Car Insurance Validation department.

Jogon_2

18 months in of being insured with a company (one renewal) my child has been contacted by the alleged ‘Validation’ team and asked to send in a slew of documents/information and in 5 days or they’ll cancel the policy and she’ll then have to declare to future insurers that she’s had a policy cancelled? all of which which i consider unreasonable both in language/time frame and amount of information required, they are a student commuting from UNI and having a casual hours job at the same time  ( I am on the policy as a named driver)

They haven't had an accident, the policy isn’t subject to any claims, it’s paid for in full until next year, no credit agreement for the policy was required.

In any case, this is the information required is:

1: A photo of both of the front of both our driving licences.

2: All pages of the logbook of my childs car

3: A pdf copy of the digital driving licences of us both from the govt (this is via having to go online to the .gov site, give your driving licence/NI number and it generates the licence summary and a code, it shows how many points and what categories, interesting that it actually blocks out most of the driving licence number, but it’s ok the insure have that covered as they’re wanting copies of her licence.

4: Proof of occupation (they are a student, as stated on the original application for the insurance, they have a casual hours job now but the proof of occupation via a letter from the employer / or a contract of employment and either is to then be accompanied by a recent payslip?  really?

5: Confirmation that they only require commuting use only on the policy and that they won’t be undertaking any commercial duties in the insured vehicle (something they already agreed to when first taking out the policy

I can understand some of what is being asked, but payslip info isn’t their concern or business and why is not the licence enough and also why the car log book, no claim is being made.

Thankyou

DullGreyGuy

Who is the company? 

There are a couple of intermediaries who are well known for asking for similar information and go through it with a fine tooth comb to ensure all the information provided is correct. They tend to find people have declared when they bought the car or when they passed their test incorrectly by a few months so charge an admin fee and additional premium to correct the information. These companies typically do it immediately after the purchase not months later. 

Most sellers will also have a counter fraud team who can ask for similar information, and typically call themselves something else (special investigations is the most common) but that can be a random sample or because they've become aware of something via a database or other service. 

The problem with a contract of employment is that anyone could mock up something and claim its their contract. Technically thats also true with a payslip, especially as more and more are digital, but it's harder and whilst contracts can vary, most employees with the same employer will have the same payslip so easier to validate. 

Jogon_2

Ticker are the insurers….their opening line was your policy is at risk of cancellation’. 

I’m of a mind to have my child cancel the policy and I’ll foot the bill for the trouble of doing so.

Some of what you say makes sense, re fine toothcomb,   the policy ran well for 12 months, they sent a renewal and my child ran out of time by 5 minutes to renew it, they had tried earlier in the day but the ticker app was down, so they missed the deadline and ticker closed them out of the app altogether…they tried to get it restablished but Ticker didn’t budge and stated they’d need a new policy…so, they applied again and ticker gave a cheaper quote, only by about £60 but they did, so they went for it, a ball ache but ticker had all the info to hand so nothing new / taken away was to be added and off they went (might have added the 1yr no claims as a seperate as in the original quote for renewal there was no mention of it , presumably because they knew about it as they were the ones insuring.

Once this has been sorted either way I’ll be sending in. SAR request, I’d like to see if anything what may have caused them to flag the account.

One further point, not wanting to get away from the issue in hand is part of the policy included a black box, because the old policy lapsed by 5 mins they sent a new black box for the new policy year (this year). 

Last years driving was faultless, no issues, gold on the dial , this year they’ve marked them down for the last week but when asked what it was they had done Ticker would not give the information, so how are they supposed to take action to stop it from happening again, if Ticker are collecting data on their insured surely the insured have a right to know what and why they’ve been dropped down in standards?

and further still, last week they had a stone hit the windscreen causing them to stop and pull over, was it this? or was it when the car was in for an MOT and left overnight at a garage? both of which may have caused the issue?

It just seems one way traffic with the info, they want it all but are not prepared to give anything back.

Jogon_2

ps: the thing with the payslip/employment info is not relevant to the policy, they have already declared they will only use it for commuting only, that is the only requirement surely  there is no credit agreement in force for the policy so no possibility of money being owed to ticker re installments..in tha

cw8825

on the new quote has any of the information changed from the previous year. If the new quote has come through at a lower price, this would raise flags to the validation team
The information they are asking for is all fairly standard

1: A photo of both of the front of both our driving licences.

2: All pages of the logbook of my childs car - check on the policy who is listed as the owner/keeper and the date of purchase

3: A pdf copy of the digital driving licences of us both from the govt (this is via having to go online to the .gov site, give your driving licence/NI number and it generates the licence summary and a code, it shows how many points and what categories, interesting that it actually blocks out most of the driving licence number, but it’s ok the insure have that covered as they’re wanting copies of her licence - check the date of how long license has been held

4: Proof of occupation (they are a student, as stated on the original application for the insurance, they have a casual hours job now but the proof of occupation via a letter from the employer / or a contract of employment and either is to then be accompanied by a recent payslip?  really? - has there been a change in the description of the casual hours job

5: Confirmation that they only require commuting use only on the policy and that they won’t be undertaking any commercial duties in the insured vehicle (something they already agreed to when first taking out the policy - 

all of these things are fairly quick and easy to provide, bare in mind you may be asked for these by another insurer. From experience when using a broker/intermediary they do these checks more than when direct with an insurer. 
Usually under the guise of making sure everything is ok and checks have been done in case you need to claim, whether that is the main reason i am sceptical

Jogon_2

cw8825 said:

on the new quote has any of the information changed from the previous year. If the new quote has come through at a lower price, this would raise flags to the validation team
The information they are asking for is all fairly standard

1: A photo of both of the front of both our driving licences.

2: All pages of the logbook of my childs car - check on the policy who is listed as the owner/keeper and the date of purchase

3: A pdf copy of the digital driving licences of us both from the govt (this is via having to go online to the .gov site, give your driving licence/NI number and it generates the licence summary and a code, it shows how many points and what categories, interesting that it actually blocks out most of the driving licence number, but it’s ok the insure have that covered as they’re wanting copies of her licence - check the date of how long license has been held

4: Proof of occupation (they are a student, as stated on the original application for the insurance, they have a casual hours job now but the proof of occupation via a letter from the employer / or a contract of employment and either is to then be accompanied by a recent payslip?  really? - has there been a change in the description of the casual hours job

5: Confirmation that they only require commuting use only on the policy and that they won’t be undertaking any commercial duties in the insured vehicle (something they already agreed to when first taking out the policy - 

all of these things are fairly quick and easy to provide, bare in mind you may be asked for these by another insurer. From experience when using a broker/intermediary they do these checks more than when direct with an insurer. 
Usually under the guise of making sure everything is ok and checks have been done in case you need to claim, whether that is the main reason i am sceptical

Thanks for the input.

Nothing has changed, Ticker cancelled her policy as she did not renew within the alloted time, (literally 5 minutes past the deadline)i think i explained as to why further up?  When she went to open a new policy Ticker had filled all the details in already, she just had to check etc, which of course she did (we did) nothing was any different.

The only change was on the renewal they had hiked by quite a bit her compulsory excess to £750 which is just ridiculous, I think she was able to take this down a little on the new policy….and mileage, she initially had 10,000 on her first year, she had to pay for a further 2000 miles about a month from the end of her first year, new car, commuting to uni etc etc, she did that no problem, on the new policy she chose the same mileage as the first time of 10,000

As for driving licence, in 40 years of driving I have not once been asked to supply my driving licence and my daugthers has only been driving 1 year and she waa 18 when she passed her test and 18 when she first took out insurance with Ticker.   

The payslip is not their business, she had filled out the ‘only for commuting’ that is enough for the policy, if she drove outside of that remit her insurer in the event of a claim simply void the claim, I see no valid reason for a payslip to be provided, it’s financially sensitive information.

cw8825

it sounds as if you have already made your mind up, so in which case cancel and go with another insurer.

DullGreyGuy

Jogon_2 said:

Ticker are the insurers….their opening line was your policy is at risk of cancellation’. 

I’m of a mind to have my child cancel the policy and I’ll foot the bill for the trouble of doing so.

Some of what you say makes sense, re fine toothcomb,   the policy ran well for 12 months, they sent a renewal and my child ran out of time by 5 minutes to renew it, they had tried earlier in the day but the ticker app was down, so they missed the deadline and ticker closed them out of the app altogether…they tried to get it restablished but Ticker didn’t budge and stated they’d need a new policy…so, they applied again and ticker gave a cheaper quote, only by about £60 but they did, so they went for it, a ball ache but ticker had all the info to hand so nothing new / taken away was to be added and off they went (might have added the 1yr no claims as a seperate as in the original quote for renewal there was no mention of it , presumably because they knew about it as they were the ones insuring.

Once this has been sorted either way I’ll be sending in. SAR request, I’d like to see if anything what may have caused them to flag the account.

One further point, not wanting to get away from the issue in hand is part of the policy included a black box, because the old policy lapsed by 5 mins they sent a new black box for the new policy year (this year). 

Last years driving was faultless, no issues, gold on the dial , this year they’ve marked them down for the last week but when asked what it was they had done Ticker would not give the information, so how are they supposed to take action to stop it from happening again, if Ticker are collecting data on their insured surely the insured have a right to know what and why they’ve been dropped down in standards?

and further still, last week they had a stone hit the windscreen causing them to stop and pull over, was it this? or was it when the car was in for an MOT and left overnight at a garage? both of which may have caused the issue?

It just seems one way traffic with the info, they want it all but are not prepared to give anything back.

Tickers are an MGA, they write on capacity provided by a Maltese insurer who themselves are a bit of a front and reinsure most the insurance risk out. 

Given its a telematics policy there is potential that some movements may have lead them to suspect the vehicle is being used for other purposes than those covered and once the counter fraud teams are interested they tend to check all aspects of a policy not just those that arose suspicion.

It's ultimately up to you to decide to cancel the policy and take the hit or provide the information requested. 

As to the data, she would be entitled to a copy of the data they hold on her but not the proprietary algorithm that runs over it to do their pricing. That said if she gets the data and it shows she was doing 40 in a 30 then that would probably be self explanatory. 

cw8825

i would add, 12k miles seems like a lot for a student with a casual job, they are likely worried about business/courier use

Jogon_2

On the contrary, when I was younger I did a lot more miles when i first passed my test, fuel was cheap, roads less busy, it was a fun time to be able to drive.

I’ve since spoke to a former broker on an informal basis, what Ticker are asking for is unusual, not overly so but it’s quite rare and in his time as a broker of 30 years, he’s now manager to a main insurers he has never seen a client in those 30 years ask for a wage slip as it’s financially sensitive information and without any claim on the policy and as there is no monies outstanding it’s highly unusual.

DullGreyGuy

Jogon_2 said:

On the contrary, when I was younger I did a lot more miles when i first passed my test, fuel was cheap, roads less busy, it was a fun time to be able to drive.

I’ve since spoke to a former broker on an informal basis, what Ticker are asking for is unusual, not overly so but it’s quite rare and in his time as a broker of 30 years, he’s now manager to a main insurers he has never seen a client in those 30 years ask for a wage slip as it’s financially sensitive information and without any claim on the policy and as there is no monies outstanding it’s highly unusual.

30 years experience isn't really that relevant, how insurance was done in 1995 is materially different to how it is done today, online sales didnt exist, vast majority was still done by your local broker, cover notes were used as the data had to be sent to the insurer, rekeyed in and the insurer print the certificate rather than a PDF being certificate being created in milliseconds after hitting the buy button. 

It is unusual but can see scenarios in which it would be appropriate. Ultimately this is the company that you are trusting to potentially pay out millions if you cause a serious accident, if you can trust them to do that you should be able to trust them seeing a payslip.