Car Insurance cancelled 5 years ago for a small error means expensive insurance for life?

[Jenny21]

In 2012 I was in a collision,

 

I was pulling out of a parking space (reversing) in a busy car park, there was a line of traffic travelling at no more than 5mph, mostly looking for spaces.  I looked and the next car to pass waved me out, I reversed, the other driver sped up and hit rear of my car

 

Details were exchanged and I have always maintained that I thought at the time that the other driver looked altered, it crossed my mind that the other driver seemed drunk, but I had been working since early that morning and taken a very quick break to get something to eat, so was anxious to get back to work, and foolishly didn't call the police,.

 

I considered that the damage to my car seemed minimal so just exchanged details and left.  (I accept and acknowledge that was a huge mistake, but that's what happened, can't change it now!).

 

Later it turned out that the impact had bent my chassis and the car was written off.  The insurance put the blame partially on me because of joining the line of traffic. This is the only accident which has ever been accredited to me in more than 30 years driving.  

 

In 2017 I was insuring a new car, the question was asked

"have you had any claims or accidents in the last 5 years".  I believed that this collision had happened more than 5 years before and said no.

It turned out that this was incorrect by 3 months - the accident had happened 4 years and 9 months before.  The insurance company (Hastings underwritten by Ageas) cancelled my insurance.

 

Now when I insure a car and reach the question "have you *ever* had cancelled Insurance" I have to answer yes - and this raises the premium by at least £1,500 per year, (often more).

 

I consider it unfair that a person who had previously been convicted of DUI, even multiple DUI) or dangerous driving, would suffer a negative insurance impact for 10 years maximum, (sometimes less) before they didn't have to declare it anymore - but for cancelled Insurance the question is "have you *ever*.. ".

 

I believe that it is unfair and disproportionate that I should be penalised for the rest of my life for something which was an honest mistake (and I would argue this was of no great magnitude).  It is now causing me major hardship.

 

 Is there anything I can do?

[unclebulgaria67]

If  Hastings policy was cancelled during the initial checking phase, when they noted the claim accident date was slightly wrong, then the cancellation should not affect you.

 

You need to contact Insurance Broker or Insurance company directly to explain what happened when you apply for quotes and the cancellation may not be an issue causing expensive premiums.  Stay away from applying for Insurance online.  You need to speak to human who can make a decision and  not a computer.  If you complete online applications, even if you later talked to someone, you have officially entered cancellation onto the Insurance companies system and because of the way they are configured, the Insurance officer you speak to may have problems getting you a decent quote.

 

I have previous experience of Insurance quote systems. In a situation like yours, running through a quote with an Insurance broker with all of the information fully clarified should save you money.

[Jenny21]

Unfortunately I did recently get a quote through confused.com because I was struggling to get an affordable quote so I guess I've just confirmed that!

 

I agree that since it was discovered during Hastings checking period it shouldn't still affect me - but it *does* and I'd really like to get this expunged. 

[Man in the middle]

Was cover actually granted by Hastings (even if only for a short time)  or did they decline your proposal before it got that far?

[Jenny21]

I set the cover up to start immediately, so I think it was in place about 3-5 days.  It wasn't long. 

[unclebulgaria67]

Only cancellations due to deliberate acts such as fraud are 'flagged up' onto a central database, where other Insurers would see the record.

 

Your Insurance with Hastings was within the first 14 days, where there were still checks taking place and due to issue with claim date, the Insurance was cancelled.

 

The situation you describe is one where Insurers never expected consumers to have to declare under the " have you ever had an Insurance cancelled".   The question is asked as "ever" because there are people with historic fraudulent claim issues for example, where there would be doubts about the honesty of the information being provided.

 

If everyone who has ever had an Insurance cancelled answered yes to the question, that would mean about 75% of those currently Insured would be declaring the cancellations and the online quote & buy systems would not be able to function. Insurers would be having to set up large volume call centres again.

 

Don't worry about the confused.com quote entry. When you next arrange Insurance speak to brokers or Insurers.  When they ask the cancellation question, just mention Hastings policy set up issue, which led to cancellation, but this is not one where they said you had to disclose as it was due to error and not anything improper.

[Jenny21]

Does anyone know where I can find the wording of the guidance about why they shouldn't have flagged this as cancelled insurance because it was error,not fraud??

[unclebulgaria67]

Have you been told Hastings/Ageas have reported your cancellation as being flagged to other Insurers ? 

 

You can check what information is held about you.

 

www.mib.org.uk/managing-insurance-data/mib-managed-services/cue-miaftr/

 

Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE)

CUE is a central database of motor, home and personal injury/industrial illness incidents reported to insurance companies which may or may not have given rise to a claim. Information held on CUE is a powerful weapon in the fight against fraud.

CUE was established in 1994 to help fight insurance fraud.  By enabling insurers to access details of incidents, it makes it harder to successfully commit claims fraud or misrepresent claims history.  Ultimately, this helps to keep down the cost of insurance for honest policyholders.

If you wish to find out what information is held about you on the CUE database, please complete a Subject Access Request form. Alternatively if you wish to contact us regarding a complaint, or any other query relating to these databases, please contact MIB on on 0345 1652803 (freephone) or at dataprotection@mib.org.uk. A copy of the Privacy Policy can be found here.

 

Also you can obtain any data held about you on CIFAS

 

www.cifas.org.uk/dsar

 

Insurance cancellation is a complicated/complex area.  Up to you, how far you want to research this.  FOS website will contain lots of information on this.

 

Misrepresentation and non-disclosure

WWW.FINANCIAL-OMBUDSMAN.ORG.UK

---

Find out how we deal with complaints about misrepresentation and non-disclosure.

 

Following the cancellation of your policy with Hastings/Ageas you should have obtained a letter from them, confirning the policy was closed due to an error at the verification stage and you could have used this to deal when disclosing the cancellation to other Insurers.  And then other Insurers would not have charged you such high premiums.

[Jenny21]

I have applied for my MIB information (request still pending). 

 

I never received any letter from Hastings/Ageas, but yes when I applied for insurance a couple of weeks ago online I actually ticked "no" and that company immediately contacted me because they'd seen it. 

 

I have contacted Ageas who said they have no record and that would be held with Hastings. 

 

I've contacted Hastings who are "going to call me back".  I feel like they'll resist removing it and just wondered if there was any guidance note that says mistakes like this shouldn't be entered as fraud cancellations. 

 

To be fair I've never made a claim on my insurance since that accident - it's the only at fault claim that I had, so it's not like I'm a big risk! 

 

I have been on the phone about this all week, and it's become interesting!! 

 

I have been told that the flag was from Hastings, backed by Ageas in 2017 due to none disclosure of an accident.  However Hastings have no record of me ever being insured with them - they checked all addresses that I had lived at for the last 20 years and could only conclude that any insurance I *did* try to set up with them was cancelled within 5 days - and doesn't go down as an active policy. 

 

Ageas say I was insured with them from 2014 - 2016, during that time I had no claims, there *is* a record on that account of the "at fault accident" in 2012 - as in I *did* disclose it to them.  The insurance policy I had with them was cancelled in 2016 due to a missed Direct Debit (well *that's* not a fraudulent failure to disclose an accident is it!?)

 

They have never been involved in my insurance from that time. 

 

They say if you have a cancellation due to failed Direct Debit that does count as cancelled insurance. 

 

Thoughts 

[unclebulgaria67]

Confused.com does pass on information to some Insurers

 

""when I applied for insurance a couple of weeks ago online I actually ticked "no" and that company immediately contacted me because they'd seen it.  ""

 

I wonder if the Insurers you contacted had seen the confused.com information you entered, rather than information from Hastings.

 

You could send Hastings an SAR to see what data they hold on you.

[unclebulgaria67]

This reminds me to warn people to be very careful with information they enter on price comparison sites sich as Confused.com.  Those websites are data harvesters and they will pass on your inaccurate information to Insurers, which may cause you problems at some point.

[Jenny21]

Ok so we are getting somewhere now - they've altered it from "non disclosure of accident accident" to "missed payment."

QUESTION 

What effect is this likely to have (coz it's still a "cancellation") and what else can I do? 

 

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Hastings have amended the cancellation record ?

 

So they reported the cancellation as non disclosure of accident, which would be a problem as that suggests dishonesty and that was showing on central Insurance fraud prevention databases.

 

Cancellation due to missed payment should not be shown on central Insurance fraud prevention databases.

 

It may take awhile for the central database records to be updated.

 

With the new information if you have it in writing, you shoud be able to approach Insurers/Brokers for more competitive quotes by speaking to them. Disclose the cancellation and provide the cancellation information.

 

 

 

 

[Jenny21]

I think it shouldn't be there at all for a missed payment (I dispute that the payment was owed anyway) I'm pretty sure that other people who default on payments are not listed on that database - if they were there would be *thousands* of people like that!  I'm thinking I should dispute that the debt was owed in the first place and argue that the cancellation shouldn't show until that issue is settled.