Strange Situation with Insurance

Senna

A mate of mine had some trouble with this car insurance and it got me thinking about who's right and who's wrong.
He got a window-screen replaced under insurance, but a few days later his insurance company phoned him up to say they never received his insurance premium. He's been driving around for 8 months and he has a letter that came with his insurance disk, saying "thank you for your recent payment........."
It seems that he thought the Direct Debits would continue (he was with them last year and paid by DD) with the renewal and never checked his bank statements.

Its not a huge deal, it would have been worse if he was in a major accident, but who is at fault here. If he was in a major accident, would the letter saying "thank you for payment" cover him? he had no contact with them after that letter.

dudara

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

MASTER...of the bra

dudara wrote: »

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

Maybe Legal Discussion Forum would be a better place?

I'm curious to see how this would develop.....

Mr Keek

Tell your mate to look for his most recent renewal document. For Compliance reasons, any insurer can not automatically roll over a Direct Debit plan without first advising on the renewal.

If he can't find it, tell him just to call the company and request a copy. They will have it on record as they must store ALL correspondence for 6/7 years.

It would also be worth while looking at the companies website and search for their 'Terms of Business' document. It could tell you on that.

Also bear in mind, if his company do agree to Incept his policy from renewal, your mate will have to pay them back what he would have owed, it might be cheaper to let them keep the policy canx and decline the claim and he cover the windscreen himself, depending on how much his installments were.

ravima

Has he a valid certificate and disc? If he has, how did he get them without payment?

Senna

Mr Keek wrote: »

Also bear in mind, if his company do agree to Incept his policy from renewal, your mate will have to pay them back what he would have owed, it might be cheaper to let them keep the policy canx and decline the claim and he cover the windscreen himself, depending on how much his installments were.

I dont think its a huge problem, he hasn't been in an accident or anything, so i think he paid for the windowscreen himself and took out a new policy with someone else.
My question was just wondering if he had of been in a huge accident.

ravima wrote: »

Has he a valid certificate and disc? If he has, how did he get them without payment?

Beats me, he has it, i seen it. I'm guessing it was a human error, but since he got the cert, he didn't really pay much attention, assumed it was all grand. I would be the same as i remember being with Quinn Direct one year, i went with someone else the following year, but QD took out a DD the first month of my next policy (they gave back the money straight away).

Its a strange case, but thankfully it has not become a big issue, which it very easily could.

ravima

Hold the horses a minute. If he has a valid certificate and disc, and received them from the insurer/broker and NEVER received a registered letter advising of cancellation, then he is VALIDLY insured.

How did he get the cert and disc?

if it is a question that he defaulted on an installment scheme and simply kept teh cert and disc instead of returning it as requested, then he is NOT insured and has not been since date of cancellation of policy.

Again, how did he get the cert and disc?

Pablo Sanchez

ravima wrote: »

Hold the horses a minute. If he has a valid certificate and disc, and received them from the insurer/broker and NEVER received a registered letter advising of cancellation, then he is VALIDLY insured.

How did he get the cert and disc?

if it is a question that he defaulted on an installment scheme and simply kept teh cert and disc instead of returning it as requested, then he is NOT insured and has not been since date of cancellation of policy.

Again, how did he get the cert and disc?

The cert and disc can be sent pending receipt of your no claims bonus cert/on going DD payments. However if payment was not received they should have written out advising of the cancellation of cover/ request for return of disc.

amen

The cert and disc can be sent pending receipt of your no claims bonus cert/on going DD payments. However if payment was not received they should have written out advising of the cancellation of cover/ request for return of disc

well that's a problem. Why would the insurance co do that ?
I wouldn't

Pablo Sanchez

amen wrote: »

well that's a problem. Why would the insurance co do that ?
I wouldn't

Good point, it dosnt make much sense but none the less its the case, i suppose you could say the same thing about allowing people to pay their premium monthly, the disc is for the year but will be invalid if you stop paying them every month.

ravima

If yo9u have the cert and disc VALIDLY from the insurer, that is they sent them to you and have not asked for them back OR you are within the 10day cancellation period, then you are VALIDLY insured.