eSeM

Got a letter from Elephant this morning telling me that I owe then £380 on a policy for my CRV on which my wife is a named driver.

She had a fault claim on her Jazz in 2008 and another in 2010 whilst the Jazz was insured through direct line (I didn't even know about the claim in 2010 until the last renewal).

Elephant has discovered these claims and has backdated a loading on the premium for the past 4 years

Bastards! they are happy to screw you for accidents on other policies yet they won't reward you with no claims discounts from other policies.

Luckily I took the wife off the S2000 policy some time back.

I *hate* insurance companies.

unclefester

Invoice the wife for the money she has cost you!

Jonesybubs

Tell them to do one. then go and get insurance else!

WinFreak

That's shocking, thought it doesn't at all surprise me

I am so waiting for an EU regulation on insurance systems to come in place which the UK has to follow and all the insurance nonsense to become normal.


Bunch of criminals they are and they have all the right to rip you off with whatever they can

lovegroova

Why is it shocking?

eSeM inadvertently misrepresented the facts and has therefore been paying less than he should have, so the situation has been rectified.

WinFreak

It's shocking because whatever happened in the past should have nothing to do with his current insurance, if it hasn't affected his own NCB's

The fact you think it's normal is just because you don't know any better and think this is how insurance should work

eSeM

It is criminal that they penalise you for making a claim yet at the same time refuse to reward you not making any claims on other policies.

eSeM

And whilst on the subject of Insurance company rip-offs ...

Everyone should call up their insurance company to have the Automatic Renewal removed from their policies. Also get them to put it in writing to you that they have removed it.

I got caught out by this earlier in the year

lovegroova

Having worked in the risk assessment/actuarial business for over 20 years I have a pretty good idea of how insurance pricing works thanks

It's all about risk perception.

When asked, Steven told his insurer that his wife had not had any accidents.

On the basis of this information, his insurers priced his cover. Had this information been given correctly, they would have priced the cover higher as people who make one claim are more likely to make another (as evidenced by Steven's wife!) and thus represent a higher risk.

Therefore, an underpayment was made, and the insurer is simply recovering that underpayment.

It's pretty simple.

Here's an example which may or may not help:

Imagine I sold you a car advertised with a 3 litre engine, but which actually contained a 1litre engine. You'd pay me a price which reflected this information. Once you found out about the engine, you'd be back to see me for a refund. This is what the insurers are doing.

WinFreak

I never said you don't know how the insurance system works, in the UK.

I just mean because you have no experience of it being any other way than it is in the UK and therefore you think this is normal.

We been through all this before on here, in NL you don't get penalised for anything other than the accident you have that's your fault on the car you've insured.

And your car insurance will never ever go up in price unless you lose NCB points, just like it should be, because that's what NCB is for.


Here's an example for you, my gf had a 60 quid speeding ticket giving her 3 points and a window smashed also costing about 60 quid. Should we really be penalised another 50 quid or so every year for 5 years afterwards by the insurance company, for both of our cars?! No of course not.

People do hundreds of pounds worth of damage and end up paying for it themselves otherwise the insurance will go up the year after. The fact you even have to consider not going through the insurance I find shocking already.

I completely understand the people not bothering insuring their car at all, because the whole system is messed up and it just doesn't work.


Oh and the fact you insure the driver and not the car is stupid, and the fact you have to redo it every year is rediculous too.

Rant over