New car insurance company want to fine me £132 for not declaring accident when their error

cluelessoncanvey

Hi, got an email from car insurance company stating I have to pay £132 inc a £50 admin charge as when they received my docs from previous provider they saw an accident that I didn't declare.  Informed them I went through comparethemarket who have all my details and would have fed it through to them, also when I filled their form out online it asked 'any accidents in the last 2 years' which I thought was weird as its 5 years that count and my accident was over that so answered correctly no.  

When I rang them the other day told them all this, was on hold whilst they spoke to supervisor and then came back and said '5 years' and werent willing to concede on the money.  Have asked for the complaints department and my case is now with them awaiting review.  However they have warned they coudl cancel my car insurance at any time due to non-payment of this amount.  Hopefully they would wait for the complaint to be dealt with.

Comparethemarket have been helpful and are currently investigating for me stating their data team are looking into it but they would provide accident details.  The only other option I can think of is starting a new car insurance with the company, unfortunately they ask for the card details before accident details but has occurred online have 14 days to cancel and can warn my bank before if it works.

Hopefully it is them and not me!  Thoguht I should post for any advice on this situation.  Its a lot of money and said to them if they were gonig to charge that much more when I joined wouldn't have gone with them but the cheapest provider

Ganga

Can you get someone to do a dummy booking and see if the " 2 year " question is still on their website and if so do a screenshot as evidence against them.

Grey_Critic

Anytime I do an online quote I always save a copy - did you not do that?

MattMattMattUK

cluelessoncanvey said:

Hi, got an email from car insurance company stating I have to pay £132 inc a £50 admin charge as when they received my docs from previous provider they saw an accident that I didn't declare.  Informed them I went through comparethemarket who have all my details and would have fed it through to them, also when I filled their form out online it asked 'any accidents in the last 2 years' which I thought was weird as its 5 years that count and my accident was over that so answered correctly no.  

When I rang them the other day told them all this, was on hold whilst they spoke to supervisor and then came back and said '5 years' and werent willing to concede on the money.  Have asked for the complaints department and my case is now with them awaiting review.  However they have warned they coudl cancel my car insurance at any time due to non-payment of this amount.  Hopefully they would wait for the complaint to be dealt with.

Comparethemarket have been helpful and are currently investigating for me stating their data team are looking into it but they would provide accident details.  The only other option I can think of is starting a new car insurance with the company, unfortunately they ask for the card details before accident details but has occurred online have 14 days to cancel and can warn my bank before if it works.

Hopefully it is them and not me!  Thoguht I should post for any advice on this situation.  Its a lot of money and said to them if they were gonig to charge that much more when I joined wouldn't have gone with them but the cheapest provider

The best way to deal with that might be to pay the amount but continue with the formal complaint. That way there is no risk of the policy being cancelled.

MarvinDay

At the moment, you have no way to prove who is at fault for the insurers not having the correct information.
It could be the insurers themselves, it could be Compare the Market or it might be you.

However, one thing which you may have failed to do was to read and confirm that all of the information you typed into the Compare the market comparison website had been correctly transferred to the insurers before you went ahead and bought the insurance.
This is something that their website states that you should do:

DullGreyGuy

cluelessoncanvey said:
Informed them I went through comparethemarket who have all my details and would have fed it through to them, also when I filled their form out online it asked 'any accidents in the last 2 years' which I thought was weird as its 5 years that count and my accident was over that so answered correctly no.  

This bit is really unclear

So you obtained quotes from CompareTheMarket, are you saying this site only asked for 2 years? If so its almost certainly a mistake on your part as their site currently (and for a very long time) asks:

Have you had any motor accidents, claims or losses in the past 5 years, no matter who was at fault or if a claim was made?

You dont say which company you bought from but normally you'd click through from CompareTheMarket to the seller and either get to a summary page or a quote page with all the details filled out. Is this what happened? Is this where you think you saw them asking for only 2 years? Presumably the CTM answer of yes and the claims detail was there and you deleted it to change it to no?

Obviously the majority of people dont follow the instruction and get to the payment page as quickly as possible and therefore dont spot any data transfer errors when they rarely do happen but that cannot be what happened here as CTM does ask for 5 years.

cluelessoncanvey

Yeah didnt  check docs when they sent to me, assumed correct as used comparethemarket many times before. My details are correct on that I believe. They are checking now for me. The insurance companys form was the one that asked if accident in 2 years. 

Just been emailed today theyve taken the money from my card even though I am contesting it. 

1st central value. Was keeping vague as read on here meant to keep your details anonymous, but as someone asked.

Have posted comparethemarkets update that their data team are looking into it for me into the complaints portal.

That's where I'm at at the mo. Thanks for responding

boobyd

Just done dummy quote on 1st Central and both accident/convictions say( 5 years)on details.

diystarter7

Hi

No one, no one I've used over donkeys years ask for 2 years its always 5 years and not just car insurance its almost any insurance

Thanks

elsien

diystarter7 said:

Hi

No one, no one I've used over donkeys years ask for 2 years its always 5 years and not just car insurance its almost any insurance

Thanks

There are companies who only ask for 3 years claims history, although they do want 5 years on the motoring penalties. AXA being one example. 

Herzlos

Either pay it and continue complaining, or ask to cancel the policy and get a refund.

Don't let them cancel it, or you're going to hurt for insurance forever.

And honestly, it seems like it does say 5 years which is completely standard, so it's more likely that you've misread it than they've asked for the wrong thing.