Insurance Scam on me ! Advice please ...

[roberto]

12 emails later ============

finally got my ncb letter without the accident mentioned on the bottom

same old story init

all nicey nicey when their taking your money
but when you want something its Sod off !
many businesses fail due to this sort of customer relations

and so deserve it

[Artermis]

Glad you sorted it mate!

I've learnt the hard way some insurance companies are just complete scam artists and will do anything to take your money rather than look after their customers.

I now often look further than the cheapest premiums available and consider the level of cover and customer service provision rather than the headline figure.

Last year I had an issue with First Central - I bought an Alfa GTV as a third car and weekend toy for me wife and I. When I got the quotes I put the date my wife got her licence wrong.

I was out by something like six weeks because it was one of those month and year boxes and they calculated the licence date to an exact date from that, rather than asking for exact date. e.g. if for simple maths I said she had her licence 1 month and 1 year, they'd calculated that back from the days date to mean 15/03/15 vs todays date of 15/04/16.

They went utterly mental on me, rang me up demanding I answer questions which were being voice analysed and telling me my policy was probably going to be void. they void it and told me I was being deliberately fraudulent and that I'd have to declare this for the rest of my life. they wouldn't entertain any suggestion that we try to amend update or rectify the policy. Best bit - I'd paid the first 3 months premiums of a little over 90 quid that they were going to keep even though they'd void to inception and would never provide any cover for the car.

cost me a small fortune as I had to have the car transported away as it wasn't insured and I couldn't insure with the void nonsense being declared; I then had to sell the car for a loss as I couldn't keep it.

Ended up going to the Financial Ombudsman with the case and thankfully they saw sense and realised that the insurance company had been completely over the top heavy handed Nazis about the whole thing and removed the voice and got me my premium back. They dragged their heals and missed every single deadline the ombudsman set them for responding along the way though.

A very valuable and expense lesson learnt.