Payment taken but no insurance

[mowgoli]

I recently purchased car insurance from More Than on the internet. All my bank details were accepted and an email was sent to myself informing me that a policy document will arrive shortly. On recieving my bank statement i realised that a payment had been withdrawn. Therefore I had assumed that my insurance cover would have started on the elected date. Having still not recieved my insurance policy a week after the start date i decided to contact the insurance company. They informed me that i do not have a policy with them as there had been an error in the system. I then gave my details again at which point they refused to insure the vehicle and are willing to return my money.

My question is two fold, where do i stand legally in regards to the fact a payment was taken and then i was not informed by the insurance company that a policy had not been created. Secondly, having got a good price from the insurance company, can a make them give me the same price or can they increase the premium.

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

The e-mail is the smoking gun!
Send it to them and tell them that you have a contract and expect them to stick by it.

[Helford]

Treating Customers Fairly? I do not think so!

This scenario has 'echoes' of the Hastings debacle. See here:-

FSA fines Hastings £735,000 for not treating customers fairly

H

[LemonTwist]

I'm sure I've read about these More Than problems somewhere over the last few days, but I can't think where it was. It seems that they had some system problems recently. However, as they have taken the payment and sent a confirmation email, I think they are bound by the quote now.

[mowgoli]

Cheers for the advice. Was told by more than that their underwriter will be contacting me in the next 48 hours to sort out the situation. Its been 24hrs and still no phone call so just have to wait and see. I think more than will try and push the responsibility onto the underwriter and the underwriter will push it back upon More Than. I will however be bringing up the Hastings case whilst getting my point across.

If you remember or hear about other cases from the past few days regarding more than i would love to hear the outcome.

thanks

[LemonTwist]

I think more than will try and push the responsibility onto the underwriter and the underwriter will push it back upon More Than.

More Than is the direct-sales arm of Royal Sun Alliance. Therefore the underwriter would be a More Than employee anyway, so there's no-one else for them to blame!

[mowgoli]

I have been on the phone to More Than for the past few days and the outcome of this problem is that they have refunded my money and stated the reason that the system made an error in allowing my younger brother onto the policy. I maintained the view that they should still uphold the contract as they have taken payment and not even bothered to contact me regarding the mistake. I have also pointed out the recent Hasting case and they still did not budge. I will now find some insurance with another company as i am unable to drive my car.

However, I am determined to pursue this issue to prevent more than from getting away and continuing to issue false policies to other drivers. I have found a similar case regarding more than on a different forum so i know that they have previuosly had this problem. What is the best form of action? I have already asked for a system access record but do i need to put this into writing. The supervisor was not willing to give the information regarding the previous times i had contacted them but only of the conversation i had with her. Is this correct?

Should i contact the FSA or the insurance ombudsman regarding the case? What should my line of complaint be?

Thank you in advance

[markymoo]

Hi mowgoli

Can you give us an update?