I insured my impreza through elephant in november. I did the usual search through confused.com. During this process I entered my car reg and filled out the rest honestly. I got a quote with my wife on and rang them direct. Paid the deposit and kept motoring.

When I looked closer at the docs a month or so later I noticed the database that they use when assigning detail from the reg number had actually listed the car as a..

subaru impreza wrx uk 300.

My car is infact a ...

subaru impreza wrx sti type uk prodrive.

I thought nothing of this as I had entered my licence plate into the website and it had subaru and uk 300. It was only when I had browsed a few enthusists forums about imprezas that i realised that, technically, this was a slightly different car. (I still don't get it all to be honest!).

I worried about this, so I sent an email just before xmas telling them I felt it only fair to point out that that their records of the type of vehichle may be wrong.

Got an email back stating...

"All prices quoted are in pounds sterling.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Just to let you know, we've changed your changed your vehicle on your policy

from 22/12/08 as requested and updated documents are on the way to you.

There is an extra charge of £356.21.

As a result your new monthly payments are £106.69 with the next payment due o

21/01/09.

Yours sincerely,

Kathy Mead

Customer Services

ECSE"

This is on top of a policy that already costs £700.

Surely this is an error on their behalf not mine? I know I can get a full years policy for that increase alone. Is it my fault their dvla database is wrong?

GRR!!!

John

Bump

Unfortunately, you're going to struggle with this one. The onus is on you as the proposer to ensure that all of your details are correct, when you input your reg no on the site it will have come back with the wrong vehicle at the time, by going ahead with the policy you were confirming that the details were correct.

Obviously this is just looking at it in black and white and it is understandable that you may not have noticed or even appreciated that there was a difference with the models but strictly speaking the error was yours for not noticing.

I would imagine that the best scenario would be for you to shop around and see what the best price you can get is with the correct model and see if it is worth cancelling and taking out a new policy. The problem will be that any cancellation charge is going to be based on the higher premium. If you can get a cheaper policy elsewhere it may be worth speaking to a manager there, explaining what happened and see if they will be lenient with you on any cancellation charges.

It may also be worth asking them to go 50/50 with you on the additional premium.

If you speak to them, try not to lose your rag. explain what has happened and that their DVLA search was incorrect, but be prepared for the response that I gave above about you being responsible for checking details.

Good luck.

Good advice and seconded. You could, at a real push, argue that here was no contract, but I doubt this would work. Insurers are allowed to claim for mistakes like this. The alternative would be to cancel.

sound advice. i will talk with them, in a calm way, and see what happens. I will still make a complaint to themselves afterwards and the FOS afterwards; I wonder how many people are driving around without valid insurance because of this....

I'll post back with the result later.