Car insurance company changed my job title to another one I'd tried when applying, and charged me

webmuppet

So I used a couple of comparison sites to renew my car insurance. As of recently I have 2 job titles and I tried both and ultimately used the one that I have always used to apply.

I randomly logged into my insurance account to check my documents and there was a notice that I needed to call them. Couldn't get through, kept getting cut off, chat service was no help. Eventually got through after a week or so and they insisted I had to be checked on both job titles (or on the other job title) and then charged me an extra 16% which included an admin fee. They said they had to take the job title that was highest risk.

I asked if I could cancel and they said no because I was outside my cooling off period, even though they never actually contacted me about clarifying the details, I only happened to notice in the online system that they needed me to call.

This all seems very unreasonable, is it worth trying to complain over? They're very difficult to get on the phone and I assume even harder to complain to, am wondering if it's worth the stress. 

At least people should know that it's possible that whatever details you try when you're applying might come back to bite you.

Mildly_Miffed

webmuppet said:

So I used a couple of comparison sites to renew my car insurance. As of recently I have 2 job titles and I tried both and ultimately used the one that I have always used to apply.

I randomly logged into my insurance account to check my documents and there was a notice that I needed to call them. Couldn't get through, kept getting cut off, chat service was no help. Eventually got through after a week or so and they insisted I had to be checked on both job titles (or on the other job title) and then charged me an extra 16% which included an admin fee. They said they had to take the job title that was highest risk.

I asked if I could cancel and they said no because I was outside my cooling off period, even though they never actually contacted me about clarifying the details, I only happened to notice in the online system that they needed me to call.

This all seems very unreasonable, is it worth trying to complain over? They're very difficult to get on the phone and I assume even harder to complain to, am wondering if it's worth the stress. 

At least people should know that it's possible that whatever details you try when you're applying might come back to bite you.

This "unreasonable" price is based on a job title that does describe your job accurately, which is used at your work, and which you gave the insurer on the proposal?

Can we ask what the two titles are, if it's not too outing?

webmuppet

To be clear, I don't think the price is unreasonable as such, just the practice they have employed.

The issue is over me having a company directorship so I still do the same job but am also now a company director while doing it. They've insisted that the Company Director title gets used and said they have to take whichever is highest risk.

And as an aside, charging me an admin fee to change details when they're forcing the change seems unreasonable too.

MattMattMattUK

webmuppet said:

To be clear, I don't think the price is unreasonable as such, just the practice they have employed.

The issue is over me having a company directorship so I still do the same job but am also now a company director while doing it. They've insisted that the Company Director title gets used and said they have to take whichever is highest risk.

That is how insurance works, otherwise people with high risk jobs could game the system with a part time job.

webmuppet said:

And as an aside, charging me an admin fee to change details when they're forcing the change seems unreasonable too.

You incorrectly entered your job title to obtain cheaper insurance, the alternative is that they cancel the policy and flag you as having a policy cancelled due to incorrect declaration, which makes insurance very expensive. 

Do you also have Class 1 business insurance, or only Social and Commuting? 

webmuppet

Just social and domestic, it's a personal car that only gets used for personal/commuting.

So I've heard Martin Lewis himself suggesting you check the different job categories that apply to you as well as threads on here with people saying you should do the same. Seems like that's bad advice now, instead of you choosing the cheapest job category you're giving the insurance company carte blanche to choose the most expensive one that they know you might have tried.

Here's the MSE page on it:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

That page says: "imagine you're asking a reasonable person who knew what you did for a living. Would they say it was reasonable for you to describe yourself this way?"

I am a company director on paper but it's a perk and not what I would tell people if they ask what I do, it's not even particularly descriptive of any job. However, I appreciate I did try both titles when I was using the comparison site and I feel like whether I'm right or not the insurance company can use that as an excuse. And if that is the case then people should be very wary.

cw8825

webmuppet said:

Just social and domestic, it's a personal car that only gets used for personal/commuting.

So I've heard Martin Lewis himself suggesting you check the different job categories that apply to you as well as threads on here with people saying you should do the same. Seems like that's bad advice now, instead of you choosing the cheapest job category you're giving the insurance company carte blanche to choose the most expensive one that they know you might have tried.

Here's the MSE page on it:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

That page says: "imagine you're asking a reasonable person who knew what you did for a living. Would they say it was reasonable for you to describe yourself this way?"

I am a company director on paper but it's a perk and not what I would tell people if they ask what I do, it's not even particularly descriptive of any job. However, I appreciate I did try both titles when I was using the comparison site and I feel like whether I'm right or not the insurance company can use that as an excuse. And if that is the case then people should be very wary.

firstly social and domestic wouldn't cover you commuting, i assume this is a mistype and you have a business car for business use

secondly if company director had come out cheaper you would presumably have purchased using that title?

jimjames

webmuppet said:

I am a company director on paper 

It's not just on paper, it's a matter of record at Companies House. Having said that I'm also a company director and I've never thought to add it as a job title when getting quotes so it's interesting what you found

webmuppet

cw8825 said:

webmuppet said:

Just social and domestic, it's a personal car that only gets used for personal/commuting.

So I've heard Martin Lewis himself suggesting you check the different job categories that apply to you as well as threads on here with people saying you should do the same. Seems like that's bad advice now, instead of you choosing the cheapest job category you're giving the insurance company carte blanche to choose the most expensive one that they know you might have tried.

Here's the MSE page on it:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

That page says: "imagine you're asking a reasonable person who knew what you did for a living. Would they say it was reasonable for you to describe yourself this way?"

I am a company director on paper but it's a perk and not what I would tell people if they ask what I do, it's not even particularly descriptive of any job. However, I appreciate I did try both titles when I was using the comparison site and I feel like whether I'm right or not the insurance company can use that as an excuse. And if that is the case then people should be very wary.

firstly social and domestic wouldn't cover you commuting, i assume this is a mistype and you have a business car for business use

secondly if company director had come out cheaper you would presumably have purchased using that title?

Yes, Social, domestic, pleasure and commuting.

And yes, the whole point was to see which title was cheapest. And when it comes to job category the insurance company as much as said that they wanted to use the applicable title with the most risk. So trying various titles assuming (per advice) that you can choose the cheapest one as long as it is fairly applicable to what you do is then no longer good advice. "Company Director" is much less specific than the title I ultimately chose, I wouldn't introduce myself as that and no-one who knows me would say that was what I do. If they had pushed me into "Director of [my business area]" then it might have made sense. I mean if someone is a fisherman by trade but also a company director then can they not call themselves a Fisherman for the purposes of insurance?

I was firstly absolutely furious about this (and still am about the admin fee) but now I'm more curious as to whether this is something we need to be warning people about.

Car_54

webmuppet said:

I am a company director on paper but it's a perk and not what I would tell people if they ask what I do, it's not even particularly descriptive of any job. 

If you think it's just a perk, you should do a bit of research. Directors have duties and responsibilities, and can even be held personally liable for the company's losses in certain circumstances.

This is a good starting point  https://www.iod.com/resources/company-structure/directors-duties-and-responsibilities/

DullGreyGuy

jimjames said:

webmuppet said:

I am a company director on paper 

It's not just on paper, it's a matter of record at Companies House. Having said that I'm also a company director and I've never thought to add it as a job title when getting quotes so it's interesting what you found

That depends if they are a statutory director or not. You can sit on the board of a company and thus be a "director" without being a statutory director. 

webmuppet said:

Just social and domestic, it's a personal car that only gets used for personal/commuting.

So I've heard Martin Lewis himself suggesting you check the different job categories that apply to you as well as threads on here with people saying you should do the same. Seems like that's bad advice now, instead of you choosing the cheapest job category you're giving the insurance company carte blanche to choose the most expensive one that they know you might have tried.

Here's the MSE page on it:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

That page says: "imagine you're asking a reasonable person who knew what you did for a living. Would they say it was reasonable for you to describe yourself this way?"

I am a company director on paper but it's a perk and not what I would tell people if they ask what I do, it's not even particularly descriptive of any job. However, I appreciate I did try both titles when I was using the comparison site and I feel like whether I'm right or not the insurance company can use that as an excuse. And if that is the case then people should be very wary.

They also say to use their tool and choose the one that they state will be cheapest that you feel is defensible as a title for you. 

Ultimately insurers are very sensitive to fraud and quote manipulation. If you disagree with them then register a complaint and go to the ombudsman if you dont like their response. You can search the Ombudsman website to see what previous decisions have been, unfortunately it's dominated by people who have made false declarations rather than people that have tried multiple and picked one. One thing worth noting on those irrelevant cases though is that the ombudsman asked for their contract of employment and took the job title from there as the truth. 

Industry I would argue is equally blurred, I would say I work in Insurance, the chap next to me would probably say he's in IT.

webmuppet

I suppose the question really is, can they take all your potential job titles and make you choose the one that has the most risk and therefore highest premium? Or if you choose a job title that is a fair representation of what you do then should they have to accept that?