Direct line charged me 10X premium for same car

[RogerHarris]

Can i claim back outrageous insurance charges ?

My car had to go to garage for repair. I was given a similiar hire car for the week. (polo 1.2) The exact same model down to engine size and options. I called direct line who insure my original car. They charged me £60 for six days insurance cover on the same car which costs me £30 per month. Thats £10 per day, so it might have been £300 for 30 days.

The bulk of the £60 is not administration fee. I have had a v6 sports car on one day cover with them, and this cost me only £7.50.


Tried then to get them to explain how they make up these fees, but the operator tells me a computer program gives a price only at the point you request the cover. Their explanation offered for the 10x price on the polo was that the hire car was brand new and more stealable. Which is crap because if i call for a quote on a new polo it is about £30 higher for the whole year.

I think this is a scam. They know that when customers request cover for a hire car they are over a barrel, as most of these requests, occur when the other car is on breakdown, and that the hire car is being offered by the RAC, warranty or whatever.

..

Everywhere you go nowadays somebody is at it, when they have you over a barrel somehow. In that case it was being road legal. The biggie is credit rating. Now every institution from education to council tax is homing in with guns on your rating. What with all the scams these collectors try to pull for their con charges.

I already decided, there must be another way, and the only way to find out is say "F()K u" to this system.

Lose the rating rather than swallow this ****, then see how to live from there. I have no debt, but am blacklisted for refusing to pay charges to littlewoods and various others. If this is what you have to put up with to own property, for sanities sake it would same more sensible to save up, buy a plot and build the thing yourself.

//

[HONESTKNOB]

Surely a hire car had insurance with it?? Why did you insure it again?

[Bookworm]

I was about to ask the same question.

[RogerHarris]

Originally Posted by HONESTKNOB

Surely a hire car had insurance with it?? Why did you insure it again?

I dont know why the dealer didnt have rental insurance. Its not important.

I'd like to think there is a good reason. That getting in a different car had a higher risk rate. Its not borne out by them charging more for a polo 1.2 than a v6 sports, unless it was the polo was new and the v6 old is a factor in their pricing.
..
It would not surprise me if the insurance companies figured that most drivers at some stage need temporary cover to drive another car. So why not F**K them for all they can get. This kind of thing seems to be going on everywhere these days.

..

[RogerHarris]

Just called them to ask them to explain the charge, but didnt get very far. I refused to give them my date of birth over the phone, and they refused to access my account. I said i wanted to cancel the policy if it meant i was obliged to divulge DOB over the phone.

Of course they can't cancel the policy without my DOB, so that didnt get far either, even with the supervisor involved. Mothers maiden name should be enough.

What with this interaction and the 10x cover price, things with direct line are going from bad to worse. Whats it going to be like if there is a real problem ?

[Trojan1401]

From the posts, I assume that the vehicle supplied by the garage was a courtesy vehicle whilst your own vehicle as in their possesion for repair.

Firstly, many garages / dealers do not provide insurance on courtesy vehicles (unless following an accident ...but that's a different story ). The cost for a garage to include cover under their own motor trade policy is quite expensive.

What you have here is simply a temporary substitution of your vehicle to the courtesy car. The garage will have full cover under their motor trade policy for your vehicle whilst it is in their care, custody and/or control therefore D/L is not providing insurance cover other than potentially contingent cover. Therefore in my opinion they should not be charging you the"temp additional" rates but simply providing cover as per your current policy for a substitution. There will be work involved i.e. issue of temp covernote which I would suggest that should cost no more than £25 in admin costs.
I suggest you ring them again and ask to speak to either the section leader or an underwriter (good luck) and explain the above to them. I know I'll be lambasted again about call center operatives but where insurance is concerned many do not actually understand the product but simply follow what is said on screen and/or crib sheets. I hope you will get a better response from someone more senior.

Let us know what happens.

[Darkangelsdelite]

Originally Posted by RogerHarris

Just called them to ask them to explain the charge, but didnt get very far. I refused to give them my date of birth over the phone, and they refused to access my account. I said i wanted to cancel the policy if it meant i was obliged to divulge DOB over the phone.

Of course they can't cancel the policy without my DOB, so that didnt get far either, even with the supervisor involved. Mothers maiden name should be enough.

What with this interaction and the 10x cover price, things with direct line are going from bad to worse. Whats it going to be like if there is a real problem ?

Firstly, we have to ask 3 Data Protection Act questions and DOB is a standard question that we have to ask (its all scripted and we'd get battered if the call was monitored) So if you refused to give it, they by rights the consultant was correct to refuse to discuss the policy with you. We wouldn't ask for your mothers maiden name, only things like address, postcode and DOB. That being said, as long as you were able to answer several other checks (car reg, named drivers, how policy paid for etc) we can use our "discretion" as long as we are satisfied we are speaking to the policy holder. By the same token, we can refuse to discuss the policy with anyone who we don't believe is the policy holder (in your case you refused to answer DP questions so this would appear to be the case) however, if escalated to a manger, they should really have used a bit of common sense and asked you something else, I would have.

As far as your query goes, Direct line don't offer courtesy car cover as standard, they offer something called TRC (temporary replacement car) which is and additional premium (about £22.50 last time i checked) a year and guarantees you a hire car for 14 days. So i'm assuming you didn't take this out.
If you subsequently get a hire/courtesy car, then we add it onto the policy as a TAV (temporary addition vehicle) at a rate of £7 + IPT a day (£7.35) minimum, depending on the car you insure. This would appear to have been what has happened, so in this instance, i dont think there is really anything you can do.


Cheers


DA

[RogerHarris]

well i guess that answers that question about the price. £7 per day regardless of vehicle type, and basically the direct line call staff didnt have a clue about that, so they were providing guesses.

it would be usefull if the managers in these call centres had some knowledge about their product.