Neighbour used my address for insurance quotes

FiFiFoo

Hi, so last year I got a load of home insurance letters coming through the post for a neighbour a couple of doors down. Popped them through their door and thought it had just been a slip of the finger when selecting the address. 

Now it’s happening again, and I’m concerned that on some big insurance database somewhere her details are registered against my address - like on the motor insurance database. I don’t want there to be any conflict whatsoever when I sort out my own home insurance next month. 

Maybe being a bit paranoid, but the sites always state that they share information with other insurers etc.

Should I be concerned?

Thanks

DullGreyGuy

They share information with others because thats how aggregators like Confused.com work... they send the data to the insurers and brokers on their panel and those companies then return with a price. 

You'll find on here people often advocate putting down false details if trying to find out the best way to describe your job or what impact a claim will make or not but given most websites use RM PAF files that means you are selecting a random neighbour.

Most questions asked by insurers (have you had a claim, what convictions do you have etc) are personal and so as long as they arent using your name etc they arent going to be associated to you. I guess in theory if they have declared your property has had subsidence or flooding in the past then that could raise questions but they should be relatively easy to bat away as someone doing spurious quotes as you live there not them and the property is not up for sale etc.

TELLIT01

Happening once could, as the OP says, be a slip of the finger on the keyboard.  For it to happen a number of times over 2 years seems more of a planned act.  Simplest solution is to stick them all back in the post with "Not at this address".

DullGreyGuy

TELLIT01 said:

Happening once could, as the OP says, be a slip of the finger on the keyboard.  For it to happen a number of times over 2 years seems more of a planned act.  Simplest solution is to stick them all back in the post with "Not at this address".

Slip of the finger on year 0, multiple insurers because aggregators sell your details to lots of companies unless you are very careful with the selection of boxes.

Year 1 can just be companies from Year 0 storing the fact it was the renewal date and attempting it again... I get letters from Aviva every year about my car renewal even though I've not had a car for 4 years and my renewal date changed 3 years before that when I got a new car and it was cheaper to cancel and get a new policy than transfer the policy to the new car. 

Unless one year was Home and the next is Car then there is no definite evidence that the neighbour has actually repeated the exercise. 

dunstonh

Once the aggregators have a renewal date, they will follow up every year.

"Return to sender - No-one of that name at this address" is a good way to get off future mailings.

MalMonroe

Hi, instead of just posting all the responses through the neighbours' door a second time, I'd have to take them round and knock on the door and have a word with them, asking if they may have made an error and making it very clear that I didn't appreciate my address being used in that way. (All very nicely, of course.)

In fact, I'd just go and have a word with the neighbour anyway. It's not an excuse but they could have some illness or they aren't thinking straight, we don't know what can affect other people. But I really would have to get the message across that using my address is not acceptable. And I'd tell them that if it happened again, I'd just put 'return to sender' on them all and put them in a post box.

Your details shouldn't appear on any insurance databases just for quotes - especially as your neighbour appears to be using his/her own name. Insurers do share details on the relevant databases but only of bona fide customers.

MalMonroe

DullGreyGuy said:

They share information with others because thats how aggregators like Confused.com work... they send the data to the insurers and brokers on their panel and those companies then return with a price. 

You'll find on here people often advocate putting down false details if trying to find out the best way to describe your job or what impact a claim will make or not but given most websites use RM PAF files that means you are selecting a random neighbour.

Most questions asked by insurers (have you had a claim, what convictions do you have etc) are personal and so as long as they arent using your name etc they arent going to be associated to you. I guess in theory if they have declared your property has had subsidence or flooding in the past then that could raise questions but they should be relatively easy to bat away as someone doing spurious quotes as you live there not them and the property is not up for sale etc.

Hi - but the part in bold I really don't think is true. I've never seen that and it's never encouraged 'on here'. It's a daft thing to do anyway and serves no purpose. If I saw that happening I'd certainly report it.

DullGreyGuy

MalMonroe said:

DullGreyGuy said:

They share information with others because thats how aggregators like Confused.com work... they send the data to the insurers and brokers on their panel and those companies then return with a price. 

You'll find on here people often advocate putting down false details if trying to find out the best way to describe your job or what impact a claim will make or not but given most websites use RM PAF files that means you are selecting a random neighbour.

Most questions asked by insurers (have you had a claim, what convictions do you have etc) are personal and so as long as they arent using your name etc they arent going to be associated to you. I guess in theory if they have declared your property has had subsidence or flooding in the past then that could raise questions but they should be relatively easy to bat away as someone doing spurious quotes as you live there not them and the property is not up for sale etc.

Hi - but the part in bold I really don't think is true. I've never seen that and it's never encouraged 'on here'. It's a daft thing to do anyway and serves no purpose. If I saw that happening I'd certainly report it.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4672339/dummy-quotes

As you can see, its been going on for many years

FiFiFoo

MalMonroe said:

Hi, instead of just posting all the responses through the neighbours' door a second time, I'd have to take them round and knock on the door and have a word with them, asking if they may have made an error and making it very clear that I didn't appreciate my address being used in that way. (All very nicely, of course.)

In fact, I'd just go and have a word with the neighbour anyway. It's not an excuse but they could have some illness or they aren't thinking straight, we don't know what can affect other people. But I really would have to get the message across that using my address is not acceptable. And I'd tell them that if it happened again, I'd just put 'return to sender' on them all and put them in a post box.

Your details shouldn't appear on any insurance databases just for quotes - especially as your neighbour appears to be using his/her own name. Insurers do share details on the relevant databases but only of bona fide customers.

I would go round, but they have been particularly awkward in the past. She is fine, she (the one whose name is on the letters) is not. Was very indignant when a delivery driver knocked on his door to retrieve my parcel that he had mistakenly put through her letterbox. He denied having it and was most offhand. Then 2 days later (after I’d been out and replaced the ‘lost’ item) his wife came round with the original package. 

We occasionally take in deliveries for them if they are out with no drama, he brought another package round this week that had accidentally got left at his front door and she made out it was my fault, even though it was correctly addressed to my house. Ironic!

For info, we live at 63, they live next door but one at 63b with 63a between us.

chrisw

MalMonroe said:

DullGreyGuy said:

They share information with others because thats how aggregators like Confused.com work... they send the data to the insurers and brokers on their panel and those companies then return with a price. 

You'll find on here people often advocate putting down false details if trying to find out the best way to describe your job or what impact a claim will make or not but given most websites use RM PAF files that means you are selecting a random neighbour.

Most questions asked by insurers (have you had a claim, what convictions do you have etc) are personal and so as long as they arent using your name etc they arent going to be associated to you. I guess in theory if they have declared your property has had subsidence or flooding in the past then that could raise questions but they should be relatively easy to bat away as someone doing spurious quotes as you live there not them and the property is not up for sale etc.

Hi - but the part in bold I really don't think is true. I've never seen that and it's never encouraged 'on here'. It's a daft thing to do anyway and serves no purpose. If I saw that happening I'd certainly report it.

People do it all the time but I wouldn't have thought they'd have used their real name with the neighbour's address as that sort of defeats the object of an anonymous quote.

GrumpyDil

FiFiFoo said:
For info, we live at 63, they live next door but one at 63b with 63a between us.

We once lived at 1a and had an issue for some time as it was built in the back of 1 and took a couple of years for all the online systems to actually update correctly to recognise 1a as a valid address. 

It was a little odd and I can't remember off hand the last time that was an issue but do think it was related to insurance quotes.