There shouldnt have been a problem with the english language unless you got real unlucky as all the AA call centres are UK based. I believe the breakdown department is in Cheadle, tho i guess nowadays even if the call centre is in the UK your not guaranteed to get a great english speaker... I have this problem when I call Barclays bank!

Personally i've never heard of a claim lasting 3 years... I have discussed claims with customers where it has taken almost a year to settle, because unfortunately even with claims that should be simple to settle your insurance company has to get the TP insurers to admit liability, and unfortunately it doesnt get resolved then, bcos even tho theyve admitted liability it can take them time to get there money back from the TP insurers... and this isnt taking into consideration getting police reports etc. Personally my suggestion is to do quotes online based on 0 yrs ncd, and take out the cheapest. Theres no point going with the current insurer and then showing them the cheapest quotes u couldve got with x amount of ncd if the claim is settled as a nf claim, bcos they may say "well u were under no obligation to accept our renewal quote"

You will probably find in one of those 5 letters you do have that one of them would be something like a 7 day cancellation letter advising you that your policy will be cancelled within 7 days. Am i correct?

I work for a leading insurance broker in the UK, so i'm used to dealing with stuff like this. It may be slightly different where I work because we pay the insurance company upfront, and then the customer pays a deposit and then doesnt pay anything for 59 days. This is suggested to the customer as a good thing as they dont have to pay anything for 2 months! Great they say... but what they dont realise is that were only not taking a payment for 59 days because it incurs more interest by us not taking that first direct debit for 2 months as you are paying in arrears. In other words, what we dont say in as many words is that youve taken a loan out with us as such rather than us being helpful by allowing you to pay monthly and your paying your policy in arrears so your always in debt to us. If a customer then calls to cancel the policy after the initial 14 day cooling off period has expired, the insurance company return a pro rata refund to us. This refund will take into consideration a cancellation fee (upto £50) and also no refund given for any upgrades you have added to your policy. This returned premium is then used to lower the outstanding balance on the premium including any interest accrued upto the cancellation date. The outstanding amount is then owed to us by the customer because of those initial 59 days where we didnt take a direct debit. So maybe his insurance company are operating a similar thing, but after reading it again it appears that the initial deposit is just strickly a deposit to set up a loan with his insurance company, and then the first direct debit was to cover him for the month he had on cover with the company so upon cancelling the policy, he would not receive any refund as he had only paid for the time he had on cover with the insurance company anyways. If he is going to be purchasing a new vehicle, with the insurance companies i deal with, they tend to allow 14-21 days where no vehicle is on cover before they request the policy be cancelled. So if he was to refer it to the insurance company or the broker they may be able to advise you how long the cover can remain in place for without actually covering a vehicle before it does need to be cancelled

The insurance companies are within their right to charge a cancellation fee. I work for an insurance broker, and dont get me wrong, sometimes im just thinking "cant i just write this bl**dy canx fee off to save me alot of hassle" lol The insurance companies look at it as your insurance policy is a 12 month contract with them based upon the details they agree to cover you for. If you have changed your car to one that they wont quote on due to their underwriting criteria, they see it as well you broke our agreement by changing your car to something that we wont cover, and whilst we will let you out of this contract early, we will be expecting you to reimburse us for some of the money we will be losing out on by you cancelling. Unfortunately you are liable for the cancellation fee, read your insurance documents/booklet and it will state that if you cancel your policy (bcos even tho they wont cover the new car, ultimately it is still you that decides to purchase the new car forcing the cancellation) you will incur a penalty. However the only way really around this, is to make a complaint to their complaints department. Generally the complaints department look at cases like these as a waste of time and so they may write off the cancellation fee straight away if you make it seem like your reallly not happy. Afteral customers threaten to goto the FSA about cancellation fees, and on the complaints department ive worked on previously, it was just simpler to just write off the cancellation fee than getting into a debate on whether it was right or wrong for this fee to be imposed.

Hey guys, I need some advice! I'll give as brief as possible background to the issue at hand first. I have a 6 year old daughter with my ex, who split from me when my daughter was about 3 months old, and have been paying child support for ever since. I was living at home with my parents and have had no end of problems with the CSA regarding the payments. First I've overpaid despite me paying exactly what theyve told me to pay, and then I somehow have underpaid so they went straight to my employers for a deo. I didnt like it as the problem occured because they have calculated my payments incorrectly, however I kept quiet about it. I then met my current partner and after a year an half she fell pregnant just as i was starting a new job. I waited a couple of months before advising the CSA so i could send them 2 months payslips to work out my new payments, however it took them approximately 6 months for them to come back and advise how much i should be paying (approximately £150 a month), and by this time it had built up 8months of backpayments that i owed. They then started taking payments from a deo with my employer. During this time my second daughter was born and I have never advised the CSA that my 2nd child exists due to me forgetting to contact them. My partner moved into her own property, and I remained at my parents as my main residence but would stay over my partners a couple nights a week as we couldn't afford for me to be living there aswell at the time with me having to pay the backpayments as we were told that we werent entitled to housing benefit with me living there, as they look at your salary and not any deductions for child support etc. BTW my partner does work as a waitress in the evenings, so shes not a bum lol During the last 18mths my partner has fallen pregnant again, and i am expecting my second child with my current partner in june. I have now just recently moved in with my partner to a new property and her16yr old sister also lives with us for the foreseeable future. We have just been told that we are not entitled to working tax credits as our income is to high (i earn £14k before tax and csa, and she earns about £4.5k), we have currently applied for housing benefit but are not hopeful of receiving much if anything. My partner is due to go on maternity leave in May and will see a significant decrease in our income as she will no longer be bringing home tips from being in work. I currently pay £400 towards our rent, my partner inputs £50, and the remaining £200 is giving by my partners mum as payment for my partners sister living with us. After all deductions from my earnings I am left with around £400 after the rent is taken. Of this £400 approximately £200 of that is currently going on payments for various things like Mobile Contracts and contents insurance etc. This leaves me with roughly £200 as my general spending money for things like the weekly food shopping, general spending and also to go and buy clothes for my eldest daughter for the 2 nights that she stays with me. My partners spare income then is spent on purchasing things ready for when our 2nd daughter arrives, aswell as the weekly shopping bill, and also to pay the water,electric and gas bills. I do understand that i do need to notify the CSA that i have moved in with my partner, but do they take into consideration her income even tho we are not married? Also do they take into consideration my outgoings such as rent and bills, things that I am liable for to ensure that I can keep a roof over my soon to be 2 daughters head, and also for my eldest when she stays down on the weekend. If they do take into consideration my partners earnings, is there anyway that this can be avoided? I do not have a problem paying child support for my daughter, but i do not agree that my new partner should be liable when she is not the mother of my eldest daughter.... Any help or guidance on any of the matters ive discussed above would be greatly appreciated! Btw i no i said the words "briefly" earlier, but nothing is ever brief with me lol

I work for an insurance broker, and get asked this all day. Your insurance company declined the new address because the rate the new postcode as an unacceptable risk. It may be a safer area, less crime, parked overnight securely etc.. but it isnt just the crime statistics they look at. They will see how many claims have been made in the area within a period of time, and the costs incurred with those claims. Its a standard thing with all insurance companies. Some like my postcode, some hate it! You are having to pay a cancelation fee, because your insurance policy is a 12mth contract between u and the insurance company based upon the information you provided that the insurer found acceptable. Unfortunately by changing your address to one they wont quote on, its seen as you have broken the contract as such, and unfortunately you are liable for the cancellation fee. Although if u made a complaint to their complaints department, they may agree to waive the cancellation fee. You dont need to disclose this to any other insurance company. Your policy has been cancelled, but not in a negative way by the insurer. Look at is as the insurer couldnt continue cover, and not it was cancelled. If you new insurer asks why the policy cancelled early, just say you moved address and your new address is a decline according to their underwriting criteria. and finally, you can't challenge this at all. The insurance company can quote and decline on any address that they want. They are the one's taking the risk by insuring you. You could attempt to challenge this, but you would be wasting your time. It unfortunately wont change anything with your old insurer, and it won't affect your future premiums due to them declining to cover the new postcode

I work for an insurance broker, and get asked this all day. Your insurance company declined the new address because the rate the new postcode as an unacceptable risk. It may be a safer area, less crime, parked overnight securely etc.. but it isnt just the crime statistics they look at. They will see how many claims have been made in the area within a period of time, and the costs incurred with those claims. Its a standard thing with all insurance companies. Some like my postcode, some hate it! You are having to pay a cancelation fee, because your insurance policy is a 12mth contract between u and the insurance company based upon the information you provided that the insurer found acceptable. Unfortunately by changing your address to one they wont quote on, its seen as you have broken the contract as such, and unfortunately you are liable for the cancellation fee. Although if u made a complaint to their complaints department, they may agree to waive the cancellation fee. You dont need to disclose this to any other insurance company. Your policy has been cancelled, but not in a negative way by the insurer. Look at is as the insurer couldnt continue cover, and not it was cancelled. If you new insurer asks why the policy cancelled early, just say you moved address and your new address is a decline according to their underwriting criteria. and finally, you can't challenge this at all. The insurance company can quote and decline on any address that they want. They are the one's taking the risk by insuring you. You could attempt to challenge this, but you would be wasting your time. It unfortunately wont change anything with your old insurer, and it won't affect your future premiums due to them declining to cover the new postcode

Unfortunately as its already been confirmed, you will have to claim from your own insurance company.

Thing is, I work for an insurance broker. We dont get the full premium. the insurance company do. The insurance company gives the broker the quote, and included in that quote is commision that the broker will earn. So... Insurance company quote £500 for you, but in that quote theyve given the broker £30. That means the insurance company get £470 and the broker gets £30. the broker will only get £30 from that premium so effectively Brokers will always present the price given to them, and if your not happy with it, they can look to discount against the commision that they would earn from you renewing with them. So if the broker quoted the lowest possible price to everybody, they would not make any money and would go out of business.

I work for one of the big insurance brokers in the UK, ill leave you guess who. Automatic renewals are there for the customers benefit as much as the companies. Sure, I am under no illusion that the insurance companies offer this method in hope that some people (like myself) are lazy and cant be bothered chasing round quotes so as long as the price seems decent, I just go ahead with it. They keep the business and I could be paying a bit more than what I could find elsewhere, which leads me to my next point... It does is there to benefit the customers aswell. There are two types of people when it comes to policyholders. You have the ones who care more for the customer service they receive from the company, and you have the people that care about the price. This automatic renewal benefits the ones who care about the service because aslong as the quote is reasonable they do not have to do anything further. It also benefits Mr Smith, who hasn't received his renewal invitation because of postal delays and isnt aware that the car was up for renewal so he continues to drive his vehicle unaware hte policy is due to renew. by automatically renewing, this means that mr smith wont get stopped for driving without insurance so therefore wont get an in10, and when he does receive the renewal document he can then contact the insurance company and cancel if he is not happy with the premium and pay a time on risk charge based upon the time he has had on cover. afteral its alot cheaper to pay a time on risk charge than it is to pay the loading on a new policy an in10 would bring, and also the fine incured for getting an in10. I understand from the perspective of the people who go for the cheapest quote, so they feel they are being trapped into this. However, ive dealt with alot of email complaints from people who advise that they are not happy with the renewal premium and have taken the insurance elsewhere and want no further contact because there premium elsewhere was £200 cheaper... Well ok, but there was enough commision in your policy to have discounted your premium cheaper than what you obtained elsewhere. Ok, bye bye. I understand that it is annoying that if you dont want to renew with that insurer that you have to contact them, but surely it is best to go back to the insurance company and haggle and ask is the renewal quote the best they can offer. Afteral they could bring it cheaper htan what you can obtain elsewhere afteral the broker gets paid commission so therefore can discount off that commission. As someone stated, u only get if you ask!

Okay i'll put this in two sections: Claim: Problem is the 3rd party may have accepted liability, but with no witnesses and no police involved.... Try prove that she accepted liability? Its your word against hers, and unless the investigations state that there is no doubt the 3rd party was at fault, they may look to settle this 50-50. So her insurance company would pay to repair her vehicle, and your insurance company would usually fix ur vehicle. So follow the advice and speak to her insurance company and to the ph herself to try ascertain whats happening and see if you can get her to admit liability. Insurance: Your policy will now become void. The insurance company are now likely to refuse to repair your vehicle should the claim be settled 50:50. So your best bet is to hope that she does admit liability to her insurers, afteral if its a 50:50 claim, she will have a fault claim anyways so she may aswell say she was at fault and future insurance companies dont care if its settled 50:50 or a complete fault claim. a fault claim is a fault claim. However your insurance company gave you the premium you received based upon different data including your occupation and your driving history. It is important to provide them with correct information, as just having a full uk license for 1yr will mean you are a higher risk than someone who has a full uk license for4 years. so your premium would have been higher has you provided the correct information. and regarding your occupation, you should have made your insurance comapny aware of this, as insurance companies rate premiums based upon your occupation aswell. Insurance companies like to know what your vehicle is used for. If you are for example a receptionist, the insurance company can assume that ur travelling to work between 8-9am. in work between 9-5pm and travelling home between 5-6pm. Whereas if you are a student, your lectures could be at anytime, you may not be in college/uni 5 days a week, you could be driving round more during the day etc.etc. therefore likeyhood is your premium would have increased. So you not giving the insurance company just these two bits of information correctly will mean that they will void your insurance. And as you have been advised, you HAVE to declare that you have had insurance cancelled by your provider to any other insurance company you receive a quote from, and because of this, you will be seen as a higher risk, meaning they will load your premium up. Telling a couple of porkies may have been worth it at the time in order to reduce your premium, but in the long run, you got caught out and will suffer the consequences financially unfortunately. Lesson to be learnt here... Dont play with fire unless you want to get burnt!

Okay heres the problem. Chaucer have offered you a specific type of insurance they have, which is the 4x4 insurance. There terms and conditions in the underwriting guide will state this and they will decline any vehicle that is a 4x4. As such the insurance company and yourself agreed the premium based upon the information provided to them when you took out the policy, and the insurance policy is seen as a contract between yourself and the insurance company; and as you are breaking that contract thats why the insurance company are charging you the cancellation fee. You may have to pay £x as you may be paying monthly in arrears so there may be an o/s bal (sorry work talk creeping in outstanding balance) or as it is so close to the renewal date the full premium may be required. Your current underwriters were declining due to the vehicle not being a 4x4 and they are fully entitled to decline if the new risk is not acceptable to them, just as there fully entitled to decline a driver under the age of 25 on your policy if they dont like the risk. So as such whilst I understand that you had to sell the vehicle for personal reasons, as far as the insurance company are concerned it is you that broke the terms of the "contract" you had with them. Sureterm are insurance brokers and so as they specialise in 4x4 and recreational vehicle insurance they wouldnt have been able to quote you on this new vehicle. Your best bet is to log a new complaint with sureterm. as they are you broker the complaint would need to be registered with them, as it is actually them that is likely to be the ones charging you the cancellation fee. What i suspect is that chaucer had already been paid the full premium by sureterm when you took out the policy, and you are repaying sureterm with your monthly direct debits, thats why if you work out your monthly payments you'll probably find your paying around 14% more (roughly) than what the premium is. So you will find that is sureterm who are requesting the cancellation fee and any o/s balance. Log a complaint, stating that you were never advised that they only quoted on specialist vehicles. Whilst you will be liable for the o/s balance, say to the broker that you will be refering to the FSA as you are not happy with there bad practices. If FSA or FOS (Financial Ombudsman Services) are threatened to get involved, they will likely to write off the cancellation fee. Whilst the broker may be correct in applying a cancellation fee, ultimately they will know that if the FOS are involved and decide to take up your case, they will get a charge of £500 (dont quote me as I think im making that figure up). Therefore they may write off the cancellation fee as a gesture of good will, bcos losing £30 makes more business sense than risking losing more if the FOS decide to get involved. General FSA guidelines state the broker/insurance company has 5 days to acknowledge the complaint, then they have 8 weeks to close the complaint case. Something as straight forward as this, I believe can be dealt with by sending one email lodging the complaint and one phone call. So complaint and say you will involve the fsa or fos if you are not happy with the response you receive. As for your proof of ncd? If theyve cancelled the insurance you havent accumilated a years ncd this time, so one quesiton... was last years insurance thru sureterm? if not, go back to your previous provider and ask them if them for proof of ncd. afteral you didnt accumilate anything this year. However if you were insured thru them, your best bet would be to find last years renewal invitation as it will state on there how many years no claims discount the premium was based upon. Otherwise you will have to log a complaint, and get the cancellation fee removed, and then ask the complaints specialist to send out a copy of your ncd.

I agree with whats written above. I dont personally work on the claims department in work, I work on the complaints department. But what I would suggest is your probably better off taking the cash. Insurance companys use there own approved garages as stated above. I have come across instances where the insurance company is open to you taking the vehicle to a different garage for the work, however they may require a quotation from two different garages to compare the prices and determine whether they will authorise the work. If you were able to buy back the vehicle and pay for the repairs yourself, it may cause alot of hassle when trying to reinsure the vehicle. Any insurance company will ask you for you to obtain an MOT even if the garage has fixed the only diagnosed problems and send them the MOT certificate before they will allow you to insure the vehicle with them. Best advice, take the money and then treat yourself to a bus pass. Cars are too expensive with insurance getting more expensive and petrol increasing in price lol

This is not illegal. I work for probably the biggest insurance broker in the uk who offer the same payment method called continuous credit card. You card details are stored on there system, but isnt attainable by any of the customer advisers. When you took the original quote out online/on phone or if you were renewing last year with the RAC the clerk or online quote would state that your card details will be used for renewal next year or the renewal notice would have stated last year that they would be doing this. With the broker I work for, yes it does automatically renew unless you tell them otherwise. Afteral some people may get competitive quotes and may want to renew, and this enables them to not have to do anything. The policy will automatically renew for them. Whereas if you don't want to renew, then you phone up the insurance company and say this... bear in mind, this can work in your favour bcos with some online quotes to back u up, you may be able to haggle a discount. However the automatic renewal doesnt take your payment until the day of the renewal. So don't be alarmed by the automatic renewal. Just phone your insurance company up and say you dont want to go ahead with the renewal. They should suppress the continuous credit card method instantaniously. If its anything like my employers system, its literally just a case of opening up one part of your screen and clicking a button to Yes instead of No. Simple! But you might want to check with your bank afterwards and see if they can stop any payment being made to the RAC just to be on safe side