Norwich Union Pay as you drive car insurance withdrawn.

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi Becca.

This thread has been viewed over 600 times, despite the fact that there are only 21 posts (22 including this one). Putting my compliance hat on for a mo, I am seriously concerned that the lack of full, frank, open communication coming from your colleagues that are dealing with the transfer of business could be construed as a failure to treat customers fairly.

I hate to bang on about it, but TCF is supposed to be fully integrated within insurers by now and the December deadline for providing evidence to the FSA that companies follow TCF is looming.

Let's switch to the auditor's hat:

If I were auditing the department dealing with this issue, I would be asking them what they had done to ensure that all customers were contacted within a reasonable time period and what steps they had taken to make the switch over to a new policy as seemless as possible. I would then be asking for evidence of this and also for details of any helplines (and whether they were freephone) provided to ensure that customers with questions were able to get through to the correct department with the minimum of fuss. Following on from that, I would be looking to see how many "hits" there were on helplines, e-mails and websites connected with the withdrawal of cover, as well as the quality of the information being provided at the outset.

Customers who use the PAYD insurance are likely to fall into 2 brackets:

1. Customers who live very close to work or have retired
2. Customers who have a limited income and need to give value to every £1.

Customers falling in to bracket 2 are likely to be the hardest hit by this change and also suffer the greatest amount of stress; they have known how much their insurance costs them per mile and now they are in the unknown abyss of obtaining annual cover again. I believe NU owe them a greater duty of care than most customers, because the effect of this cancellation of cover will be that much greater.

I hope that NU are reassuring customers, but the "hits" on this thread lead me to believe otherwise.

I think your department will be given an increased workload due to the fact that someone with a spredsheet and rating table has made a purely financial decision.

Finally, thank you once again for being available on this website. It is nice to know that you care enough to spend your holiday time looking at posts and are often logging in at weekends to keep on top of matters.

All the best.

Puttytat

I have this policy as I fall into the first category as mentioned in Oscar's post above (i.e. I ive very close to work) and am very sorry to hear of it's demise.

Now, the burning question is, how much do we charge as a cancellation fee???
:rotfl:

Oscar_The_Grouch

I believe that the FOS will support charges of up to £50 by insurers for administration and cancellation fees.

From reading the FSA Final Notice to Hastings Insurance, I understand that the FOS Technical Advice Line (even though they questioned whether the actions of Hastings were correct) said that an offer of £20 to £30 was "fair" compensation for complaints about the cancellation. This was in 2006, so 2 years later on I am sure you would be able to up the ante somewhat!

Other than that....

FANTASTIC POST PUTTYTAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MisterNick

My wife and I have A PAYD policy each.

We have both recieved calls from NU asking whether we will alow them to run a credit check to enable them to quote on an instalment basis.

I have anything to hide, but I have no intention of giving somebody the OK to run a credit check who happens to phone up out of the blue.

Aside from this, in my experience the credit check should be run at the time a deal is struck (and accepotance may be subject to a satifactory check).

The lady advised that a quote would not be given at this stage.
I also pointed out that I have other NU policies, both life and general and these are all on installments.

I understand that somebody will now phone to give us annual quotes.

This may be a scam and somebody is phishing, but if not then I can't see many people being happy with NUs approach.

payless

Have 2 cars on this scheme - was happy to run them through to completion , and pay monthly fee + usage as original contracts ( remember most of us paid an upfront fee as well, so should be getting a pro-rota rebate! , and can't see them being able to levy a cancellation fee)

No contact from NU yet other than standard letter / reduced monthly DD

kimoffife

payless.....I was wondering whether me changing cars had prompted the cancellation ( by them) ....but when he said this was going to happen , I questioned it and he said ALL policies were going to be cancelled at 30th August.

I finally received the quote this guy was talking about, which he said was meant to be already on it's way:rolleyes:, it's dated 31st august, the day I phoned..
The quote is as if I was a new customer...it makes no reference to having been transferred from PAYD and there being "special" terms for these policies to reflect "the inconvenience"...(.their words in the original letter.)

As I thought....My quote is dearer than PAYD....even including the initial payment and taking my monthly paymenst as the normal amount including mileage and itemised billing......the premium is still 37% more.

I am , like many others I imagine, very interested in any feedback Beccus can give us , if she is able.

payless

Yeah I got a call , saying they would be calling me with some alternatives.

Wanted permission to do credit search, and whilst I would pay annually he said it was the only way that they ( and all new insurers) would quote ..and hence I was under pressure to give authority to try and keep continuity of NCD etc .. personally I think this is untrue , as I looked afterwards on their website and they allow you to reject the credit search ifwilling to pay annually.

This together will a mass cancellation of policies only a few months after starting , especially as it meant hassle of having car kit installed ( and I have a feeling about lack of partial refunds being offered on first payment) I do wonder if NU can say they are treating customers fairly ( they might be legally entitled... but TCF is something else)

rudekid48

I know that this is a slight change of direction from the current discussion, but I thought that you all may be interested to look at this http://www.coverbox.co.uk/

Unless I am mistaken, most people seem quite happy with the PAYD model and are more upset with the way that NU have handled things.

This company are going to be offering PAYD insurance from December based on a panel of Insurers rather than a single carrier. Should stop the current NU debacle from happening again as if one panel member gets cold feet there will be others readliy available to pick up the risk without the customer having to move away from PAYD.

You can register your interest on the site.

[Deleted User]

hi all

I wanted to let you all know I've not forgotten you, I've just been out of the office this week and am just flying in at the moment before heading off to a meeting,.

Becca

kimoffife

Becca...thanks, any information would be very useful.....as you can see from this thread, everyone seems to be having different experiences, which is not particularly reassuring.

Some people have mentioned "several alternatives" and being consulted...I was simply TOLD my insurance was being cancelled...I have been with NU for many years so the potential loss of my NCD for this year is not an issue for me but surely others will have lost out??
Re the initial premium...there was no mention of this ( yes it was only small for me but it is a concern which should be addressed I feel.
Also...when doing some online quotes, I noticed some ask if " you have had an insurance policy cancelled?".....can I legally answer No to this, as I have been told it is cancelled and NOT transferred as we were led to believe.

Maybe am being old fashioned,but I would have expected a bit more loyalty to customers who have been inconvenienced.

I am seriously unimpressed with the way this has been handled and have been getting a few quotes...not good fun as we all know, but it shows me that the quote I received does not appear to be at beneficial rates( nu's original words ).I do keep wondering if I have any options re staying with NU but am unwilling to waste more time on the telephone and depending on who I get on the phone could determine what answer I get....

Finally, Becca, re your earlier offer of looking into things.....i'm not overly concerned about the past issues as I assume these people are under pressure due to the circumstances they have been put into .... but if the offer of help in clarifying my situation and a way forward remains I would be grateful ...

kim

ps rudekid....I did see coverbox when this thread started but it appears to be starting December.....too late for many on this policy.