Prudential free Green Flag cover: YOU MAY NOT BE COVERED - URGENT WARNING

taxiphil

In October of this year I took out a car insurance policy with Prudential.

As has been well documented on MSE, Prudential were offering a year's Green Flag breakdown cover free with every policy during October.

The instructions on their website explicity said "do not add breakdown cover as an optional extra during the buying process, as it will automatically be added free of charge to every policy".

Well, I never received any documentation regarding my Green Flag cover. I must admit I should have chased it up but I just hadn't got round to it, and I just assumed I was covered.

Last night my car broke down on the motorway hard shoulder. I telephoned Green Flag from the emergency box on the motorway, quoted my name, registration number, address - and to my horror they had no record of any breakdown cover in either my name or my car's registration number.

I mentioned the Prudential thing and they said they'd had numerous problems with the Pru not passing on peoples details to them. They said there was nothing they could do to help me unless I was prepared to pay the towing costs, which could run into several hundred pounds, and reiterated that it wasn't Green Flag's fault or responsibility (which I agree with).

It was too late to phone Prudential as their offices were closed.

In the end I got hold of a local mechanic I know who came out and towed me home for much less than any of the breakdown companies would have charged me.

But I am still fuming that Prudential left me in this vulnerable position, and will be sending them an invoice for my towing cost.

I have phoned them this morning and they admitted that due to a "system error" I had not been given Green Flag cover, and they apologised.

But I wonder how many other motorists are affected. Given that Prudential know about these problems, it should be the simplest thing in the world for them to run an audit check on everyone who bought a policy during the offer period, and make sure their Green Flag cover is in place, instead of waiting for each individual customer to find out the hard way! I find this an extremely irresponsible way for the Prudential to behave.

This is obviously not a good time of year to break down and find yourself stranded, so if you never received your Green Flag documents from Prudential, now is the time to chase them up!

lindsaygalaxy

When i took out my pru cover i never recieved any documents. After reading a thread on here about chasing them up, i called them and they sent them through, but very naughty of them.

Lorian

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

When i took out my pru cover i never recieved any documents. After reading a thread on here about chasing them up, i called them and they sent them through, but very naughty of them.

Same for me, If I hadn't seen the thread, and rung them, I don't think I'd have got the policy document.

If the OP didn't get the policy document, how would you know who to ring???

hollydays

Hope you do get your money back,thanks for posting this.

taxiphil

Lorian wrote: »

If the OP didn't get the policy document, how would you know who to ring???

It was one of those motorway emergency phone boxes, and you get straight through to a police operator who puts you through to any breakdown service you request.

abid_rq

i have taken policy on 10th of dec and so far i have not receive any thing from greenflag what is the best way to check wheter i have breakdown cover or not before ending up in real brakdown....many thx

MothballsWallet

abid_rq wrote: »

i have taken policy on 10th of dec and so far i have not receive any thing from greenflag what is the best way to check wheter i have breakdown cover or not before ending up in real brakdown....many thx

Personally, I'd call Green Flag and see if your details have been passed on to them by the Pru.

If they have, ask them to send out the details to you. If not, call the Pru and get them to sort it out.

I wonder if the reason why the Pru's been having trouble with this is because they're still paying off Tony Hawkes' professional appearance fee for being in their adverts? I'm sure a man of his stature is worth quite a few quid in appearance fees... (I'm speculating in case any Pru lawyers are reading this - if so, go home and watch TV.)

chuckles1066

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Personally, I'd call Green Flag and see if your details have been passed on to them by the Pru.

If they have, ask them to send out the details to you. If not, call the Pru and get them to sort it out.

I wonder if the reason why the Pru's been having trouble with this is because they're still paying off Tony Hawkes' professional appearance fee for being in their adverts? I'm sure a man of his stature is worth quite a few quid in appearance fees... (I'm speculating in case any Pru lawyers are reading this - if so, go home and watch TV.)

I have to say I took out a Pru policy in September on a brand new vehicle and the Green Flag documents arrived with the policy documents.........and then promptly went in the bin because the car came with 3 years RAC cover anyway.

But with Quidco, the Pru were the cheapest for me so the breakdown cover was an incidental freebie.