One Call Insurance

Chose one call as it was my cheapest quote only £18 per month car insurance. Seem to be pretty straight forward, even had a call saving me a extra £1 as they stated I could lower my excess. A week later I received a letter from another company stating my insurance would be cancelled with one call if i did not sign and return a credit agreement, I thought I better had. Now it seems this other company are charging me massive interest and I am now paying them £30 per month and it seems they have paid off my yearly insurance to One Credit. Obviosly Id have been much better off staying with my previous insurer who was a lot cheaper. Lesson learnt, stay well away from this company!

Like most here, I chose One Call as the quote on a comparison website was the lowest for the cover I needed, which included free breakdown recovery. I realised I'd been conned when my car broke down and I had to pay a £20 "call out charge." Therefore NOT free breakdown recovery. They now claim I have "free breakdown membership" not recovery, which seems utterly meaningless. They also put my premiums up by £6 a month, saying my voluntary excess of £350 was "too high' - unfortunately I agreed to this as I was so confused by the hard sell. Now I've traded in my car and phoned to cancel the insurance policy, they want to charge me over £120 as a cancellation fee... I'd only pay £160 if I continued paying monthly until the end of the policy so it seems entirely unreasonable! They're saying I have to pay for "extras" such as legal cover in full for the year, plus a £55 cancellation fee. I wish I'd read this thread before taking the policy out, my ex used to handle the car insurance so I'm new to all of this and I guess I'm not expecting companies to try to rip people off in this way, I'm too trusting.

They're claiming they make all these "hidden" costs and fees perfectly clear - evidently not, or I wouldn't have taken out the policy. Because it's all buried in the T&Cs it's all legal apparently, the Financial Ombudsman told me over the phone that there's nothing they can do. Reading through the other threads it's clear that One Call are exploiting all the loopholes they can, hoping that we won't read or find the hidden costs before taking out the policy, stinging people with large cancellation fees, as well as nefarious dealings when it comes to renewals, charges over documentation etc.

They've said if I don't pay the fee then they'll hand it over to their Debt Recovery team and the cost will be even higher. I'm a single parent on benefits, with two kids with additional/special needs, life is stressful enough but £120 is a LOT to me. I don't know if there's anything I can do about it, but I'll blummin well go down swinging - is there anyone else on here who is willing to go to the newspapers with this? I think there's enough here for a financial media story, consumers aren't being given enough protection and are being ripped off.

I have dealings with these with my no claims bonus. Their no claims bonus is a scam so avoid it at all costs. It’s been reported to tradings standards and the financial ombudsman as it’s mis sold to people who buy. As people on here say they don’t really give a s**t.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. It’s about time BBCs Watchdog had it in its teeth.

jorainbow wrote: »

I would appreciate it if anyone can assist here with some advice please! I have been with One Call for my car insurance since October. After a mess up with my direct debits and the receipt of a 7 day cancellation notice as they went into my bank on the wrong day, I eventually got this sorted - minus an apology of course! I am now buying a new car so called yesterday to transfer the insurance across bridging it for a couple of days until my new cover note arrived. The car is older and a smaller engine so in previous experience this would mean cheaper insurance and having had a quick look, I would be saving over £100 on my existing car insurance. Simple?? No - after getting through to a very inexperienced chap who was purely passing messages from his manager, it transpires that it would cost me the same plus £99. The cancellation fee? 55% of my current annual premium as I have been with them over six months (did put him right on this one!) So its either cancel and pay the fee or pay £99 and what can only be described as an extortionate price for a small little old car. The insurance company is Zurich. Can anyone see a way of sorting this with minimal expense? I used to be with M&S insurance and any changes like this were so easy! Thanks in advnce Jo