The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This section gives examples of clients experiences with their insurance company.
• The Good
• The Bad
• The Ugly
The Good:
Admiral Insurance
Comments:
Mr Stevenson from Crewe tells us that he had a problem with his registration number which had been changed to a personalised plate on the same car, and had forgotten to notify his insurers.
Admiral were very helpful in sorting out his problem and providing him with a letter of indemnity to show the police that he was insured.
Mr P.S.
Builder – Crewe.
E Car Insurance
Comments:
Henry said that he had a breakdown in October and called E Car Insurance, who include breakdown cover on their Comp & TPF&T policies.
“Their Breakdown cover is handled by DAS. Henry reported that he was very pleased with the response time and service he received. This is quite a compliment from a professional and particular man who obviously likes things to be just so.”
Mr H.R.
Teacher – London
RAC Legal Services
Comments:
Alan had a non fault accident 18 months ago and suffered injuries, he was extremely complimentary about the prompt, considerate and efficient service he received from the RAC.
They fixed him up with a hired car which was delivered to him almost immediately and he was 100 per cent happy with his treatment.
Mr A.J.
Rail Worker – Essex.
More Than
Comments:
Mary had an accident with More Than in May 2007. She was distressed after a HGV reveresed into the front of her stationary car whilst she was in the drivers seat.
More Than had the vehicle towed away and it was a total loss. The offer was made and Mary accepted and received her cheque within ten days of the accident. The speed of finalising the claim helped her come to terms with the traumatic experience.
Mrs M. S.
Housewife – Staffordshire.
The Bad:
Budget Insurance
Comments:
We have had quiet a few comments from clients complaining about the inflexible attitude of Budget regarding there automatic renewals.
When clients phone to tell Budget that they did not want the automatic renewal and have insured elsewhere they apply a service charge which they refuse to deduct.
Editor.
The Matthews Guide.
Performance Direct (insurance intermediaries)
Comments:
They are now charging £30 administration fee. A client recently changed cars with Performance Direct and was charged £24.50 by the insurance company and £30 by Performance Direct, as the car was the same model, year and value, he was not very pleased.
Mr C. G.
Office worker – Stoke.
Lloyds TSB
Comments:
Ruth was insured with Lloyds TSB (Direct Line Associate). She had moved house recently and had lost her certificate of insurance during the move.(she had the rest of her policy).
She had less than one month left on her policy and applied for a duplicate certificate from Lloyds TSB, as she needed to tax her car.
They wanted to charge her £20, which was around 10% of her total premium. This seems very harsh for a procedure that could not cost more than a few pence whatever overheads you throw at it.
She insured elsewhere at renewal.
Mrs R.O.
Housewife – Rochester.
Liverpool Victoria
Comments:
This lady was insured with Liverpool Victoria and had an accident. It was taken to the local approved repairer in Staffordshire immediately. It was at the repairers for several weeks before work commenced.
It turned out that the repairers had senior staff problems and despite many calls from the Doctor nothing progressed and the repairers made continual excuses. Liverpool Victoria were made aware of the situation several times but made no effort to resolve matters and it was left to the client to chase the problem herself which took several weeks.
Dr F.D.
Doctor – Staffordshire.
Argos Insurance (Hastings Insurance)
Comments:
Dawn had an accident in October 2007. It took Argos four weeks to collect the vehicle, which was insured on a comprehensive policy.
Contacting Argos Insurance proved to be very difficult as no one was answering the phone and the notification of claim letter from Hastings had no contact number or address.
Finally Dawn managed to get the vehicle towed away and the claim, which was a total loss, was completed after six weeks.
Mrs. D.B.
Housewife – Leek.
The Ugly:
Policy Amendment Fee
Express Insurance:
Express Insurance charge a whopping amendment fee of anything up to £75. One of our clients changed her car to a lower rated vehicle and Express Insurance charged her £65 amendment fee.
She asked them to justify this amount and they told her that they could charge up to £75 and that she should have read the Terms & Conditions.
Comments:
This is more than three times the average amendment fee in UK motor insurance and over double the next most expensive.
It is very difficult to see how this sort of charge can be justified, it is so far adrift from the rest of the market and it would be interesting to know how they calculate fees of up to £75 a time.
The real cost to Express Insurance of changing policy details cannot be more than £10.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Renewals
Comments:
We are getting ever more complaints about companies automatically renewing policies without proper authorisation from clients.
Particularly – Direct Line Group, Budget Insurance Group including The Post Office, clients tell these companies that they have renewed elsewhere and they often try to make a service charge even though the client did not give renewal instructions.
Swiftcover.com automatically renew via their online system. They invite renewal on the clients email and debit their card if the client does not tell them to lapse the insurance.
All of this is based on a client opting out of their insurance policy renewal rather than opting in, this is agravating many clients who would prefer to give instructions to renew rather than insurance companies simply taking the money.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Bell Insurance – Part of the Admiral Group – including Confused.com
Comments:
Bell Insurance has brought out a new product called Flexi Bell. This professes to take away the frills of the standard Bell Policy and give motorists a cheaper deal.
The price is considerably cheaper but unfortunately they forget to tell you properly that this is not a normal comprehensive policy.
If you have a fault accident with Flexi Bell, not only will you probably have an inflated excess on your own car repairs, you will also have to stump up a substantial third party excess, towards the other persons losses (called third party excess).
This can add up to a £1000 plus very quickly for a fault accident and is not properly explained by Bell on their internet site. Bell are part of the Admiral Group which incorporates Diamond, Elephant and the quote service Confused.com.
The only mention on the internet site is when you request to see the excesses and it is hard to understand why they have not properly explained this policy at the point of sale. Many people, particularly the younger drivers, will be confused and will only realise the implications when they have an accident and it is to late.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Drink Driving – The Admiral Group
Comments:
The Admiral Group have decided not to pay claims for people who are driving over the limit when they have an accident. This is out of step with the rest of the market and whilst you can understand the reasons it should be made absolutely clear to their policyholders, before they take out the policy.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Passenger Liability
Are your passengers insured if you cause an accident?
Comments:
There are also Insurers that are limiting personal injury claims to passengers which can mean that if you cause an accident passengers can claim off you directly, for any personal injury they might receive, be careful to look at this very important point. Some insurers limit the third party passenger cover based on age.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Budget insurance make £20 charge for change of bank account
Comments:
We were amazed when a client told us that he had notified Budget Insurance of a change of bank account for his direct debit payments and they charged him an admin fee of £20 which seems incredibly excessive.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Budget insurance charge £25 to take away SP30
Comments:
A Budget client told the insurers that they had a SP30 (speeding fine) pending when they took out the insurance, this caused an additional premium on the policy.
The client decided to take the course which enables you to loose the SP30. She then notified Budget that she did not have the three points and they charged her a £25 fee for notifying them, she therefore had a £3 refund instead of £28 to which she was really entitled.
Budget's charges policy seems to be inflexible and harsh on their clients compared to other leading insurance companies/brokers.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Phone sales
Comments:
We are concerned that many clients are telling us that the presure to sell add-ons such as legal protection, breakdown services in particular aer becomming so pressurised that it is virtually bullying.
Some companies are just not letting clients go without pushing them to the limit to buy these products, which are usually well over priced.
Insurers/brokers should not allow their staff to bully older and more vunerable clients in to buying policies that they do not really want by using dubious sales methods.
Editor.
Matthews Guide.
Please let us know by email info@matthewsguide.co.uk if you find a part of your policy which is unusual or unfair, or is particularly good. |
