1st Central Car Insurance

lomoco

Hi I am looking for a bit of advice, be as brutal and honest as you can be to see if I have a leg to stand on it would be greatly appreciated.

I signed up for insurance with 1st Central last month for the price of approximately £450, everything was good.

Recently, 1st Central have been emailing and texting me on a daily basis saying that 'We've sent you correspondence with some important information, please review it ASAP' - which then lead me to their website, the website said I need to 'call them to go over the details if not done i will not be able to make any changes to my policy'.

I called 1st Central they asked me my job title and then decided from this I had selected the wrong job title from a drop down list (which should be manual input not a drop down). I said 'ok fair enough, change it to the one you believe it to be (which i agreed on) and that i would need to add business insurance as I travelled to two different places of work.

Two minor changes, which they had forced me to contact them to go over (without even knowing anything about my situation, do they do this to everyone?).

They have now said I must pay them £250 based on these two changes otherwise my insurance will be cancelled, I feel like this price is really extortionate and ridiculous for changing a job title and adding that i travel for business especially as they were happy to agree on the price initially, wait for the cooling off period to end and then try and find any faults in my policy. Is there anything I can do?

pramsay13

No, it sounds as though you have chosen the incorrect job title and failed to choose the commuting option. The first may or may not be a big risk factor but the second one usually is and that is the price they would have quoted if they had had all the information at time of quote.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655931/1st-central-car-insurance

Cooling off periods make no difference, it's not fee free cancellation in that period. In principle after the cooling off period you have no right to cancel at all but in practice for things like Motor everyone allows you to cancel post cooling off. There are other classes (eg PMI) that you often can't cancel mid year plus optional extras like Legal Expenses and Breakdown often can't be cancelled after the cooling off.

There are a couple of intermediaries that are well known for quoting very low and then going through your application with a fine tooth comb to make sure it's correct. You did ultimately sign a digital declaration to say all the information was accurate ad not broadly accurate or a guesstimate etc.

How the job is selected will depend on which website you did your quote from but most use the ABI list of job titles. It can't be a truly free text input because they will price your policy based on what you enter and so it has to be a fixed list. What job title did you declare? What is your contract job title? Was your contractual job title in the list?

lomoco

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889906#Comment_81889906

The job title I put was 'Business Analyst, Education' and they recommended I changed this to 'Recruitment Consultant, Education' My official job title is Employer Engagement and Recruitment Advisor, basically it wasn't there and I didn't see the other title so thought this was the most relevant.

I have added business insurance before to my travel also and this incurred around a £25 fee not £250. And I didn't increase my milage adding business insurance, it actually went down.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889944#Comment_81889944

If Employer Engagement and Recruitment Advisor is what a quick google suggests then I would agree that its much closer to a Recruitement Agent/Consultant or whatever you want to call them than what I hire when looking for a Business Analyst. Maybe google is wrong or maybe there is another group of people calling themselves BAs but personally dont think it was a good choice.

Business often is cheap, if you already have Commuting on the cover. Note that the £250 isnt going to be all premium, some of it will be an admin fee for making the change(s). In principle one for them and one for the insurer isnt totally unheard of with some firms.

Never worked for one of these firms, nor have I searched the Financial Ombudsman website to see their views in detail on the business model however I certainly some others have a new business rate and a MTA rate for changes so it can be a different price to buy it with X cover and then change to Y than simply having Y from the outset beyond the admin fee for the change.

A quick search however shows the first case at least being that the ombudsman had concerns with the additional premium being charged https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-5604962.pdf

lomoco

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889976#Comment_81889976

Thank you for the response and the Ombudsman case - I will look into this.

My back, however, is up against the wall at the moment, they have given me until next Wednesday to pay the £250, am I in a position where I can refuse? Will I lose my full years insurance if I do not (I pay annually)? If I cancel will I lose all my money and still be forced to pay £250? I am considering options moving forward but do not want to lose a years worth of insurance when I am only one month in.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81892289#Comment_81892289

You have two choices, pay it or cancel the policy. If you dont make the choice then they will cancel it for you and thats a much bigger problem.

At £450 premium you will lose a notable proportion of it as you will have to pay the time on cover, the cancelation fee and possibly have to pay some optional extras in full. Certainly some will have it worse because all the fees exceed the premiums paid so they have to pay more on top but would expect you to get a partial refund.

EIGHTOF8

Has anyone got a link so I can cancel my policy renewal?