MoreThan car insurance is now owned by Swinton

el91913

Just discovered the car insurance I set up with MoreThan a year ago is not to be renewed as they will no longer be doing car insurance. They have handed all their client insuree details to Swinton Insurance. 

I found this out not from MoreThan as you'd expect, but from Swinton claiming my 'automatically renewed' policy was starting with them.... a policy I never had contact with them about or agreed to. 

Despite this, the Swinton email of 'renewal' state proudly that they will charge for cancellation. Noting the deliberate attempt to delay sending this info until 1915 of the eve of the policy commencement and catch people in their cancellation fee trap, I'm asking for opinion on two things:

1. Has anybody else found themselves in this scam-like situation? 
2. Does the passing of personal information from MoreThan (the Data processor) to Swinton (a third party) without Data owner consent constitute blatant breach of GDPR?

DullGreyGuy

el91913 said:

Just discovered the car insurance I set up with MoreThan a year ago is not to be renewed as they will no longer be doing car insurance. They have handed all their client insuree details to Swinton Insurance. 

I found this out not from MoreThan as you'd expect, but from Swinton claiming my 'automatically renewed' policy was starting with them.... a policy I never had contact with them about or agreed to. 

Despite this, the Swinton email of 'renewal' state proudly that they will charge for cancellation. Noting the deliberate attempt to delay sending this info until 1915 of the eve of the policy commencement and catch people in their cancellation fee trap, I'm asking for opinion on two things:

1. Has anybody else found themselves in this scam-like situation? 
2. Does the passing of personal information from MoreThan (the Data processor) to Swinton (a third party) without Data owner consent constitute blatant breach of GDPR?

MoreThan ceased writing Motor on 1 Sept 2023 but continues to be owned by RSA

Their FAQ (https://www.morethan.com/car-insurance/faq/) is a bit of a mess because the first item that mentions renewals says they'll be contacting you in advance with options and the second question touching on renewals states you'll get a renewal quote from Swintons

Irrespective of who sent it you should/will have received a renewal invite and if you are on auto renewal it will have stated it will renew automatically if you do nothing. If it's coming from Swintons maybe you deleted it assuming it was spam/marketing?

2. Not necessarily, your data will have been going to many other organisations even before the switch to Swintons such as the MID as a legal requirement, CUE for counter fraud, Reinsurers for balance sheet protection and SII capital to name but a few. 

You need to read the Privacy Notice/Policy on who they can share the data with and in what circumstances. If you look under their policy one of the reasons they state they'll share data is for the purposes of selling part of their business but the receiving business can only use the data for the same purposes as originally shared with MoreThan

PS. MoreThan were the Data Controllers not the Data Processors, processors are subordinate to the controller. 

strongcarl

I had a “renewal” notice from Swinton come through by email at 19:56 on 14th Dec, with the policy set to “renew” on 16th. I managed to contact Swinton and after 30+ minutes of going through their painful IVR menu system and being on hold, I managed to cancel the policy I never requested or agreed to. 

Certainly this bit of the More Than FAQ hasn’t been upheld!

We will get in touch with you in plenty of time before your renewal is due, where you'll be asked to switch your current policy to Swinton Insurance.

If you'd prefer to make your own insurance arrangements and not be contacted by Swinton, you'll be given the option to opt-out.

It does seem this transition between the two insurance companies has been badly handled. 

Tonycv51

We've just had the opposite problem. Got a letter from Swinton saying our morethan policy will lapse.  Don't know when it was posted but it has already lapsed and I've checked on the insurance database and my wife has been driving round uninsured for the last few days.  We've had the policy since buying the car in 2016 and it's always auto renewed but not now - leaving us unknowingly uninsured. We're checking to see what correspondence we've had and maybe missed but not aware of any

Tonycv51

And as an aside did the transfer go through a Part VII transfer of insurance business via Court and regulated by the PRA. I can't find any reference to this.  If so more than would have had to satisfy the court that there was no customer detriment - but clearly there is for us being uninsured presumably through data mismatch on auto renewal status, as well as the cancellation fees issue

DullGreyGuy

Tonycv51 said:

And as an aside did the transfer go through a Part VII transfer of insurance business via Court and regulated by the PRA. I can't find any reference to this.  If so more than would have had to satisfy the court that there was no customer detriment - but clearly there is for us being uninsured presumably through data mismatch on auto renewal status, as well as the cancellation fees issue

It doesn't need to, Part VII is to transfer in force policies which hasn't happened here, MoreThank kept the policies to term and continues to be liable for any claims on the former policies. 

All that has happened is that they have sold the right to offer the renewal to Swinton and no legal requirement for a Part VII for that as customers can simply decline the renewal.

Tonycv51

Swinton chat says we were declined by the underwriter but couldn't say why, and that they sent us a letter a month ago but my wife doesn't recall receiving this letter.   Car is now insured with Tesco as seemed the cheapest/best and is circa £200 cheaper

Tonycv51

DullGreyGuy said:

Tonycv51 said:

And as an aside did the transfer go through a Part VII transfer of insurance business via Court and regulated by the PRA. I can't find any reference to this.  If so more than would have had to satisfy the court that there was no customer detriment - but clearly there is for us being uninsured presumably through data mismatch on auto renewal status, as well as the cancellation fees issue

It doesn't need to, Part VII is to transfer in force policies which hasn't happened here, MoreThank kept the policies to term and continues to be liable for any claims on the former policies. 

All that has happened is that they have sold the right to offer the renewal to Swinton and no legal requirement for a Part VII for that as customers can simply decline the renewal.

Seems like a loophole as money and policy holder data has changed hands for the auto renewals etc

DullGreyGuy

Tonycv51 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Tonycv51 said:

And as an aside did the transfer go through a Part VII transfer of insurance business via Court and regulated by the PRA. I can't find any reference to this.  If so more than would have had to satisfy the court that there was no customer detriment - but clearly there is for us being uninsured presumably through data mismatch on auto renewal status, as well as the cancellation fees issue

It doesn't need to, Part VII is to transfer in force policies which hasn't happened here, MoreThank kept the policies to term and continues to be liable for any claims on the former policies. 

All that has happened is that they have sold the right to offer the renewal to Swinton and no legal requirement for a Part VII for that as customers can simply decline the renewal.

Seems like a loophole as money and policy holder data has changed hands for the auto renewals etc

Part VII is nothing to do with data... you have bought into the financial security of one company and they want to transfer your existing policy to another company without you having a say in it. There are legitimate reasons why this should be able to happen however the court process is there to ensure there is no detriment to the customer and that their new provider are at least equally financially secure else you could be transferred to some offshore outfit, they go bust and you end up with your £100,000 claim unpaid and as they're overseas no FSCS protection. 

This is totally different, a policy is 1 year in duration, when that policy lapses then neither party are obliged to deal with each other again. Swinton will be offering the majority of customers the option to renew with them but no one is obliged to accept the offer hence a court process isn't required, everyone can simply say no. If Part VII applies, you cannot say no.