Admiral Car Insurance - Additional Charges - Help!!!

[MightyMing]

Hi

 

Just found this forum and joined - it looks like it may be able to help me with a number of issues and seems really useful!

 

The first one is a headached I'm having with Admiral Car Insurance. Basically, my wife and I were insured to drive her car. We have been with Admiral for 3 or 4 years. Recently the policy was due for renewal so I scouted round for some alternative quotes and got cheaper options with Diamond and some others. I rang Admiral back to see if they would match the quote so I could stay with them. They said that Diamond was their sister company so could access that quote to see if they could match it - here comes the problem..........

 

When I completed the Diamond quote I included all recent details, which included 3 points each for me and my wife (SP30 and SP50 speeding offences). We had received these in January and February 2008 just prior to the Admiral insurance being renewed in early March 2008. I unfortunately did not advise Admiral of these changed details as I did not have much time around then so just let the insurance start over - an oversight on my part I know! They also found out from the Diamond quote that we had a child aged 2 - again something they were unaware of. However, this is a slightly different issue as each year they re-issue a letter stating your current details and if anything has changed you should ring them and advise. Details of convictions are on this list but it doesnt show if you have any children or dependents - so again I did not inform them of this change. Now the clincher.............

 

Admiral stated that because of these changed details I now owed them a further £200 for the back dated policy. Now bear in mind that this conversation occurred one day before the insurance was due to expire. I said on the phone that I no longer wanted to continue with the policy and please cancel immediately. They did this but then a couple of weeks later I got a letter asking for this amount of money and if I didnt pay they would send the debt collectors!

 

Basically therefore I am after some advice. I know I screwed up by not advising them of this information. However, to my (limited!!) knowledge I would have thought that once a contract is cancelled (and I am no longer obtaining services from them i.e. insurance) then I would not be liable to pay them any more money?!?!?!

 

I also did a quick check on their website using the same details with and without the convictions added. The difference in the quotes was only about £65 as opposed to £200 so even if I had to pay is there a chance I could insist on paying them less?

 

Thanks in advance ............sorry its a bit long!!!!

[gyzmo]

Well the insurer is entitled to charge the extra as that is what they would have charged in the first place, so they can ask for additional money.

 

As to the difference, the price you have got is on that day's ratings, which may have differed from last year. There may have also been other changes as well.

 

On saying that, £200 does sound quite a bit steep. Have you asked them for a breakdown of the charges?

[MightyMing]

Thanks for quick reply.

 

So you basically think I owe them the money whatever, no get out because contract is now terminated?

 

No, I havent asked for a breakdown yet. I know a current quote is not necessarily the same, just thought it would give a good idea as to the extra charges. Hence, why it does look high. Actually, just checked and they want £240 extra on what was a £600 ish premium originallY!!!!!!

[obprestige]

Some insurance companies are very unfriendly when it comes to points on your licence. I do not see how you having a child makes any difference to the insurance and within my role at an insurance company we were never told to ask this question or anything to do with children.

[Mossycat]

Thanks for quick reply.

 

So you basically think I owe them the money whatever, no get out because contract is now terminated?

 

No, I havent asked for a breakdown yet. I know a current quote is not necessarily the same, just thought it would give a good idea as to the extra charges. Hence, why it does look high. Actually, just checked and they want £240 extra on what was a £600 ish premium originallY!!!!!!

 

No you don't have a get out now because the contract is terminated, the contract was in force for a full year, but because you failed to tell them of the full facts (ie convictions), they charged you a lower price than you should have been charged.

 

Insurers base their premiums on a number of factors, one of which is the rsik that an insurer is bringing this is why convictions are asked for because it is in indicator about how much of a risk you are.

 

I agree that £200 is a rather high figure though

 

Mossy

[Mossycat]

Some insurance companies are very unfriendly when it comes to points on your licence. I do not see how you having a child makes any difference to the insurance and within my role at an insurance company we were never told to ask this question or anything to do with children.

 

It may well be that Admiral have had an increase of claims where the driver was distracted by a small child in the back, unlikely I know but that's all I can think of as to why this would affect the risk/premium

 

Mossy

[MightyMing]

Thanks again for replies so far.

 

Sounds like my best bet is to try and argue the amount and try and reduce this down to a reasonable amount which then has to be paid. After all its £240 extra on a £580 premium - an extra 40% for a speeding conviction each!!! Does seem a lot to me!

 

Am I within my rights then to withold payment until they have justified the amount?

[gyzmo]

You can certainly challenge it and by all means I would do. Put them on the defence by writing in a complaint. They are then bound by the FSAs requirements and you can go to the FOS.

 

With regards to asking about kids, there are various reasons why insurers ask seemingly daft questions. When I worked for Abbey's insurance dept, we asked if the proposer smoked, regardless of whether they smoked whilst driving. The rationale was that smokers were inherently more of a risk, but I don't know, because premiums did not alter when the smoking status was changed.

 

I do know however that a lot of data collected by Abbey (and according to a senior underwriter I knew, by other insurers) is used for marketing purposes. Whether this is still the same I don't know.

[merlin100]

I disagree. They would have only insured you based on the information you gave them - so any claim that brought your child, or your speeding tickets into involvement, would have been met with them gleefully refusing to pay any dues up!

To me, they are simply trying the usual "two bites of the cherry", you didnt make any claim so they are scott-free on that one - now lets try for a bit more and see if we can get away with it.

Tell them to P"*s off.

[MightyMing]

Thanks. I have now written a letter of complaint to Admiral and await their response!

 

Appreciate the last comments - this was my thought exactly. If there had been a claim they would just try and wriggle out of it anyway. However, someone did point out to me that they would pay out on a claim on this basis but would only do so after I had paid the balance of the premium. Notwithstanding this I will await their response and hopefully at least be able to reduce the amount I have to pay!