Insurance Companies (3 Viewers)

[shmmeee]

Absolute scam artists. Discuss.

Had the cat stolen from my car a couple of weeks back, insurance company took the car saying they thought it was a writeoff two weeks ago. Called to see what’s taking so long and they said they’re considering if my insurance is void because I didn’t declare a change in income.

I said what change in income, they said “your second job marking exams”, I said it’s a yearly contract and didn’t happen this year cos corona. “Well it’s false information, we’ll investigate and get back but it’s in the small print that you have to advise us if your income changes”.

This is a remote working job that earns £700/year when I do it. Why on earth does a car insurance company need to know about it anyway and as I said I didn’t even do it this year and have only been with this insurer since last month!

Absolute joke. Don’t even provide the basic service they sell. Anyone know if there’s a body that oversees them for this sort of thing?

 

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[skybluejelly]

have you checked in the neighbours wheelie bin for your cat ..(sorry I know its not a real cat )

as always with insurance companies they will try anything to wriggle out of paying , we are having a nightmare with my father in laws house after he had a fire ,had to get the local mp involved in the end as they were saying it was safe for him to move back in to before they had cleaned it ,

good luck getting it sorted

 

[Nick]

Written off because of a catalytic converter?

Take it to an exhaust place, get a straight through pipe and pop some flames.

 

[Grendel]

Insurance

there’s a guide what to do before you go to them as on the money supermarket site

Unless this is a position where you’d have to travel as part of the job and as the job can be proved as a minuscule income it should not really be considered a fair and reasonable response. The standard clause exists regarding accurate details but there is an acknowledgment that there will be oversights

I’d be very surprised if they stick to it. I assume the write off is the 50% rule - they may have quoted a high repair cost - you may find you could get a repair if your excess is high without much difference in cost - if that makes sense

 

[shmmeee]

Insurance

there’s a guide what to do before you go to them as on the money supermarket site

Unless this is a position where you’d have to travel as part of the job and as the job can be proved as a minuscule income it should not really be considered a fair and reasonable response. The standard clause exists regarding accurate details but there is an acknowledgment that there will be oversights

I’d be very surprised if they stick to it. I assume the write off is the 50% rule - they may have quoted a high repair cost - you may find you could get a repair if your excess is high without much difference in cost - if that makes sense

Thanks. The job is entirely remote. I do a few nights a year on my laptop and that’s it. Even when there was in person training a few years ago I travelled by train paid for by them.

Looking on eBay a new cat is around £500, can’t find it firsthand though, my excess is £750 (god knows why), the car is probably worth £1.5-2k. I’m assuming they’re quoting for a whole exhaust system though which is around £1500.

TBH I was wanting to get rid as it’s expensive to run and starting to show it’s age so I’d happily take the payoff even if it’s only a few hundred quid. Just pissed off on principle.

I’ll take a look at that link, cheers.

 

[shmmeee]

Written off because of a catalytic converter?

Take it to an exhaust place, get a straight through pipe and pop some flames.

Yeah I was surprised. I’m guessing that one isn’t made because I can’t find it on euro car parts. Maybe they’re quoting for a whole exhaust? No idea. They haven’t confirmed it’s a writeoff yet, just said they think it will be.

 

[Nick]

Are they offering you a payout at all?

What car is it? I know somebody who has just found a used catalytic converter and wants to sell it quick for some reason.

 

[shmmeee]

Are they offering you a payout at all?

What car is it? I know somebody who has just found a used catalytic converter and wants to sell it quick for some reason.

See above they’re still thinking. Going to chase today as it’s been a week since I last talked to them. Was hoping to bone up on my rights in case they stuck with what they said last time.

It’s an 07 Lexus RX400h, apparently hybrid cats are worth good money (£500 on eBay), police say there’s been a spate of cat thefts recently. I was amazed they did it in broad daylight in Aldi car park while I was shopping TBH.

 

[Nick]

See above they’re still thinking. Going to chase today as it’s been a week since I last talked to them. Was hoping to bone up on my rights in case they stuck with what they said last time.

It’s an 07 Lexus RX400h, apparently hybrid cats are worth good money (£500 on eBay), police say there’s been a spate of cat thefts recently. I was amazed they did it in broad daylight in Aldi car park while I was shopping TBH.

Don't they need to jack the car up to do it? No CCTV or anything like that?

 

[shmmeee]

Don't they need to jack the car up to do it? No CCTV or anything like that?

Nah it’s a 4x4 so you can just nip under it. Police said they’ll ask Aldi for CCTV but when everyone’s wearing masks I doubt it’ll be much help.

 

[jimmyhillsfanclub]

Absolute scam artists. Discuss.

No need.....you've nailed it there.

 

[eastwoodsdustman]

Absolute scam artists. Discuss.

Had the cat stolen from my car a couple of weeks back, insurance company took the car saying they thought it was a writeoff two weeks ago. Called to see what’s taking so long and they said they’re considering if my insurance is void because I didn’t declare a change in income.

I said what change in income, they said “your second job marking exams”, I said it’s a yearly contract and didn’t happen this year cos corona. “Well it’s false information, we’ll investigate and get back but it’s in the small print that you have to advise us if your income changes”.

This is a remote working job that earns £700/year when I do it. Why on earth does a car insurance company need to know about it anyway and as I said I didn’t even do it this year and have only been with this insurer since last month!

Absolute joke. Don’t even provide the basic service they sell. Anyone know if there’s a body that oversees them for this sort of thing?

First of all let them decide whether to pay you. Then if they don’t you need to go through to their complaints dept. And after that the ombudsman. You shouldn’t have a problem at all as A, it shouldn’t affect their view of the risk and B, you haven’t deliberately misled them.
Sadly this happen a lot more than it used to due to people buying cover online instead of through brokers.

and I’ve just seen you’ve got a £750 excess . Why would that be a good idea on a £2000 car?

 

[shmmeee]

First of all let them decide whether to pay you. Then if they don’t you need to go through to their complaints dept. And after that the ombudsman. You shouldn’t have a problem at all as A, it shouldn’t affect their view of the risk and B, you haven’t deliberately misled them.
Sadly this happen a lot more than it used to due to people buying cover online instead of through brokers.

and I’ve just seen you’ve got a £750 excess . Why would that be a good idea on a £2000 car?

Ironically I went through a broker. I don’t normally let it just auto renew but had a lot on and the quote was reasonable so I let it run.

 

[eastwoodsdustman]

They should be shot for putting a £750 excess on.
As for a non disclosure to the insurers I really don’t think it’s an issue so wouldn’t worry. if you took the car back to repair it yourself you could end up liable for any recovery or storage charges that have accrued since they took it so I’d check that if you’re thinking of repairing it yourself too

 

[hill83]

I’ve only had one instance of claiming insurance. My motorbike got stolen years back. Starter motor was gone. Chain was fucked. It was worth about £250 max. Got £3k for it if I remember correctly. Almost like I’d arrange it myself. Turned up burnt out in Holbrooks. Got the call from the police mid sesh in Cheltenham, I was buzzing.

 

[Marty]

I've had problems with AXA this year, asked to swap an annual payment to a monthly one, got everything set up, ready to go, and they auto renew the yearly policy, as it was on a card I didn't have any more, they couldn't take it and proceeded to start sending threatening letters, had it investigated, they saw they were in the wrong and said they would honor the price quoted at the time, yet to do that they needed me to get a new policy out to then take the lump sum which they then would amend the details and refund the money, the new quote went from £650 to nearly £2000. So they wanted me to pay 2 grand to then get a refund of £1935. I was like why can't you clowns just do it, I told them to come back to me with a new quote for the correct price and i'll give them the card details, a month later more threatening letters, I asked to cancel but they said they would put a strike against me even though it was there fuck it, in the end just paid the one lump sum and told them to go fuck themselves.

Never get high excess anyway, from £0 to £500 excess was about a £12 difference on the policy.

AXA are complete arseholes, Direct Line on the other hand were great.

 

[olderskyblue]

A long time ago, I had a letter from my insurance company telling me I wasn’t insured, and hadn’t been for 15 months...

seems the broker hadn’t passed on any of my payments. The police had been called in, and the paperwork showed me as one of many in the same position.

the company said if I could prove that I’d paid, they would honour my policy. I could, they did.

could have been worse...

 

[Houchens Head]

I had some twat run into the back of my 4x4 while I was waiting at the lights coming out of Wolfe Rd into Torrington Ave. At first the other driver said I'd reversed into him? Twat! Anyway, when he realised I would have knocked him spark out if he pursued that line, he changed his story. He'd been on his phone! This was before it became an offence to use a mobile while driving. They'd not long been out. Anyway, not a lot of damage, just a slight bump to the rear. But a while later, when I went to renew my insurance, it had gone up massively! I asked why and was told that I'd made a claim for a damaged rear bumper! I told them in no uncertain terms that the other driver's insurance covered the damage and paid up! Didn't matter a jot! They wouldn't budge. So I changed insurance companies. Loads cheaper as well! Just be careful what these scummy bastards try!

 

[SBAndy]

Couple of stories about insurers - come to think of it, it was Admiral both times.

Fair few years ago, when my sister had just started driving she went over to Hinckley and parked the car on a side street. At the time, she was insured on my mum’s car as a named driver. Hailstorm came and absolutely pelted the car, dents in the roof and that. Admiral argued that because she was the one that had parked it there, she would have to pay the additional excess that applies to young drivers. Had to fork out an extra £500.

Another time, again years back, my stepdad got crashed into coming home from work. Standard not-at-fault incident. Other insurer paid up for the damage. When it came to renewal, Admiral put his premium up considerably and said that typically when someone is involved in an accident it means there’s a higher probability of them having more accidents. First time he’d had an accident in 30-40 years of driving. Ridiculous.

 

[Sbarcher]

I’ve a mate who works for Toyota and they have a big problem with cat thefts. No help to you now but you can get a special bolt kit which stops the thefts. It’s a 30 second job to remove it and perfected by our traveller friends, allegedly.

 

[eastwoodsdustman]

I’ve a mate who works for Toyota and they have a big problem with cat thefts. No help to you now but you can get a special bolt kit which stops the thefts. It’s a 30 second job to remove it and perfected by our traveller friends, allegedly.

It’s true there’s loads get nicked especially on the Prius

 

[Deleted member 5849]

I’ve a mate who works for Toyota and they have a big problem with cat thefts. No help to you now but you can get a special bolt kit which stops the thefts. It’s a 30 second job to remove it and perfected by our traveller friends, allegedly.

They only interested in hybrids?

 

[eastwoodsdustman]

They only interested in hybrids?

They’re the easiest to get off apparently