Help! and a warning about Dial Direct insurance

Zebidee

It is easy to opt out of Automatic Renewal for "Home" policies. (Don't know but assume same applies to all their policies.) I've just taken out a "Home" policy with dialdirect and in view of the complaints here I checked my policy documents and found a page headed "Important information about our Insurance Intermediary Services" which includes a sub-heading "Automatic Renewal". This points out that you can opt-out of automatic renewal by 'phoning the number given. I did this, the call was answered quickly and the gentleman on the other end keyed in my 'opt-out' and confirmed my policy would not auto-renew. As a precaution, I have recorded the date, time, contact name, and content of the discussion, but feel assured that I will not need this.

sarahhutcheon

HI All

I have had similar awful experiences with this company. I cancelled my insurance with them in January 2016 and in June looked further into my bank account as two amounts had been taken off by BISL Dial direct for 2 different amounts (55.60 & £60.00). In total they had taken almost £500 from my account since January! I have since spoken to 7 people in customer service/collections. The last person was Abid Hussain who claimed I owed them money!!!!! And in order to close the problem I had to provide proof I had returned my old car and got a new car even though I had already sent them the new insurance cover note!!!! Awful service and I would never go near them or any associated company ever again. I am just hoping I get my money back.

sarahhutcheon

HI All

I have had similar awful experiences with this company. I cancelled my insurance with them in January 2016 and in June looked further into my bank account as two amounts had been taken off by BISL Dial direct for 2 different amounts (55.60 & £60.00). In total they had taken almost £500 from my account since January! I have since spoken to 7 people in customer service/collections. The last person was Abid Hussain who claimed I owed them money!!!!! And in order to close the problem I had to provide proof I had returned my old car and got a new car even though I had already sent them the new insurance cover note!!!! Awful service and I would never go near them or any associated company ever again. I am just hoping I get my money back.

italoafro

I have had a situation were my account was debited by Dial Direct claiming that I was at fault in an accident which was clearly not the case.
I should have read the reviews on this forum before taking the insurance with them. I see I am not the only one...another post called them scammers. I think this is appropriate.

paddyandstumpy

italoafro wrote: »

I have had a situation were my account was debited by Dial Direct claiming that I was at fault in an accident which was clearly not the case.
I should have read the reviews on this forum before taking the insurance with them. I see I am not the only one...another post called them scammers. I think this is appropriate.

Well hold on, this thread has had 3 complaints in over a year. If they were the 'scammers' you claim, there would be far more recent complaints against them. Dial Direct is a brand of BGL, one of the largest brokers in the country.

So anyway, specifically regarding your case, it sounds like you disclosed a non fault claim, which turns out was recorded as fault (or perhaps still open?), this isn't DD's fault. Had you disclosed the information correctly, they would have given you a correct price.
If you challenge the validity of the information, you need to take that up with the insurer who uploaded the claim to CUE.

Ganga

We also had our house and contents with Dialdirect but in fairness they did send an e-mail to say the insurance would auto renew if we did not contact them to not do it.I phoned them up as the premium was to go up 53% from last year! they tried to keep me on board by dropping the price by £60 but i said no thanks,they sent a confirmation e-mail that it would end at the end of 12 months and i have kept the e-mail for proof it it goes t--s up

RTE

Purchased a car insurance policy from DialDirect in February 2016. Since this purchase was online and all policy documents are paperless these days, I've never checked specifically if there's any 'see-if-you-can' auto renewal option is selected.

On the date of expiry of this policy with DialDirect, I've been notified that they have just renewed my policy automatically and they charged £403. Instantly I've connected to your website and seen that there were policies available around £264, which is 50% cheaper than DialDirect's premium.

Without delay, I've rung DialDirect and asked for a cancellation on the same day of renewal, but they wanted to charge for £38 of cancellation fee! Now it is very visible in any form you want, on the phone, T&C, everywhere!

After certain amount of time with front-line staff, I've managed to reach the main man, 'the management', to remind them for their unfair business practice and they are now trying to lower this charge as a goodwill!!!

I would like to forward this case to anyone ever thinking DialDirect to be cautious on their hidden renewal procedure, and perhaps more that I did not discover yet. In their renewal practice, they must forward their best quote and wait for our consent to continue with their offer, rather than auto-renewing with their noncompetitive premium and trying to lock-in us in with hefty cancellation fee.

Despite their penalty, I moved elsewhere and strongly recommend that keep away from this people if you can, or be extremely vigilant. Double check your wallet even while talking to them on the phone.

If you fall into the same trap, don't accept their fee of £38 easily, negotiate with them. Make it harder to rip people of at least.

Sooner or later they will reach the end and look for something else to do.

dacouch

Had you arranged alternative cover to start on the renewal date prior to the renewal date?

FutureGirl

Just so you know most insurers operate auto renewal these days.

Did you tell them you didn't want to renew prior to the new policy starting? Unfortunately everything IS set out in the T&C's and failing to read them isn't any fault of the insurer.