Fraudulent Policy - Insurer refusing to disclose information or remove policy from CRA

dunstonh

MattMattMattUK said:

Another call from the FCA this morning asking if I could confirm during which calls I asked to raise a complaint, there were six calls in total so they asked me to confirm in which ones. The contact also said that they would require Admiral to provide recording of all the calls so they were making me aware of that as a general courtesy. 

Hopefully that means that the FCA are going to give Admiral an incredibly hard time over all of this!

Thanks for keeping us updated.     It is good to see the FCA acting on it and in a timely matter.

MattMattMattUK

No response of the official complaint raised via the FOS yet, FOS sent me an email and Admiral have the choice of responding via email or post, so they may have replied via post and I have not received it due to the strikes, however the FOS said I should expect the complaint to be acknowledged within a week.

Equifax have had a response from Admiral allowing them to delete the incorrect record, the other CRAs have not received a response yet. 
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Thank you for your recent query with reference to the policy #########

I will authorise Equifax to remove from your credit file in regards to fraudulent activity.

Please allow the provider you use for your credit score time to update this, some providers can take 4-6 weeks to reflect this information.

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I have the horrible feeling that Admiral are going to continue their poor behaviour here. 

Does anyone know if there is a way for an individual to access the insurance database where insurers record that they have cancelled a policy against someone? I cannot even find what it is called. 

oscarward

Is it on the CUE database?  The MIB website talks about data subject access.

MikeJXE

A very interesting story well done, some very knowledgable people on here. The only problem I had with a large company and couldn't get anywhere with phone calls and not knowing all that much,  I went straight for the juggler. An email to the CEO Letter before Action, all sorted next day 

cymruchris

MikeJXE said:

I went straight for the juggler. An email to the CEO Letter before Action, all sorted next day 

The CEO must be a bit of a clown    (You might mean jugular! But you might also have been right first time  ) 

OP - Looking forward to seeing how you progress though - I used Admiral last year, and was thinking to go back to them next year as they tended to have decent prices and perceived decent service. I contacted them several times through my last policy, and they were always very good. But it's important to see how companies handle things when it all goes wrong, and this isn't a great PR example for them. 

MattMattMattUK

So I thought I would resurrect this thread as it is happening again, it actually never stopped. Every three to four months someone takes out car insurance in my name, every three to four months i have to waste several hours dealing with incompetent customer service and complaints departments of insurance providers.

Every single one puts a barrier to complaint in the way by saying they will not accept my complaint without an account number. When I point out that this is a breach of their regulatory obligstions their customer service minions they do not care, which means I have to raise a complaint via the FOS, which then results in a letter of apology and a cheque for £150. Whilst it is nice getting some money, £750 since last November, with another £300 likely I'm the next month or two, it is beginning to get rather tedious having to deal with this. 

The insurance companies do not seem to care, the FOS do not seem to care, as evidenced by their inaction since the initial complaint the FCA do not seem to care. I have CIFAS protective registration, I have a victim of impersonation fraud marker as well, but nothing seems to stop the insurance companies granting policies and then either cancelling them a few weeks later or when I raise a complaint via the FOS. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do?

MattMattMattUK

Also to add, having just tallied them all up and realising the level, would these payments be taxable? If it was just one it probably would not matter, but as it is now appears to be an ongoing thing and bases on current trends over a thousand pounds a year, it might be something I need to seriously think about.

I will ask my accountant when she is back from holiday in a few weeks, but curious if anyone knows definitively as whilst I can see that "compensation" specifically is not, these are "gestures of goodwill".

eddddy

MattMattMattUK said:

Also to add, having just tallied them all up and realising the level, would these payments be taxable? If it was just one it probably would not matter, but as it is now appears to be an ongoing thing and bases on current trends over a thousand pounds a year, it might be something I need to seriously think about.

I will ask my accountant when she is back from holiday in a few weeks, but curious if anyone knows definitively as whilst I can see that "compensation" specifically is not, these are "gestures of goodwill".

Are they paying £150 because the FOS has told them to?

If so, it's more likely that the payments are "Compensation awarded for distress or inconvenience"
See: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation-for-distress-or-inconvenience

Perhaps the insurers are mis-describing them as "Goodwill Payments" because that makes it sound like they've chosen to make the payments because they're nice - as opposed to being ordered to make the payments by the FOS.

DullGreyGuy

MattMattMattUK said:

Also to add, having just tallied them all up and realising the level, would these payments be taxable? If it was just one it probably would not matter, but as it is now appears to be an ongoing thing and bases on current trends over a thousand pounds a year, it might be something I need to seriously think about.

I will ask my accountant when she is back from holiday in a few weeks, but curious if anyone knows definitively as whilst I can see that "compensation" specifically is not, these are "gestures of goodwill".

Compensation isnt taxable, it's only if there is an interest component and then the interest counts towards your £1,000 tax free interest or becomes taxable. 

Given you haven't lost out financially its highly unlikely that the FOS are giving an award and then applying interest to it... its obviously done when a claims payment should have been made 18 months ago but the insurer messed up and then had to go via FOS creating the delay and hence need for interest. 

MattMattMattUK

Ok, thanks both, that's good as it would have been slightly annoying to have to give HMRC 40%!