Board logo

Insurance advice!
Coopz - 10/12/12 at 09:01 PM

After a bit of advice,

I received an email from my tin top insurers 'Admiral' explaining that I owe a balance of £1311.00 which they will debit from my account shortly. I called admiral to enquire about the outstanding balance (I had paid my annual renewal 10 days previous) to be told there was a discrepancy in the details I had given and they had also backdated my previous premiums accordingly.

The discrepancy being my named driver which happens to be my mom. According to admiral she has four claims in the last five years and I had not listed any. After talking to her she said she didn't have any as a driver. I spoke to her insurance broker who explained that her policy has two named drivers on who both have claims which are under their names but as an individual she has none. He also said he could provide a history of the claims to admiral and it was a load of b****cks, in a professional way of course!

After explaining this to admiral they said they would contact the broker, as they seemed to agree with me (on the phone at least) a few days later I called them again to be told they are proceeding with the charges (they didn't even bother contacting the broker)

I have put a seven day stop on the payment. But what do you guys think, am I in the wrong do I suck it up and pay the balance or do I fight the charges?

Cheers

Toby

ian locostzx9rc2 - 10/12/12 at 09:12 PM

Fight it all the way there taking the mick!!!!!!!

JoelP - 10/12/12 at 09:20 PM

Highly unlikely their t&cs allow them to bill you for discrepencies. I suspect they are trying it on.

But its a good reason to change insurers every year, to reduce the chance of this happening!

owelly - 10/12/12 at 09:53 PM

Get on to the Ombudsman asap. For every person that stands up to these companies, there will be dozens who just pay up. As far as I can see, the insurance company are implying that you havn't declared the claims on your Mothers policy. Unless your policy actually asked you to provide details of your Mothers policy claim history, as opposed to her claim history, I'd tell them to jog-on.

Ninehigh - 10/12/12 at 10:20 PM

Hold on, let me get this straight.

They're trying to charge YOU just over 1.3k because someone on your mum's insurance has had claims? Despite the fact that you (theoretically) don't know this person, isn't on your policy and likely never will be?

Personally I'd have told them they can go F themselves for the money. I doubt my company would refund me anything if I had my mum on my insurance on the basis that my dad hasn't had a claim in 50 years

Coopz - 10/12/12 at 10:43 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, the more I think about the situation the more annoyed I get! The named drivers on the policy happen to be the old man and my sister, but this makes no difference anyhow! I have contacted the ombudsmen who said if I can't reach a solution with admiral ( which doesn't look likely as there not budging and I'm loosing hope) then to make a complaint!

mark chandler - 10/12/12 at 10:53 PM

they had also backdated my previous premiums accordingly.

I cannot see how they can possibly do this, if you had made a claim and they had found out then they would not have paid out a penny and void the insurance, they cannot have this both ways.

Stuff them, launch a complaint straight away.

designer - 11/12/12 at 09:12 AM

I always thought that if a 'named' driver had a claim, it was always came back on the policy holder. Otherwise everybody could get away with cheaper insurance.

Ninehigh - 11/12/12 at 08:43 PM

Yeah but it's a named driver on another policy! The person with the accidents has no legal access to OP's car. This would be like my brother losing his driving job because I got caught drunk driving, there's no correlation here.

If they're not going to back down go somewhere else, they're not the only insurance company about.

JoelP - 11/12/12 at 09:24 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
Yeah but it's a named driver on another policy! The person with the accidents has no legal access to OP's car. This would be like my brother losing his driving job because I got caught drunk driving, there's no correlation here.

If they're not going to back down go somewhere else, they're not the only insurance company about.


He paid his renewal 10 days ago he said, so they have him by the curlies (what a coincidence on the timing eh?). If he doesnt pay, they will cancel his insurance, take him off the database. Then he's even worse off having had a policy cancelled.

Myself, i would attempt to cancel the policy myself, and quickly. Get whatever refund you can, small claims court for the balance. Then reinsure with another company. Refusing to pay is a terrible idea if you still have a policy with them.

Ninehigh - 11/12/12 at 09:39 PM

If it was 10 days ago then surely he's still within the 14 day cooling off period during which he can cancel with no penalty. I may be wrong but even so the penalty for cancelling so soon should be pittence against the 1.3k they're demanding

Coopz - 11/12/12 at 09:59 PM

Bit of an update, I have had a chat with the financial ombudsman who said I have strong grounds for a complaint but must complete admirals complaint procedure first.

Ninehigh - 12/12/12 at 02:26 AM

What happens about the money they want to take? Personally I would stress that I'm not chasing them for that back so unless the ombudsman say to pay it I wouldn't