Double Discount Car Insurance Loophole!

bobdauilda

MOOLAH- are you saying that you had a quote for £450 off someone and then £1300 off nationwide for the same cover?? Who quoted you first and what do you drive/???I get quotes of £680 from first alternative and £1080 from nationwide for a tt with 7yrs no claims and a clean record. Does anyone know if first alternatives policy matches nationwides??? I think that euro cover may be where it falls down

moolah_2

bobdauilda - I drive a 306 GTI-6 and have 1 years no claims. The admiral group (admiral/bell/elephant) all quote around the 450 mark. Nationwide was one of the worst i could find.

weimaranermerlin - the booklet I picked up instore says the policy needs to be purchased by 30th Sept and claims submitted by 28th Oct, but on their website it says 31st Oct and 28th Nov. So you should have plenty time.

weimaranermerlin

Thanks Moolah!

I have just done the leg work:
Renewal quote from Elephant: £400.
Nationwide quote: £631.05
Bells direct quote: £417.19

If I claim twice the difference (£427.62) I should be able to get hubbie's insurance for a mere £203.33 :j

Thank you very much for this thread!

MarkyMarkD

bobdauilda wrote:

MOOLAH- are you saying that you had a quote for £450 off someone and then £1300 off nationwide for the same cover?? Who quoted you first and what do you drive/???I get quotes of £680 from first alternative and £1080 from nationwide for a tt with 7yrs no claims and a clean record. Does anyone know if first alternatives policy matches nationwides??? I think that euro cover may be where it falls down

Did you really need to ask this in a post, bob? It's very obvious from First Alternative's policy document here that the cover is NOT equivalent to Nationwide's - page 15 clearly states that an additional premium is required for European travel.

Knightoftheroad

Hi. This is my first post so not sure it will end up in the right place.

Does anyone know what would happen in the following scenarios:

1. You have been successful with the double refund claim, but then part way through the policy year you change your car. Would you get hammered at their usual high rates?

2. If their quote for the new car is excessive and you know you can get it covered elsewhere cheaper, would you be allowed to cancel the policy, having received the refund? If so would you have to pay the refund back?

I know that these scenarios are if's, but in my case these are realistic considerations since I will be changing car within the next 6 months. My renewal date is 5th Oct. Any advice would be much appreciated.

bobdauilda

SaladDodger wrote:

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!!!!

Markymark- if you read the above chaps post it says that his quote wasnt EXACTLY like for like with the Euro cover difference especially worrying.
So YES I did have to ask that-don't be so condescending :mad:

Sava_Stuey

Sava_Stuey wrote:

I spoke to Nationwide Customer Services today and the guy (Richard) was really helpful when I queried the T&Cs for the offer. Basically, he confirmed the details Martin got in his e-mail query - excesses must be within £25 either way, other policy needs Euro cover and courtesy car (although he never mentioned anything about things like stereo cover and medical expenses, so I might have some negotiating power here if Nationwide start to get shirty about paying out). Despite being nervous (like loads of other people have said!) I've taken out NW policy (paid online). Richard told me that the 'like for like' policy would need to be an online print-out if you buy online from NW. I'll now wait to see what happens on the money-back front - I can always cancel and go with someone else if NW don't pay out. Also, despite the 14-day coolong off period, I can't see anything in NW's T&Cs which says you have to pay any admin charge (etc) outside of this time if you decide to cancel - but if anyone can correct me on that, I'd be interested....

In any case, I'll let you know what happens...

I sent off my application form to Nationwide last week and I got a letter from them today saying that that they will send a double-the-difference cheque to me within 28 days - woo hoo! The 'identical' policy I found was with the AA, which included the full Europe cover as standard, but was a lot cheaper. Nationwide policy was £630, the AA policy was £500, so I'll soon get a cheque for £260 (ish). Fantastic.

cribden

RESULT!!!!!!

Just had confirmation letter from Nationwide to say that my claim has been accepted and I'll get the cheque in 28 days.

Details:

NU direct online quote used as comparision BUT REMEMBER...

Amend voluntary excess to £120
Include standard courtesy car
Include European cover

Looking forward to over £400.00 back.

Many thanks Martin!

Stabilo

Don't forget that only HALF the money you get back is money saved i.e. normally you would choose the cheapest supplier.

Still a great 'scam' though :T .

Number_6_3

Sadly don't think I can benefit from this offer :-( always the way. Still has prompted me to look around for cheaper car insurance.

One of the ones I did find was Mark and Spencer Insurance It has better legal protection than most, European cover, hire car, and UK and European breakdown (with rac including onward travel) it came out pretty competitive for me even when I took the voluntary excesses down to nothing and protected my no claims :j

HTH

R