In January 2010 - I took out an insurance policy with Be Wiser Insurance for a commercial vehicle. I received a quote by email and then proceeded to complete online. This I did and I setup DD payment and paid the initial deposit of £11x.xx -The total cost of your policy is £ 46x.xx *.

*The total cost of your policy is £46x.xx this is inclusive of the £42x.xx due to your insurers and a balance of £4x.xx as our charge for arranging this policy. Any instalments quoted are the amounts paid and include any interest charges.

So payments made:

Jan 2010 - £112.69

Feb 2010 - £46.18

Mar 2010 - £46.19

Apr 2010 - £46.18

May 2010 - £46.18

Total - £297.42

Today I receive a letter from Close Premium Finance saying that they acknowledge my cancellation and no further payments are to be made.

Naturally, as I have never cancelled this policy and because I have made the deposit payment and all 4 of the 9 DD payments that were due, I was a little surprised.

I rang Close Premium and they said that the policy was cancelled by Be Wiser Insurance on 1st June 2010

I then rang Be Wiser, and they said that the insurance policy was cancelled because I had not sent back any proof of NCD - I have genuinely not received any letters from them, nor had I had a letter stating that they would cancel the motor policy in 7 days, and that they would cancel the policy on 1st March 2010

I asked if it had been sent Recorded Delivery as that would have ensured that anything that was as serious as having your inurance policy been cancelled would have been received by myself. They said no, standard mail.

So the upshot of it is, I had insurance through Be Wiser Insurance for a grand total of 38 days (21/01/10 until 28/02/10) and it has now cost me £297.42 out of a total premium of £463.87 for 365 days originally.

They have offered me a refund of £80 which still means that it has cost me £217.42 for a period insured of 38 days.

Is there anything I can do?

The same thing has happened to my son. Although he filled in two online applications with Go Compare and then Be Wiser, stating he had 0 years No Claims and also confirmed by telephone to Be Wiser, he later received a letter asking to send documents to confirm his 9 years No Claims which he thought must be a mistake.

There followed two letters which had Urgent - Registered Letter - but neither were sent by Registered Post and because of his work commitments were not opened until later.

Be Wiser then cancelled the policy without his knowledge, and have kept the £430 monies paid so far leaving him without car insurance and without money for alternative cover.

He has been told via telephone today, that the Be Wiser computer automatically assumes that someone who has held a driving licence for 9 years has automatically 9 years No Claims Bonus - despite the fact that he correctly filled in two online application forms stating otherwise and also confirming via the telephone. So they basically cancelled his policy due to their own computer assuming something which he categorically stated 3 times was not so.

Now they want to dip into his initial payment to charge for cancellation.

We are not impressed and it smacks of incompetency on the part of Be Wiser. Not wise at all - in fact it seems a decidedly dodgy policy of theirs to assume anything and smacks of incompetency and dishonesty.

Stitched up like a kipper is a good description, nice little earner.

Both posters need to start complaints with Be wiser using their official complaints process. This needs to be progressed to the Financial ombudsman service, so this fault can be reported. The FSA who don't look into individual complaints, but do look at the complaints handled by the FOS. Be wiser by not having a robust system are actually in breach of FSA rules. The breaches are many, but primarily it concerns them not having systems in place to ensure the accuracy of risk information and to ensure proper accounting, handling of customers money. Obviously if Be Wiser are automatically allowing NCD for the no. of years licence held, they might not be collecting the correct premium due.

Thank you Uncle Bulgaria. We will go through the complaints process - letter already written ready for the post to the Complaints Dept. at Be Wiser, Andover. Further car insurance bought today so we are poorer by another £457 and I am aware that some people would not be able to afford to pay for two policies in such a short space of time.

Thanks again for your advice.

Thank you unclebulgaria67

I was so furious before, the poor person at Be Wiser would probably have a headache for the rest of the day now. For which I should really apologise to him for.

Since I posted the above, I contacted the FOS and they are going to look into the scenario and try to get to the bottom of things. They have also given me a reference number which I suppose backs this up.

Thank you Uncle Bulgaria. We will go through the complaints process - letter already written ready for the post to the Complaints Dept. at Be Wiser, Andover. Further car insurance bought today so we are poorer by another £457 and I am aware that some people would not be able to afford to pay for two policies in such a short space of time.

Thanks again for your advice.

Sorry to hear this, that you have now had to pay for another policy.

I have now had a sort of partial success with Be Wiser, I can PM you the name of a contact there if you wish to ring?

Hi there letsdothis.

I fully understand your fury but it's their policies which they need to look at so their staff don't get an ear bashing. Would appreciate the name of the contact in the meantime.

I am EDIT

Personal data removed

Hi Doolallyally

I would remove your email addy so people cannot harvest it, I will send you a PM in the minute.

For the sake of telling the whole story, I have now more or less got some satisfaction over this.

I received a phone call having sent an email to the person's email address who emailed me the original policy details.

The deal offered was that I should get the refund of £297.42 less an admin charge and cancellation charge from the actual insurer of £110.94, meaning a refund of £186.48 - More than I originally had been offered this morning of approx £80

I asked would it not be possible to have a new policy, and now being fully aware of the situation with the NCD I could forward these on, less a credit of the new policy premium minus what I had already paid. Obviously I understand that an actual insurer does charge for a cancellation and that I feel it is fair for me to actually pay for the period of cover that I was actually covered by.

So the final deal was:

New Policy for 12 months, slightly higher than the original policy, as insurers have put their prices up - I can cope with that

All monies paid excluding the £60.00 (for the original insurance cover of 38 days) to be credited against the new policy

I now have a balance left, to pay monthly for 5 months, at more or less the same rate as what I would have paid by DD anyway, so only a few quid out of pocket as such

So although I am out of pocket in the fact of paying for 38 days cover I do now have a new insurance policy as from today.

What really annoys me the most though, if Close Premium had not written to me today, I would have been none the wiser. All 3 named drivers would have continued driving a vehicle on the road, with no actual insurance in place to do so, even though the insurance was two thirds paid for more or less, with the remaining 5 DD payments still owing, (although not yet due) without even being aware of that fact.

The first I would have known if Close Premium hadn't of written would be on 21st of this month when they would not have asked for the DD payment.

Had the identical situation as above, same letters, same 9 years no claims documentation, felt threatened by them as if I was a criminal and they have taken my deposit of £119 for 9 days insurance and cancelled my policy on the 26th May 2011 and informed me on Saturday 28th May 2011(bank holiday weekend) by a letter written on the 27th May 2011. Had to cancel my weekend holiday away with the kids because of having no insurance on the car it just gets worse.....advice as what to do appreciated

This is such a pain, they are trying it on again. I went through the complaints process with a letter to their head office in Andover and a letter to the Financial Ombudsman. The Ombudsman then communicated with Be Wiser. Eventually Be Wiser climbed down and apologised and fully refunded my son. Unfortunately I've deleted the letters I sent but you must go through the complaints process - don't let them get away with it.

Many thanxs for your reply Doolallyally,

hopefully, with fingers crossed, I have solved this insurance issue now as I received a call from a very helpful Insure Wiser sales agent called 'Jamie' this morning who with a bit of toing and froing with her team leader came up with a solution amicable to all concerned.

Kiddies are unamused but we can make it up to them some way or another in time.

Once again thank-you for your reply Doolallyally.

Just reading what happened to Doolallyally and the same thing happened to me! It seems with the passage of time that these con men are still cheating people out of their money. I am fighting to get my cash back but no reply to my email or phone calls. They keep saying that the person I need to speak to is busy and someone will call me back. No one ever does.

Be Wiser... Don't use them!!

We insured a VW Caravelle mini bus online. paid a deposit and one payment. They wrote to us saying the insurer could not insure us as it was a mini bus and not a van. So they were cancelling the insurance in a week from date on letter(5 days inc a weekend)

We called then to ask why they took a payment after they had written to say it was cancelled. They said we owe them a cancellation fee of £75 WE DIDN'T CANCEL. they did.

We have paid £274.61 for 1 months cover and they still want £77.47 then we needed to get insurance asap and had to pay another deposit etc etc I am really fed up with insurance companies ripping us off all the time. So I will start the complaints procedure but I need my money now, we don't have this kind of spare cash floating around. It means we can't pay other bills because we need insurance I am very angry about this.

Max cancellation fee per the FOS is £50.

Query. If their online system allowed the vehicle to be Insured, then that is not your problem. The online system should be able to detect that the vehicle was not one their underwriters would accept. I therefore think it is wrong to charge any cancellation fee. They should purely charge you a time on risk and provide you with 7 days notice to arrange cover elsewhere. I believe that is what the FSA/FOS would have expected.

Wish i had read this BEFORE i stupidly gave them £360 to insure my car..guess what..i stated zero no claims bonus on my application, they gave me a price, i accepted it and paid over the premium in full. Several days later got a letter asking me to prove that i had 9 years NO CLAIMS BONUS!!!. Rang them 7 times, each call lasting 20+mins, always the person i needed to speak to was unavailable and would ring me back, they never did.On the 8th call i got pretty wound up and eventually got to speak to someone who promised to resolve it once and for all. The result...they want annother £291 to continue the insurance!!, i said i would cancel and that i wanted a refund, guess what..a refund of £186 from my original £360!!. Thats the best part of £200 for one months insurance!!. These people are taking the **** and i will be following the advice on here and reporting them. It's daylight robbery what this bunch of conmen are up to. Now my car is uninsured and i can't obviously use it and the money i had to pay for my car insurance is now half what it was. How do these conmen continue to rip people off like this?!!.

I guess I am not alone then. I contacted bewiser for my car insurance. Told the woman I had had five years no claims no claims previously, but this was just over two years ago. I also stated I could not prove the five years bonus, which was why I was putting a no claim of 0 years on the application. The woman said that she would give me the five years no claims as she could find this information on the database.

Guess what? Phonecalls , e-mails a,d letters received asking for proof. I lost the rag today with them when they asked for an extra £400 on top of the original £547. I have had the policy one month and they are returning£310.

What do people suggest?

I guess I am not alone then. I contacted bewiser for my car insurance. Told the woman I had had five years no claims no claims previously, but this was just over two years ago. I also stated I could not prove the five years bonus, which was why I was putting a no claim of 0 years on the application. The woman said that she would give me the five years no claims as she could find this information on the database.

 

Guess what? Phonecalls , e-mails a,d letters received asking for proof. I lost the rag today with them when they asked for an extra £400 on top of the original £547. I have had the policy one month and they are returning£310.

 

What do people suggest?

A complaint in writing by recorded delivery to the Managing Director or Be Wiser. They missold the Insurance, by giving you wrong information.

Quite simply the worst company I have ever dealt with.

They are running a form of disorganised chaos in their offices, you get emails from staff and reply to them never to receive another word until you get an email from another member of staff demanding an alternate amount of money that they are not owed.

I last 15 days with them - just one day (sadly) out of the cooling of procedure and paid over £270 to insure a 20 year old car that died 15 days after I bought it.

£116 to set up the account £49 for the first months payment and £106 to close the account and this was when they finally cancelled my insurance due to non payment.

The reason it wasn't paid is because I had cancelled the insurance plus the direct debit and confirmed this via email about 5 times previously copying in the copies of all of the emails to every single advisor who emailed me even writing FAO 'advisors name'

every time I rang I was put in a queue for over 20 minutes to an 0844 number from my mobile!!!! - annoyingly telling me that their highly trained experts were busy!!

they couldn't add up to ten honestly.

Never EVER even think, even slightly, EVER about going anywhere near them even if their office is the only place that will not be effected by a nuclear strike - instead buy sun cream and some shades to enjoy the blast. I am not kidding really they are that bad.

Go to the local playground and buy a policy off (Mollie - aged 5), written in the finest crayon with a nice picture of a cat (kat) on it and some hearts, you would be far far better off doing that than going anywhere near Bewiser...

I am sure that the office is actually not too far dissimilar to play school anyway so you should be fine with Mollies policy.

no messing!

i too have been subject to bewiser's [problem].. they misled me about my no claims putting 7 instead of 1 years down making void I assume if I had any claim in the 1 month of insurance I had with them. 1 month that is before they cancelled my policy saying I hadn't sent in documents they had been contacting me to send in. They had not contacted me once and misled me down the phone to me when I called them for an explanation of the cancellation. they took my deposit of 230 pounds and then a further 110 pound via direct debit for one months insurance quoted at 1150 for the year. they are also now sending me letters stating I have 2 weeks to pay another 130 pound.. cancellation fee or something like that or they will pass my debt over to debt collectors and my credit is also being threatened by their partner credit company close premium finance.

I have now lodged my complaint as the first process in the procedure on the financial ombudsman website. I also wrote a review on review center which has received a lovely reply from one of their staff who is really sorry to hear I've had a bad experience with them.. I don't normally write reviews but if it saves someone else from having to deal with this [edited] company then its worth it...

There should be another part to their name. Be Wiser to stay away from them.

Perhaps you should send the compliance manager at Be Wiser an SAR, asking for copies of all records, including recordings of any phone calls. If you click on SAR, there is a letter which you can amend to suit, to ask for everything you want.

thx.. yes i may do that.. i logged my complaint with the fin omb and be wiser have now contacted me and offered me a third of the

money i have spent back.. however this is just a way of ripping me off for 2 3rd's of what i have paid instead of the full 100 %.

My next step now is to pass my complaint over to the fin omb themselves who take it from here.. . I dont see why i should settle to

being ripped off slightly less than i was.. I will have to look into that sar route as i am unfamiliar with it but it could be worth it.

thx..

Thankyou for the useful advice on this thread. I have fallen foul of Be Wiser after taking out house insurance with them. It’s a long story but I was very, very distressed. Thankfully Go Compare got on board and I have received a total refund, although they threatened to take my entire premium and not cover my house at all.

Why are they allowed to get away with this? There’s thread after thread online about how these people take people’s money then cancel their insurance.So people go to the ombudsman and it gets resolved but why are they still doing this? Taking people’s money and cancelling their policies. It’s been going on for years and it’s like they’re doing it for a business. Why?

There should be another part to their name. Be Wiser to stay away from them.

 

Perhaps you should send the compliance manager at Be Wiser an SAR, asking for copies of all records, including recordings of any phone calls. If you click on SAR, there is a letter which you can amend to suit, to ask for everything you want.

I ended up in the Magistrates Court due to Be Wiser and their horrendous professionalism am happy to say that I got an absolute discharge, no endorsements, fines and court costs. This is because I contacted a great solicitor who advised a SAR, which I paid for but only received a few written communications, after pushing them 42 days after the request was sent was I able to get a letter stating that they were sending letters to the wrong address and not leaving messages on my answer machine, the verbal communication was sent at the last minute but was not playable on any media player. I have lodged a complaint with the FOS and am going to try and get the £2400 legal fees and £150 I had to pay to get my car out of impound.

PLEASE EVERYONE DO NOT THINK OF GOING WITH THIS COMPANY, RESEARCH THEM ON THE WEB, YOU WILL SEE MANY HAVE SUFFERED AT THEIR HANDS.

Bewiser insurance service have done me over. Still chasing payments, they keep telling me they have sent the money back or are processing it. Very annoying bunch of [edited]. Told me I was insured only to find out I was on cover. Told me they sent the cover note still noting in the post or on email. They are [edited] and stay well away from them. Afzal