Double Discount Car Insurance Loophole!

bigandy_3

My Nationwide quote is £405 versus £280 on https://www.belldirect.co.uk - the policies look equivalent to me (make sure the voluntary + compulsory excesses on each policy add up to within £25 of each other), so there's almost £250 to be had if Nationwide honour their offer. Too good to miss, as long as you keep a note of the end of the Nationwide 14 day cancellation period..........

Good luck to all MSEers.

-andy

SaladDodger

My insurance was due on 7 August and I am a long way down the road of obtaining my refund.

Nationwide Premium: £425.25
Admiral Premium: £278.25
Difference: £147.00

Double the Difference: £147 x 2 = £294

Admiral Total Excess £210 vs Nationwide £200

I was unable to obtain a claim form as I stated in my letter to them "I have tried to obtain a Price Promise Claim Form from my local branch (Moorgate, London) and by telephoning the number which you state in your “Price Promise Terms and Conditions” (telephone number: 08457 30 20 10). I was disappointed that none of your staff were aware of the Form." The claim form has subsequently been added to their website.

On the 12 August I sent them a letter which stated the following:

Your will note that the Admiral Policy Quote offers the same level of cover, the key aspects being the following:

• Fully Comprehensive Car Insurance Cover
• No Claims Discount Protection
• Legal Assistance

In addition, I have identified the following items on the Admiral quote which are more favourable then your insurance:

• Windscreen Excess of £50 (Nationwide Excess is £75)
• Fire and Theft Excess of £150 (Nationwide Excess is £200)

I received a letter on 18 August stating that my application had been successful and that I would receive a cheque within 28 days. Unfortunatly this letter did not state the amount of the refund that I would be getting.

On the 20 September - I still hadn't received my cheque and was starting to get worried - AMEX bill to pay soon.

I tried calling them but was passed from pillar to post so sent them another letter (to their freepost address in Newbury):

I refer to my letter dated the 12 August 2005. I enclose a copy for your reference.

I received a reply from you dated 18 August 2005. The reply confirmed that my application for the refund had been accepted and I would receive a cheque within 28 days.

I have not yet received the cheque and would be grateful if one could be raised as soon as possible.

On the 22 September (not sure if it was spurred on by my second letter) I received a cheque for £147. Only half the amount I was expecting

A call to Accounts payable (telephone number on the Cheque remittance) and the nice lady pointed out that there was a mistake on their part and that they would issue a second cheque for £147. This was received this morning - so all in all a happy story :T

When I claimed (as I didn't have a claim form) I didn't know anything about Nationwide's cover for driving in Europe for up to 90 days - this would have been a worry for me - but they did pay up when comparing to Admiral no questions asked.

Consequently my car insurance this year has been:

425.25 - 147.00 (cheque refund) - 147.00 (cheque refund) - 8.51 (2% AMEX cash back) = £122.74 - BARGIN!!!!

feival

Quick question, if you get the nationwide quote off the internet in what form does the other quote need to be. Does it need to be a formal quote on headed paper or is a print out from the internet acceptable?

simonkirkland

A print out from the internet... I phone and they said just to send whatever I could so I sent a few screen shots of my quote as well as some pages from bell directs policy...

Simon

feival

simonkirkland wrote:

A print out from the internet... I phone and they said just to send whatever I could so I sent a few screen shots of my quote as well as some pages from bell directs policy...

Simon

Nice, I am getting excited now. My renewal is from belldirect and is due in the next week or so. I presume that I therefore only need an offline quote from nationwide - an even bigger saving for me then! I will be sad to leave belldirect. They have been good to me but moeny saving is moneysaving.... :rolleyes:

moolah_2

I'm having a bit of trouble with the nationwide excesses. If I select 0 voluntary (and 150 compulsory) and go to view excesses it shows:

Total policy excesses
The excesses shown on the screen will include any voluntary excess selected on the premium page.
Excess payable towards windscreen claims £75
Excess payable towards fire & theft claims £150
Excess payable towards accidental damage claims:
Moolah £150

But if I select £200 voluntary (and 150 comp) it shows:
Excess payable towards windscreen claims £75
Excess payable towards fire & theft claims £350
Excess payable towards accidental damage claims:
Moolah £150

I expected the voluntary excess to apply to accidental damage claims?
Did anyone else see this, or is the website playing up?

CAROLE

I have just sent off a claim form and screen prints to show lower quote from Esure for virtually identical cover.

The difference is only £63.37 but £126.74 back will at least go some way to covering the horrendous price of car insurance (perhaps to do with the "Catch 22" situation of subsidising those who now do not bother with it because it is so expensive!!)

I don't know if all the sites are the same but on the Esure site if you highlight and print the quote it all prints except the all important total price. I only noticed this as I was sealing the envelope. The only way to have the quote total printed with the date was to print it as a full screen print.

moolah_2

My previous post about excesses turned out to be a website error as I phoned to confirm voluntary excess would be added to compulsory excess on accidental damage claims.

So I've taken the plunge and forked out £1300 for the nationwide quote. If all goes to plan I'll get my £1700 refund in a while.

simonkirkland

I've not heard anything yet (claim sent Friday).

Good luck moolah, yours sounds like the biggest one to go for it so far...

Keep us posted...

Simon

weimaranermerlin

My husband's car insurance is due on October 8th. If I take Nationwide's insurance ut before their offer expires (although I'm still insured by my old insurer during that time) and then send in my claim afterwards, will they honour it?
Also in terms of excess and similar insurances, which are the companies to look out for (in order to obtain comparable quotes)?

Thanks a lot,
Sandra