Big Brother

[barrychas]

Just a note to let all road users who have an insurance policy to beware as to how much info you offer these people. For instance I accidentally knocked a ladder against my car ,causing a small crease in the body work. I phoned up my insurance company to enquire as to the next move to get it sorted. First the excess was £200 to be paid up front..then the complimentary car hire and the loss of my car and inconvenience for 10 days and we came to the conclusion it just wasn't worth the hassle,for a 10 year old runabout. So we didn't bother to go ahead ..then came the phone calls from the repairs company who despite being told that we didn't think it was worth £200 to carry out the job insisted that a claim had been set in motion....then the ambulance chaser lawyers kept phoning me about my accident....Whaaat ...who was I going to sue ...myself !!!.
Then a letter arrived saying if we didn't persue the claim within the next week ,it would be "delisted "...fat chance ...cos within the next few weeks my renewal policy arrived with the words that I was at fault for a claim...which is so short of explinationary info that it looks as though I caused a smash...and worst of all this false info stays on a database for 5 years and despite long phone calls moving ever up a management chain was refused to be deleted.
So be carefull what you tell these people...oh and by the way the crease was repaired for £50 at my local MOT station.

 

[ValA.]

Long ago we came to the same conclusion, and now for minor damage to our, always get a quick local quote before doing anything else. We suggested the same thing, when OH did minor damage to someone else's car. It may even be worthwhile paying someone a litle over the odds if you damage their car, to ensure that mutual no claims bonuses aren't affected!

 

[RayS]

Entirely agree with Val. The other possible benefit is to accept a higher excess on your policy and get a bigger discount, knowing you won't claim for small jobs up to say a few hundred pounds.

 

[MrsSorento]

I echo the above.
BE VERY CAREFUL when calling your insurers as soon as you mention an incident whether you pursue it or not it gets marked on your reecord and hey presto your premiums will change to reflect it. I have been advised by a friend who works in the insurance business that if you say WHAT IF such and such happened then they can't mark it your record as it may not have happened or it is only a scenario.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi all,
Ditto, the more you tell them the more getouts they have as it is on record, my car insurance changed when I bought the Meriva it went up £60 for the months left to run, when the renewal came a years insurance had escalated by £210 so shopped round for a better quote, using the comparison web sites. I found one that was half price my renewal but the questions were a bit vauge on the web site so I rang them to find out if having a towbar and roof bars constituted modifcations and also to inform them I towed a caravan and have diabties' er not sure the guy said we will ring you back when they did the next day he said unfortunatly we cannot offer you a quote because of your circumstances sorry.
next up was the next cheapest so I thought I will ring and ask about the towbar, sorry the girl said we cannot offer you insurance, BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN REFUSE INSURANCE ELSEWHERE. it must have taken them all of 6hrs to put that on the database,
so I have had to stump up the extra cash to stay with the old insurers that have all the details from last year.

 

[Tony_5041742]

Interesting topic. I'd also suggest people are very careful in how these use insurance price comparison websites, as I recently used one of these and later found out that several insurance companies had ran credit searches on me as a result. Evidence of multiple searches on a credit file can have a negative impact on your credit file, as it can look you're desperate for credit. So, if you're at the stage of merely "window" shopping for insurance quotes I'd strongly recommend entering anonymised data (but based to some extent on your own circumstances else the quotes won't have any reality) until you're ready to follow through and purchase a policy.

 

[Dustydog]

Everything on here is absolutely correct and yet again proves a lot of Insurers , not all, are out for their own gain at both ends of the spectrum. They want your business, will use every piece of information to make you pay more and then do their best to reduce or deny your claim.
The most important factor here is disclosure. Technically you need to consider the Insurer's questions very carefully. Eg have you ever made a claim or have you ever had an accident. Two completely different things.
As all these calls are recorded you should say in answer to the latter, taking Barrychas as an example, I have never made a claim on my policy. 9 times out of 10 the Insurer will not push the pointand say "accident". Technically you have not lied but merely answered the question slightly differently. It is then the Insurers fault for not questioning more. However if you said , never had an accident, and got found out at a later date your policy may be voided at inception leaving you in deep guano.
Sadly most rejected claims are the result of failure to correctly disclose at inception.

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi, DD is right of course BUT and thats a big but, if you use comparison web sites as I did the questions are a bit loaded certain boxes have to to be ticked or unticked inorder to get any sort of quote this means for example us caravanners have cars fitted with towbars and also of course tow a trailer the "van" as they have to know this the question has the car been modified you have to tick yes this in it self will rule out quite a few insurers without even knowing what the modification is. some will say "ring for a quote" when even more questions are asked if that insurer then decides not to offer a premium is goes on record that you have been refused a quote so technically you have been refused insuarance this is what happend to me. so any future inquires you would have to tick the box that says have you ever been refused a quote you have to say yes without even having the chance to say why? any quote you get after that will incur and increase in premium though the points system it's a double whammy and your allways losing.

 

[JimF]

Why is it that professions we all used to trust (bankers, lawyers, insurance Cos, police, etc) All now seem to be proper barstewarts?

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

Why is it that professions we all used to trust (bankers, lawyers, insurance Cos, police, etc) All now seem to be proper barstewarts?

It's a sign of the times I think Jim, drubbing down rather than maintining standards to increase profits there are a lot of bandwagons out there to be jumped on. I dont think this is new however it has been going on for decades but with the advent of the internet blogs and twitter we the general public have more infomation about what goes on, this thread is a indication of this 15 or 20 years ago anyone who was ripped of by a insurance company would effectivley be gagged as there was no-one else you could tell "apart form "estha ranzen" now it's all over the internet within 20 mins,
likewise a bankers bonus would have been known only to him and the company that paid it
there is no doubt that insurance companies have taken a hammering of recent years due to the blame culture with the lawyers bandwagon increasing the number and size of claims, the insuarance companies in turn try to use get out clauses to aviod paying and in the end its the customers like you and me that pick up the tab,