Internet insurance question | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 13 Aug 2003 00:21

Internet insurance question - HF

I recently took out two car insurance policies with the same internet insurasnce company.

They seemed the best deal at the time.

Since then, however, they have debited the relevant bank account with the money from the 2 policies, when I had only authorised them to take one, until mid-month.

I had only ensured enough cash was in the account to pay for the policy that I had authorised them to take for. They have, however, written to tell me that they have charged a fee of £25 for me not having the money for both policies available.

As I said, it is basically an internet company. I have tried their 'e-chat'service with no response, I have emailed them 3 times now with no response, despite their promise to respond to all email queries within an hour. It is impossib;e to contact them via telephone.

Any ideas as to what I can do greatly appreciated.

HF

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Wed 13 Aug 2003 00:33

Internet insurance question - DavidHM

First thing to do is to keep complaining as they have suggested and have some patience. It is unfortunate that they haven't replied, but as all they would need to do to keep their promise is send an e-mail saying 'Thank you for your enquiry, we are looking into the details and will be in touch soon,' I wouldn't be too disappointed that they haven't responded yet.

Hopefully you will have some kind of paper record of the direct debit, so that you can use that against them. Don't forget that if you have signed an actual Direct Debit there are various guarantees that will refund you any fees charged as a result of an unauthorised transaction.

Do persevere.

Finally, web site or not, they still have to meet various regulatory requirements. Most likely, they will be an internet based subsidiary of a larger, well known insurer (certainly the two I can think of are). The alternative is that they are a broker company; again there is every chance that they have a 'real world' parent.

If you interrogate the domain name using www.swhois.com you should be able to find out who this is, even if it's not immediately clear from your own insurer's site.

E-mail me if you don't want to name the company in question.

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Wed 13 Aug 2003 09:11

Internet insurance question - terryb

Yes, I agree with David. First port of call to get your money back should be your bank, claiming under the Direct Debit guarantee. However, the only time I tried to do this (when I changed Gas supplier) I got a clerk saying "What's the Direct Debit guarantee?". So patience all round is called for I think.

Let us know how you get on.

Terry

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Wed 13 Aug 2003 11:45

Internet insurance question - HF

Thank you for all this.

Going to www.swhois.com doesn't bring up any company that I've heard of, and neither do any of my documents. (David, I will email you with the company name - thanks).

I didn't know about the Direct Debit option - that's useful and I will bear that in mind if the company continue to fail to contact me.

I will continue to bombard them, this time I think by 'proper' letter as well as email, and see what transpires.

I am right in thinking, aren't I, that a company is not supposed to charge you fees unless it has pre-advised you of this?

Thanks again,
HF

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Wed 13 Aug 2003 12:59

Internet insurance question - DavidHM

www.swhois.com is a website that lets you find out who a particular domain belongs to if you type in the domain name.

In this case HF, I've e-mailed you with the physical contact details of your insurer.

It appears that they are actually an online broker and the actual policy is issued with another insurer or possibly a Lloyds syndicate (nothing to do with Lloyds Bank though!)

You are right that they shouldn't charge you fees if you have not been warned in advance - but are you sure that it's the insurance company, not the bank, that has charged you the fee?

Either way the DD guarantee should sort it out if the insurer is uncooperative.

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Wed 13 Aug 2003 13:12

Internet insurance question - HF

Thanks David.

It's definitely the insurance company who have charged the fee.

However, I suppose that is irrelevant if this DD guarantee will cover it.

All the same, I'm regretting using this broker, and won't do so again.

HF

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