Hey all,

My mother in law is having major problems with More Than concerning the renewal of the insurance policy for their eldest dog who has turned 8 years old.

She has remained loyal to them throughout and I believe she even has their other dog who is just 2 insured with them as well.

When they commenced the policy the monthly premium commenced at £7.99 and has increased annually upto £20.99. This years renewal came through around a month ago at £37.00!!! per month.

Now she accepts that the premium would go up a fair but when considering the dogs age but to increase by around 85% is surely unjustiable especially for a customer who has never claimed.

She has so far spent a couple of hours on the phone and various points and for my money has been given the run around. Tonights call was to basically give her a sob story about the recession, the cost of drugs and vets bills etc. An apology was offered but nothing else.

In addition, my mother in law has been on the website and after inputting the exact same details has been quoted £28.00 per month but been told this is for new customers only and should she opt for this and cancel she'll be uncovered for 14 days which is of course a risk she's not prepared to take.e

Of course her next step to send a written complaint and so I was wondering if anyone new either an address or email address for the CEO or Customer Service Director that this can be sent to.

Thanks in advance.

It might be worth pursuing the lower premium and complaining that it's not available to existing and loyal customers. I don't know what the rules are offhand and wouldn't necessarily hold my breath. Pet insurance premiums have certainly risen a lot recently, I know.

Have you shopped around at all? An 8 year old cat might still be insurable with another company and you could try the supermarkets or other major insurers. Or you could try an insurance broker, who should be in touch with what the market's doing and who's competitive. That way, you would have a second option, assuming you find cover.

PS I'd have thought the addresses you're looking for should be on the company's website.

HB

Insurers will obviously increase the premium to a level which they think is reasonable for the risk they are covering but also because they make more money from those customers who continually renew without shopping around.

What you could do is arrange cover elsewhere and then cancel the Morethan policy 14 days later. This would ensure that you don't have a period of 14 days where illness would not be covered. Yes there would be duplicate Insurance for accident, but if anything happened, each Insurer would make a contribution.

Thanks for your input guys.

My mother in law has already dealt with their Customer Relations Dept who weren't much cop. I'll do some more digging around for the CEO details.

Since I posted lastnight she's also received a quote from Sainsburys of £28.00 per month with some added bonuses thrown in.

I reckon she'll be likely to take this and cancel with More Than but still pursue the complaint and the level of service she's received since initially contacting them as been awful.

Will keep you posted.

STM

Thanks, do keep us posted, it would be interesting to know what happens.

My best, HB

Best wishes to the cat too. We have two

You mean the dogs don't you HB?

How long have you had your cats for?

STM

I had the same issue with More>Than for my (now 8-and-a-bit) year old Labrador.

It seems that dogs of over 8 years attract a significantly higher premium than younger animals - for instance, my Lab was quoted at £36+ a month (I saw the renewal, was shocked by it and didn't read any further as this represented an almost 50% hike in premiums) whereas my younger dog (just over a year old) attracted a premium of £26+ a month with the same firm - identical cover for both. This hike for the puppy represented a 100% increase of premium - in both cases there have been no claims in the last 12 months for either animal.

I ended up shopping around and got a quote of £22.08 for the Lab and £11.26 for the Staff.

You mean the dogs don't you HB?

How long have you had your cats for?

STM

Very sorry yes, dogs - blond moment. We have some of both. I hope you resolve your problem.

HB

PS Our cats are 13 now, so we haven't moved insurers recently for them. It's not cheap.

HB

I had the same issue with More>Than for my (now 8-and-a-bit) year old Labrador.

 

It seems that dogs of over 8 years attract a significantly higher premium than younger animals - for instance, my Lab was quoted at £36+ a month (I saw the renewal, was shocked by it and didn't read any further as this represented an almost 50% hike in premiums) whereas my younger dog (just over a year old) attracted a premium of £26+ a month with the same firm - identical cover for both. This hike for the puppy represented a 100% increase of premium - in both cases there have been no claims in the last 12 months for either animal.

 

I ended up shopping around and got a quote of £22.08 for the Lab and £11.26 for the Staff.

Thanks for sharing your experience with them.

It does seem that once they get to an age where they feel that there's more chance of them having to pay out for treatment that they increase the premium to such a degree that they'll either make money from people who don't shop around of push those away who do and find it cheaper elsewhere.

The Sainsburys deal is even cheaper than I first thought so I'm 99% certain she'll go with that and say adios to More Than.

Very sorry yes, dogs - blond moment. We have some of both. I hope you resolve your problem.

 

HB

Don't worry about it - it happens to the best of us.

I think once she set up with Sainsburys she'll be complaining to More Than regarding the terrible service and asking them to refund the last premium they recently took which I think is the least they can do bearing in mind her loyalty to them over 8 years and the contemptable manner in which they've dealt with a fairly simple complaint.

Lets watch this space.

 

I ended up shopping around and got a quote of £22.08 for the Lab and £11.26 for the Staff.

Incidentally, who were these quotes with?

Thanks,

STM

It might be worth threatening MoreThan by claiming they've breached the Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) proviso of the FSA guidelines for general insurance. This would be in relation to them offering a much higher premium to your mother-in-law for renewal of the same risk than they have offered for new business. This is unjustified - the vast majority of the administrative costs of an insurance policy for an insurer are incurred during new business stage - renewals are where you make your money, hence why underwriters fight to retain profitable business.

The beauty of TCF is that the FSA has never really defined it - which is why most insurers are extremely scared of customers threatening to complain under it. The insurance industry is pretty well regulated and takes it all very seriously - unlike the banks, etc!

It might not work but if your mother-in-law is going to complain to MoreThan anyway I'd be tempted to include TCF in the complaint.

Do let us know how you get on.

Best wishes, MC

Cheers for this.

We're just awaiting a letter from them in order to go through the next stage of their complaints process.

She received a phone call (one of the ones she was promised a few weeks ago) not adding anything further and asked how we could take this further they said they'd send her a letter.

This'll probably take another few weeks at the rate these guys have moved so far - a tactic to suck the energy out of people complaining to them me thinks.

Thanks again and I'll be definitely including this in the letter I'll be helping my mother in law with.

Well after a few weeks we've now got a further reply from More Than.

The letter in not so many words accuses my mother-in-law of lying about being advised that the premium wouldn't increase my more than rate of inflation and details some of the previous increase which ranged from 10-20% plus.

Now when her premiums were lower even a 20% rise would've made little difference but she did contact them to see if they could offer a better deal and the answer was always pretty much no.

Anyway, after failing once again to sufficiently address their customer service failings together with the TPC proviso they've offered £50.00.

Now my mother-in-law isn't too inclined to accept this and is seriously considering referring this to the FOS. If she does would she forfeit the £50.00 or would the worse outcome be that the FOS would say that they feel that this is acceptable and to leave it open for later acceptance?

Going to the FOS won't affect the £50.00 offered now will it cost you any money upfront (although what is never reaslised is this does cost us all in premium increases etc).

What do you want to gain from the complaint? if it's cheaper premiums, that's probably (I could be wrong) not going to happen, the FOS have little power if any over a companies commecial decisions. It's not what their for.

Sorry to be blunt, but the £50.00 is to get rid of you, a company can choose their premium, they can increase for whatever reason they feel, they do not owe you cheaper premiums, nor do you owe them to not go to the next insurer for a cheaper amount. If a discount is offered if bought new, that is not a breach of TCF, it's a discount for a commercial reason, if they have pushed up the price without reason i.e no underwriting critera, the FOS may intervene. Underwriters in my experience always have areason for their figures, their not plucked out of thin air. If they could find reason to offer a cheaper premium it would be offered, if they just didn't want you, they wouldn't offer renewal.

Again sorry to be so harsh.

All I ask for is honest advice so thanks for yours.

I accept that the FOS may be limited to what they can do in regard to the premium side of things here and that the £50 is just a way of making us go away.

The things that annoy her and now me is there utter disregard to acknowledge and explain their customer service failings throughout this matter and failure to address the TCF point. They may believe that they've done nothing wrong but at least give the customer the courtesy of explaining why.

Naturally we have a few months to decide what course of action we'll take so I'll report back once we have an update.

Incidentally, who were these quotes with?

 

Thanks,

 

STM

Sorry, not been around here for a while, so just catching up!

The pup I got insured with esure and the Lab, in the end, with a company called the "Green Insurance Company". I got both quotes from that famous-site-with-the-annoying-opera-singer.