Proof of Claims History help needed

Stellanne

My son's car insurance is due for renewal at the end of April and we have been sourcing quotes.  Having done searches online, one supplier, Hastings Direct, came out with a reasonable quote, £600 cheaper than the next best.  However, when we tried to buy the insurance their website said that there was an issue with the information we had provided and that we had to ring them to discuss.

When we contacted them, they have informed us that, when they check their system (sounded like it was called Lexus or Nexus?), it has a claim/accident registered against my son in November last year.  This is incorrect.  My son hasn't had an accident, nor made a claim and neither have myself or my husband (who are named drivers on his policy).

Hastings said in order for us to progress with the policy we need to provide them with "Proof of Claims History".  We sent them the current insurers renewal letter, which states at the top of it that my son has one years no claims (he only passed his test last year), but they will not accept this.

We have contacted his current insurer, they have checked the National Database and said that there is no claim or accident registered against my son.  They have also said, when we told them what Hastings were asking for, that they will only issue a proof of no claims once the current policy has completed.

We are going round in circles.  We have been on the telephone to both insurers now for hours but are not getting anywhere.  If we wait until the current policy has ended to get what Hastings are saying they need for him to go ahead with the quote, I'm pretty sure the renewal price will go up.

We don't know what else to do.  The next best quote is £600 more than the one we are trying to buy.  It seems unfair that we would have to pay this amount extra because of some error on my sons record, which we cannot find out why is there.  I would also have thought that all insurers use one system / database to check information, so how can both companies see different results when they do a check on my sons record?

If anyone could provide some advice I would really appreciate it as we really cannot afford to pay an extra £600 for a mistake on some system.

Thank you

400ixl

Hastings Direct are a bottom feeder of an insurance company and well known for trying to find any way they can to quote low and find a way to the increase the policy price. You are fortunate to be finding it out before you have committed money and can't get out of paying more.

So those quotes of £600 more may well actually be the going rate for your son. Personally Hastings is one of the companies on my never to trust list.

As for proof of no claims. The insurer provides the this when they send you your renewal quotation which is usually around 14 days before the policy runs out.

One thing to check is that when getting quotes, did you put your son's driving license number in and is it correct. There have been times where this was incorrect and they were getting the wrong persons history.

Not a quick process at the moment but you can request your history to check it at https://www.mib.org.uk/managing-insurance-data/requesting-your-data

DullGreyGuy

Could be LexisNexis that they mentioned? They are a vast data services company that do provide a fair amount of service into the insurance industry (eg sanctions checking for all classes, death notification for life and pensions etc). I've not heard of a claims validation offering from them but it would be in their wheelhouse. 

Most use CUE which is run by the MIB but hosted by Experian but not all insurers use it for Home, Motor and Injuries. It would be worth doing a Data Subject Access Request for the three of you against CUE. 

The other obvious one to check... has anyone been "experimenting"? Seeing what quotes would have been had you an incident to declare? Insurers are very sensitive to people doing "dummy quotes" and changing unchangeable facts and will pick you up if you subsequently try to buy.