Beware of Hastings Direct vehicle insurance !!

Dex66

Hi you may be interested in what I consider a scam with HASTINGS DIRECT vehicle insurance.

I did a fully comp quote on go compare and got directed to Hastings Direct best price quote for my 16 year old van. About to buy and put my credit card details in when I noticed the word GPS in some small print at bottom of page. So I zoomed in and read it. To my horror I read this,

"This policy won’t cover your vehicle for loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft unless your vehicle is fitted with a GPS satellite tracking device with a continuous subscription in place"

Contacted them to confirm this was correct because at no point during the quote process was i asked about a tracker nor did it ever state a tracker was required to be fully covered. HD confirmed that is was correct and that if my van was stolen or damaged without a tracker they would not pay out, but happy to take my money and issue a policy!!

I asked why this isn't made clear and how many customers had gone on to pay for a policy thinking they were insured against theft etc only to have their vehicle stolen and refused a pay out. The response was to just ask me if there was anything else they could help me with.

This is at worst a scam by HD and at best fraud by conning people into paying for a policy they believe will cover theft, when infact you probably won't be covered. Let's face it, how many of us have a fully subscribed GPS tracker fitted to our vehicles. Absolutely appalling.

So please everyone who has Hastings Direct insurance go check if you are actually covered for theft or damage if you do not have a tracker fitted.

Dex

Android 📨

daveyjp

Its not a scam and certainly not fraud.

Comparison sites are just that,  they take a high level of information to generate an initial quote as it would be impossible to do a comparison based on every single permutation of policy terms.

 As all insurance companies set their own policy rules you then need to get an individual quote and check the terms and conditions for that policy meet your requirements.  Whilst you may have noticed small print on a website, the exclusion would have been in the policy documents which can and should be reviewed before purchase.

I had similar a couple of months ago.  Really good competitive price, but when I went to get a quote the policy excluded Driving Other Cars third party cover, which is not what I wanted so I moved on.

Lesson is just because you can buy insurance very quickly it doesn't mean it should be.  

ontheroad1970

Also the cheapest headline price is not always the cheapest policy, and not the best policy.  

Dex66

Well it certainly isn't good practice for Hastings Direct or any insurance company to offer a quote based on answers to everything they've asked, give you a price, give you a clicky to "buy now" and literally hide in small print something as important as not paying out on a stolen vehicle if no tracker is fitted ! 

In over 40 years of insuring cars, vans, bikes have I ever come across something like that before. Nor have trading standards or the UK Insurance Bureau.

Bigphil1474

IME Hastings are often the cheapest quote but I rarely see anything positive about them as a company. Maybe the GPS only applies to commercial vehicles? given you were insuring a van. Be surprised if all cars would require it. I agree that it is a bit sneaky of them, but I wouldn't go with them as my insurer under almost any circumstances - maybe if it was free.

Sandtree

Welcome to the limits of the aggregator sites like Go Compare, insurers may specify special terms but the aggregators dont have the facilities to show these nor any of the material differences between policies but they aim at customers that are concerned about price much more than quality hence also why many companies have lower quality products that they only sell via aggregators and not via their own sites or over the phone.

Grey_Critic

It is the usual thing - SMALL PRINT - These companies would be in real trouble if there was a rule that stated ALL PRINT must be the same size and any special conditions such as this should be highlighted.

caprikid1

"Also the cheapest headline price is not always the cheapest policy, and not the best policy. "

As I found out when I was hit by a direct line driver !.

It's all very well having the cheapest bargain basement policy then the person who you hit ends of paying instead of you ! hardly fair. Direct line refused to repair my car to an acceptable standard and were happy to leave it unsafe. Ever stamped on a card board box and straightened it out ...... Just as strong again ????

MEM62

Dex66 said:

About to buy and put my credit card details in when I noticed the word GPS in some small print at bottom of page. So I zoomed in and read it. To my horror I read this,

"This policy won’t cover your vehicle for loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft unless your vehicle is fitted with a GPS satellite tracking device with a continuous subscription in place"

Dex66 said:

I asked why this isn't made clear 

I was clear enough as you spotted it.  Not sure what the issue is.  

ontheroad1970

MEM62 said:

Dex66 said:

About to buy and put my credit card details in when I noticed the word GPS in some small print at bottom of page. So I zoomed in and read it. To my horror I read this,

"This policy won’t cover your vehicle for loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft unless your vehicle is fitted with a GPS satellite tracking device with a continuous subscription in place"

Dex66 said:

I asked why this isn't made clear 

I was clear enough as you spotted it.  Not sure what the issue is.  

Is the issue that the OP isn't spot it until after purchase, so therefore they feel that it should be made clearer before purchase, since tracking isn't something that is a normal condition on vehicles apart from high value ones.

chrisw

ontheroad1970 said:j

MEM62 said:

Dex66 said:

About to buy and put my credit card details in when I noticed the word GPS in some small print at bottom of page. So I zoomed in and read it. To my horror I read this,

"This policy won’t cover your vehicle for loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft unless your vehicle is fitted with a GPS satellite tracking device with a continuous subscription in place"

Dex66 said:

I asked why this isn't made clear 

I was clear enough as you spotted it.  Not sure what the issue is.  

Is the issue that the OP isn't spot it until after purchase, so therefore they feel that it should be made clearer before purchase, since tracking isn't something that is a normal condition on vehicles apart from high value ones.

OP said they were about to buy when they spotted it. So all good then.