ProperCharlie

About 4 months ago I had a minor motoring incident whereby some evidently partially sighted woman drove into me whilst trying to park. I was stationary, parcked in a parking bay in Tesco's car park, listening to the radio at the time. There was minor damamge to my rear bumper.

I informed my insurance co. (Norwich Union), as I thought that would be the best thing to do. In the end the 3rd party's insurers (Direct Line) settled with me directly. I was impressed by how quickly and politely DL dealt with the claim. NU contacted me and I confirmed that the claim was settled and there were no outstanding issues. Months go by and I get my renewal from NU - £1,700, Zero years NCB! I phone them up and get some very helpful people in an call centre in india, who are extremely polite but evidently haven't the slightest idea what I am on about. Eventually I was told that it would sorted out "tomorrow".

NOw I am in a quandry cos the renewal date is in 10 days time. No f*ckin way am i gonna pay them £1,700 to ensure a 1997 Peugeot 406. I'm 31 years old ffs! I'm practically geriatric. But OTOH if I go elsewhere I have no evidence of my NCB. I very much doubt NU can get their records straight and get me a new quote out within the next 9 days...

16vmarc

Im getting increasingly sick of these indian call centres

Sorry i have nothing constructive to say imo

ProperCharlie

sorry to hear that you were offed. NU seem to be proper clowns. they phoned up about 1/2 a dozen times asking if the claim was settled. I got bored of repeating myself after a while.

Problem is that I'm not sure I have any documents from the other party - I gave my version of events to Direct Line over the phone, and they told me to get an estimate and phone them back. I did that, they agreed to pay me £235 to have my bumper re-sprayed, a few days later the cheque (made out to me) came in the post. I never even bothered to have the work done as it didn't really seem worth it.

gsm1

You've got to watch these insurance companies. My Dad had someone hit him in a private car park. There was no damage and eventhough he was stationary and the other driver knew she was at fault she insisted on exchanging details. Next thing he gets a letter in the post holding him responsible for damage to this other lady's car! When it came to the renewal date they were holding this claim against him!

The only way you'll get anywhere is to write to them direct and mention that you'll be contacting the insurance ombudsman otherwise.

ProperCharlie

Yes but there is no problem concerning the claim - everyone concerned acknowledges that it is all settled and it wasn't my fault. Even NU are not disputing this. They just haven't ammended their records to reflect this. The only problem is that I only have just over a week to renew, and at the moment have a renewal showing 0 NCB. When I had 0 NCB last year, it cost about £900. This year it's £1,700. I suppose if the worst comes to it i'll get a quote elsewhere and hope that NU have sorted their sh*t out by the time anyone asks for proof of anything.

gsm1

Probably the best option. Just hope that as you get other quotes that those other insurance companies don't have the claim on their records!

ProperCharlie

hmmm - just tried Direct Line: I put down 1 non fault claim, recovered from TP. Premium came out at just under £1,500. This is fookin ridiculous.

ProperCharlie

ok - its4me.co.uk have quoted £1,150. Still about £350 more than I was expecting but at least it will give me something to chuck at NU, if they get back to me.

bl**dy daylight robbery though.

r32

I had terrible problems with NU, it ended up with me threatening legal action. The owed me 700 pounds and every time I called New Delhi I got another story. They dont have a clue.....

Stay well clear. try to get a call or e.mail to Norwich, its possible to find the address on their website.

Never ever again...........

CTR

Norwich Useless. Avoid like the plague. Didnt realise my new insurers are subsiduarys of the useless to$$ers, cancelling my insurance tomorrow, could be problematic.

pslewis

Norwich Union have been fine with me - had a claim on my household and it was sorted from India. There were problems in the conversation and understanding (the Indians can speak better English than I can Indian, after all!) - BUT, the English 'way' of saying some things is not understood.

Mind you, looking at some of the grammar and spellings on SN, the Indians in the call centres can write better English than lots on here!! Sad but true!

Direct Line are top notch though for claims - my wife had a collision (Whilst parked!) and the 3rd party was with DL .... they settled with a personal cheque, done and dusted

The AA are the pits - In My Opinion - they give you a fine quote on the phone then hit you with a higher bill later on ..................... I will NEVER do business with the AA EVER!

Pete

paulr

Its not all about the cost.
I had 2 accidents with Direct Line and the service was excellent........recommended.

carl

Had a similar problem. Had a car stolen once -- I reported to the insurers. Recovered a couple of weeks later, so I paid for the minor damage (although it cost £160 which was a lot, because I was a student at the time) and informed the insurers. Renewal came through, reasonable price, etc.

A couple of years later I changed cars and they said they wouldn't insure me (because I was young-ish and had bought a high insurance group car). So I changed insurers and contacted the old one for confirmation of no claims bonus. Imagine my surprise when they said "2 years" and had noted in my records that I'd had a total loss claim. I pointed out that they'd never paid out a penny for the stolen car, and that I'd absorbed all the cost myself. They promptly corrected the records and informed the new insurers, but I always wondered about those two years when I was obviously paying more for insurance than I should have. Wasn't much point in pursuing it, as they went into administration

PS: PC, do you insure the Pug fully comp or TPF&T? For me, it was always just that little bit too valuable for TPF&T, although my £1100 Merc is TPF&T.

Leslie

Write a personal letter to the Managing Director at head office, surprising how that works sometimes.

Les

ProperCharlie

Hi Carl - I still ensure fully comp.

Generally, the vast majority of the premium is for 3rd party risk in any case, so downgrading to TPF&T would probably only save a few quid a year. After getting various quotes over the 'net it seems that I'm unlikely to get better than £1,150 so I'll probably just end up going with that. I need business use which always makes it a bit more expensive.

I can't beleive that I have been paying in the region of £1k per year for car insurance for almost 10 years now . Even when I had a company car, the missus' car still cost about a grand to insure, and still does now.

carl

TBH I can't work it out. I bought the £1100 Merc and insured it through Direct Line for £460 -- no no claims bonus (it's used up on the TVR). I'm about the same age as you

jimmy wrx

Norwich union and Norwich Union direct are 2 different !

gsm1

PC, you're paying a premium cos you live in London like me. I'm at 3 years no claims at the moment and I'm going to make sure I don't lose it this time or I'll have to ditch the car for a bike!

fast bloke

Try efalent (www.elephant.co.uk) for renewal. I have both cars insured with them. Three claims in March 2001 (scoob stolen - 15k cheque on my desk in 5 days as they thought it looked like a pro job and didn't think it would ever be recovered,) August 2001 (major disagreement with a lamppost in a BM - the guy that caused it was with Elephant as well. They agreed to have the car repaired at a BM main dealer as it might effect resale value otherwise - 10k claim AFAIK and they sorted a loan car (new BM320d with 200 miles on the clock) for me within about 3 hours) and Jan 2002 (wife ran into a lexus while putting on her makeup or summink. The policy that paid out for the scoob and the BM didn't go up at all at renewal. The one that paid for rear ending the lexus went up, but that was 100% wifeys fault

ProperCharlie

Carl - like gsm1 says, I am being ripped off as a reward for living in London . Still not quite sure why the massive rise over last year, though. Is being driven into when sitting in a stationary vehicle a sign of being a high risk driver or something?

Cheers fb, I'll give Elephant a go.

carl

Well I knew premiums were higher in London, but not that much higher. IIRC I insured that car for ~£500 through A-Plan insurance (again, no NCB -- it was being used on the Scoob), Class 1 business use, ~25k miles a year. Have you told them about the factory-fit immobilizer?

ProperCharlie

Just got a quote form Elephant - class 1 business use and so on, fully comp: £820.

That's a bit more like it! What I can't understand is how one insurer can quote £1,700 and another £800? That's an insane difference. 10% or so either way I could understand, but 200%+? You wouldn't expect to find that kind of variation in other services. I think it was the immobiliser that swung it...

fast bloke

The really funny thing is that if you try Admiral, they will probably quote you twice as much as Elephant. Strange considering that they are the same company

carl

You may jest, but as far as the insurance company are concerned it means it's less likely to be nicked. Are there any colourblind car thieves around your way?

I had exactly the same thing once: was insured with Axa thru' the AA for around £900. Renewal came (no changes since last year) and it was £1600. Promptly ditched them, but bizarrely managed to get insured with Axa thru' A-Plan for about £900. I guess the AA were going to cream the other £700 off the top

ProperCharlie

Guess who just phoned me up? yeah - norwich fookin bunion "direct"!

- good morning, speaking mr charles?
- well it's charles smith actually, but anyway...
- oh hello sir and good morning to you. we are like to pursuing claim of 7th may.
- eh?
- sir, you claim of 7th may. you like us pursuing?
- no, as i've explained *many times* before, the claim was settled by the other party directly. there are no outstanding issues. will i get my NCB back now?
- excellent, sir. very good. pleased to speaking with you.
- but will i get my NCB back now?
- thanks for speaking to you sir!
- will i get my NCB though?
- good morning sir. very good.

i hung up at this point. what a fookin shower of sh*t. oh well - their loss is elephant's gain.