered a different mileage to what was confirmed on the policy so, we want to make sure you have a sufficient amount of miles on your policy.

Our New Business Review (NBR) team started the validation checks on the 09/09/2020, as there was no contact number to try and contact you on, they issued an email and letter which are also available to see in your My Account portal.

Within the documentation it makes you aware of the next steps if the requested information isn’t received by the due date. Our NBR team would either look to amend your policy to the or cancel based on the requested information.

On 21/09/2020, as our NBR team didn’t receive communication from you they amended your mileage to the worst-case scenario which was 15,000 miles that you quoted online. I understand this caused an additional premium inclusive of the £30.00 administration fee which was spread across your monthly instalments.

We sent an email and letter were issued to you to inform you of the amendment and the payment method.

I would like to make you aware, the price you pay for your insurance is based on the details you gave us when you got your quote. If there’s a change to your details, your premium may need to be reviewed. This is because the cost of your policy is calculated by using lots of factors such as how often you use your vehicle, where it's kept and who is allowed to drive it. If you tell us your details have changed, we recalculate your premium to see if you’re now more or less likely to make a claim in the future and whether your premium should increase, decrease, or stay the same.

Our fees, including the £30.00 administration fee, cover the costs for administering your policy and can include things like updating our systems and creating documents. We also need to update the Motor Insurance Database for the police and other insurers to use.

We work hard to make sure we’re upfront about our fees before you buy your policy. Our fees are listed clearly on our website and in your policy documents to make sure you’re aware of them.

Once the policy had been accepted, you receive a copy of your welcome documentation. We do confirm the fees we charge within our terms and conditions; this can be located within your welcome pack under ‘Your cover summary’ on page 3, and this will give you a list of all the fees that are applicable to the policy.

Having reviewed your email, I have reverted the change to put the original mileage back on your policy (10,000 miles) and removed the additional premium from your monthly instalments. The overpayment has been used to lower your remaining instalments. You will receive separate documentation regarding this.

I can see we have requested this months instalment amount of £47.53, I am unable to stop this payment from processing as its already in the request stage. However, the 2 remaining payments after that payment has been paid off and I have issued a refund of £37.42 back the account details we have stored for the overpayment. Please allow 5 working days to receive this.

Considering the above, I am unable to uphold your complaint as the correct process was followed by our NBR team.

It would be helpful if you could email me back so that I can better understand the complaint from your end but if I do not hear from you, I will resolve the complaint based on the information I have.

Yours Sincerely,

 

Looks like they're refunding you £132.48, by cancelling the last two payments of £47.53 plus a refund of £37.42

Problem solved, isn't it?  Without exact pricing detail I don't know if the £30 admin fee is in that refund, but I suspect it is.

As for the change itself, it looks to me that they communicated with you in the manner in which you agreed they could when you signed up to the policy (email and a letter on the portal).  If you received that email and didn't bother to look, you can't really blame them for implementing the change they were contacting you about.

I don't really think you have cause to be furious.  From their point of view yours looked like a possible case of mileage fraud (was it?), they advised you they had checked and wanted to change your policy, you didn't bother to read the letter or reply so they implemented it.  They appear to have reversed the charge having reconsidered.

Moragg

Is that what they're saying? 
I'm so stupid. 
I don't understand it at all. 
Thanks Aylesbury Duck. 

Moragg

Oh and not it wasn't mileage fraud!!!

JHW1942

Just check their figures.  I think I've got it right, but you need to check the original letter about the increase to see what they proposed.  If I've guessed right, the premium increase was £102.48

Aylesbury_Duck

JHW1942 said:

Just check their figures.  I think I've got it right, but you need to check the original letter about the increase to see what they proposed.  If I've guessed right, the premium increase was £102.48

That's my assumption, too.

Aylesbury_Duck

On the matter of fraud, remember it is possible to check how reasonable your mileage is, because it's recorded at the MOT, which is visible to anyone who knows the numberplate.  If you had typically done 15k miles for prior years and then asked for only 10k, they aren't being unreasonable checking.  Many people are doing less mileage during the pandemic, so a reduction is perfectly plausible and reasonable, but they're entitled to check because their risk increases with your mileage. 

Jenni_D

Curious why the OP edited their post, given that it was quoted in the first reply.

deannagone

I'm afraid it sounds reasonable to me.  The found information somewhere that you used more mileage than you said in your application. They asked you for confirmation, sent you emails asking you to confirm or contact them.  You didn't, so they increased the mileage according to what their findings suggested was necessary.  They did try.  Check your account and see if the emails are there. I suspect they will be.

I'm sorry but the letter is quite clear.  If you have problems reading longer things, try my trick.., just read a paragraph, then walk away and come back to it half an hour later.  I go word blind quite easily.  It sounds like this might be a problem with other things for you so try and find a way to overcome it if you can, otherwise other things could go wrong.  I am only saying this because I've had similar.., somehow you see one word that isn't there or misread something and then there's a mess to sort out later lol.  I find printing things out helps as well, and read something slowly more than once to make sure you have all the words straight. I have also been known to highlight or underline significant words.  I also will query things in case I've misread something, usually I'm wrong about what I'm upset about,  Its horrible lol.  But it is as it is.

Al_Ross

Moragg said:

My car insurance

Can you name your insurance company please.?

Al_Ross

Is it common practice now for insurance companies to look at previous years milage done on your last mot to check the mileage you do.This seems rather strange,been driving for over 40 years and never had this happen to me.