Insurance company action

webbit

Just a question re how insurance companies should act , maybe I'm in the wrong but anyway...I accidentally cancelled the direct debit to our insurance, but they emailed us about it and , I tried ringing and web chat but couldn't get through. I contacted the bank to reinstate the DD which they did, and went onto my account and the payment details were the same , I refreshed them and all was good. It was supposed to go out on the 1st August, I'm not 100% when but at the latest it was the 2nd looking at my phone history I contacted my bank on the 30th July. Anyway we went away for a week and on returning I found an email from them "1st central" dated the 9th saying the insurance was cancelled...this was the 11th, we had been driving for 2 days uninsured. On their website missed payments section it says if we can't take the money on said date we will try 5 days later, if we still can't you have 14 days to pay the arrears....they cancelled after 9. They also charged me £97 cancellation fee, with the threat of debt collectors of not paid. Surely for something as serious as car insurance they should ring, not everyone checks emails everyday...thoughts anyone , am I in the wrong or are 1st central? Also we tried to contact them this morning but couldn't get through to try to resolve it , but phone kept disconnecting and web chat wasn't active, so we had to take out a new policy somewhere else .

Mildly_Miffed

You bought cheap insurance from an online-centred insurer.
Email is the first route of contact for an online-centred business, not least because it's all automated and the cheapest route of contact.

It's your responsibility to check your email. Especially when you KNOW there's likely to be an issue, since you cancelled the DD. Set your phone up so email comes into it.

sheramber

You could lodge a complaint.

The complaints policy should be detailed in the policy document.

webbit

We have complained about them not following the policy, but yeh I do get it about checking emails, but we were abroad , but cancelled policies should really get a phone call in my opinion 

Hoenir

webbit said:

 but cancelled policies should really get a phone call in my opinion 

Their conditions also state that

We’ll ask you to contact us urgently to bring your policy up to date by making a payment by credit/debit card either online or through our call centre

Reinstating the Direct Debit was too late for August. As two attempts had previously been made. 

webbit

Hoenir said:

webbit said:

 but cancelled policies should really get a phone call in my opinion 

Their conditions also state that

We’ll ask you to contact us urgently to bring your policy up to date by making a payment by credit/debit card either online or through our call centre

Reinstating the Direct Debit was too late for August. As two attempts had previously been made. 

But we still had 14 days to do that right ? And we tried ,but web chat didn't work and phone line kept disconnecting. Looking at my phone record I reinstated the DD on 30th July so I presume because they got a cancellation notice from the bank the didn't try to collect the payment...but it was due 1/8/24 so we still had until 14/15th August..any thanks to input for or against, just wanted insight never had this happen was just a mistake but its cost me unless I win my complaint , and I'll also go to the FSA and get their input .

400ixl

Even worse, you now have to declare you have had a policy cancelled when asked. I assume you did this on taking out a new policy?

mills705

When did you re instate the DD? It does take several days for the instructions to reach both parties and for the money to show as cleared.

You need to do a full timeline from the 1st DD missed until cancellation to say they went against their T+C's. 

DullGreyGuy

webbit said:

Just a question re how insurance companies should act , maybe I'm in the wrong but anyway...I accidentally cancelled the direct debit to our insurance, but they emailed us about it and , I tried ringing and web chat but couldn't get through. I contacted the bank to reinstate the DD which they did, and went onto my account and the payment details were the same , I refreshed them and all was good. It was supposed to go out on the 1st August, I'm not 100% when but at the latest it was the 2nd looking at my phone history I contacted my bank on the 30th July. Anyway we went away for a week and on returning I found an email from them "1st central" dated the 9th saying the insurance was cancelled...this was the 11th, we had been driving for 2 days uninsured. On their website missed payments section it says if we can't take the money on said date we will try 5 days later, if we still can't you have 14 days to pay the arrears....they cancelled after 9. They also charged me £97 cancellation fee, with the threat of debt collectors of not paid. Surely for something as serious as car insurance they should ring, not everyone checks emails everyday...thoughts anyone , am I in the wrong or are 1st central? Also we tried to contact them this morning but couldn't get through to try to resolve it , but phone kept disconnecting and web chat wasn't active, so we had to take out a new policy somewhere else .

Why did you choose 1st Central? Because of their amazing reputation? Because they were the cheapest? 

Almost all insurers will write to you by your preferred method of contact (letter/email), though some only offer the option of email and are clearly aimed at those that prefer operating online. Written communication is considered much more reliable than a phone call given they have no idea what hours/days you work, accounting teams tend not to have wide hours of operation and its expensive to have a lot of people doing nothing but getting people's voicemail. 

Over 95% of people buy car insurance on price, if you want to be able to sell insurance cheaply you need to cut waste and having large teams simply phoning people is highly expensive and wasteful. Look at other "important" matters... if the police catch you speeding or someone aledges you were involved in a hit and run do they call you or write to you? If someone sues you does the court write to you or phone you?

If you prefer to be able to have a digital detox whilst on holiday then maybe an online only company isn't the best one for you. Though the alternative would have been a letter through the door which you also wouldn't have gotten whilst you are on holiday. 


If you believe they haven't followed their own process then register a complaint and take it from there. 

Hoenir

If a direct debit manadate  is cancelled. Then the originator may not attempt collection again. A very different matter to there being insufficient funds. 

GrumpyDil

As the DD was cancelled by you the collector would have received a coded response to the collection attempt saying mandate cancelled by payer. Assuming they operate in the same way as we do we would not then try a second collection attempt as that would be pointless.

If it gets returned for insufficient funds we would attempt a second time. 

I would read their policy closely as a cancelled DD mandate suggests a deliberate attempt to cancel the policy rather than overlooking something and they may treat it differently. 

Although at the moment your biggest issue is having to dearer a cancelled policy of future quotes/claims.