Bell Telematics Policy cancelled out of nowhere?

Ebe_Scrooge

pred02 said:

One thing they did say is that:

We understand to avoid cancellation being invoked by us on 22/12/2021 you may prefer to seek alternative cover before then. As part of the quote process insurers often ask if you have ever had insurance invoked, cancelled or declined and this factor can increase your premium. Should you wish to cancel your insurance within the next 7 days you will not need to declare this.

Therefore the best option is to ask to terminate my policy tomorrow to avoid this and pay for a new non-telematics policy.

Definitely.  I agree whole-heartedly with GrumpyDil - if there is an option for you to cancel the policy before they do, then do it straight away.  You can argue the toss with them later on if you want, but you really don't want to have to declare having had a policy cancelled by the insurers for all future quotes.

Grumpy_chap

jimjames said:

Can you see how many miles have been recorded on the tele system and how many miles have been driven in the car? That will prove that the system has been plugged in most of the time if they numbers correspond. If they don't then it might be more problematic.

Except it appears as though the insurer is determining "most of the time" with a literal meaning of "time" (as in all time 24 hours/day, seven days/week) and not most of the "time the vehicle is being driven".  I suppose this is logical as the insurer would be aware of the possibility of a user disconnecting the telematic and the mileometer so driving without recording anything - probably rare edge cases, but one you'd understand the insurer seeking to protect against.

If the OP is out of the country and the telematics unit disconnected (or the car battery flat) that will show as "time" disconnected and the proportion of time will be ever increasing.

The insurer has given the OP a get-out-of-jail-free card with the opportunity to insure elsewhere today and cancel the telematic policy.  That is what the OP needs to do.

Following that with a complaint will probably be fruitless and only cause the OP extra stress so they may be best to simply forget about the whole situation.

born_again

Seems odd that a telematics system would be connected in a way that allows user to disconnect it. 

OP would be far better going to a normal ins co, As even when daughter was a new driver they would out a lot cheaper than any co that wanted to track you.

DB1904

born_again said:

Seems odd that a telematics system would be connected in a way that allows user to disconnect it. 

OP would be far better going to a normal ins co, As even when daughter was a new driver they would out a lot cheaper than any co that wanted to track you.

Why? It needs to be easy for the insured to install it. 

GrumpyDil

DB1904 said:

born_again said:

Seems odd that a telematics system would be connected in a way that allows user to disconnect it. 

OP would be far better going to a normal ins co, As even when daughter was a new driver they would out a lot cheaper than any co that wanted to track you.

Why? It needs to be easy for the insured to install it. 

Actually my daughter has had both a hard wired and plug in version. I actually prefer the hard wired version as it is a small car and the plug in version (uses the OBD port for power) keeps getting caught on passengers knees and disconnected. Hence I have made sure she keeps a very close eye on emails from her insurance company as well as pointing out in an email chain that the placement in her car is not ideal. She has had several emails warning her it has been unplugged (which actually means has gone flat). 

[Deleted User]

Another victim of the telematics scam. These things just don't work.

born_again

DB1904 said:

born_again said:

Seems odd that a telematics system would be connected in a way that allows user to disconnect it. 

OP would be far better going to a normal ins co, As even when daughter was a new driver they would out a lot cheaper than any co that wanted to track you.

Why? It needs to be easy for the insured to install it. 

Well they could wire it to the battery and make it harder to uninstall. Seems to me they are making it far to easy to cancel insurance.

Herzlos

born_again said:

DB1904 said:

born_again said:

Seems odd that a telematics system would be connected in a way that allows user to disconnect it. 

OP would be far better going to a normal ins co, As even when daughter was a new driver they would out a lot cheaper than any co that wanted to track you.

Why? It needs to be easy for the insured to install it. 

Well they could wire it to the battery and make it harder to uninstall. Seems to me they are making it far to easy to cancel insurance.

It sounds like they are just going down the super cheap option with a cigarette lighter power supply and a user fit.
Much less reliable than a hard wired one, but without the installation cost.

sevenhills

GrumpyDil said:

If they are offering that as an option it is definately the way to go. Do not let them cancel the policy if it can be avoided.
I might then consider a complaint about their handling of this but at least that would avoid the cancelled by insurer issue. 

The OP has broken the terms of the insurance policy, at a guess I would say the insurance company should be told about the unit being unplugged before, not after the act.

tasticz

when i had telematics policy, i always called customer service to let them know when my car was going in for repairs/servicing/battery changes so as to my policy doesn't get cancelled. one to note for future.