12 months ago my son used a comparison site for car insurance. He duly took out the insurance with one of the 6 cheapest quotes provided.

A year later he received his renewal and the premium had risen by 50% so he did another comparison search and managed to get a quote much cheaper. He contacted the original insurer to inform them that he would not be renewing with them. They asked whether they could try and find a cheaper quote with them and he said "yes". This is where the problem started. They went through his details for him to confirm and when they asked for driving licence type, he said "Full". They replied "That will be another £2000 you owe us". (Not going to give actual fugure for obvious reasons, but it was near the firure quoted). Apparently when he had entered his details in the original comparison search, he had accidently entered that he had a provisional licence rather than the Full one that he had held for 1 year. The original policy has now expired and he's on his new one. The previous insurer has since contacted him to say that he owes a smaller amount (still well in excess of £1000) as they were discounting the commission and service charge. On the day his new policy started he received a letter from the previous insurer stating that the adjustment premium (i.e. the amount he owed) had been paid in full. A week later another arrives saying that they still have not received the adjustment premium which must be paid in the next 7 days. I am of the opinion that, although he accidently entered incorrect details and he requested cover for a provisional driving licence, that is the cover that his insurer quoted for and was happy to provide. He did not set out to deceive anyone and should he have had to make a claim during those 12 months (thankfully he didn't), he would not have been covered. Anyone had a similar experience or can advise where we stand from a legal point especially as he is no longer insured through the original insurer? Thanks

Hi mart

Welcome to CAG

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

Thread moved.

After you have taken out a policy, you receive policy documents including a sheet confirming the information provided on which the policy was issued. It tells you in the letter to check all the details to make sure they were correct. Your son obviously did not do this, so it is more than just a mistake with the information entered online.

Insurance is cheaper under a provisional licence as you would be driving while supervised. With a full licence and ability to drive on their own, the premium would be much more expensive.

Legally I think your son would owe the money, as the fault is with him for providing the wrong information even if it were an error. The Insurers would not have found out about this, had he not reconfirmed his licence information, but that is not the point. You could also make the argument that the contract period had ended once the renewal date was reached, so they cannot backdate any extra premium in regard to an honest mistake. This is where, you will have to take legal advice, perhaps on a legal forum. I have dealt with such situations and have made decisions not to chase for such premium or to pass for debt collection. But these days some companies are complete barstewards and if they don't get paid, they will pass onto debt collectors. The staff that deal with these debts won't get legal advice before they do this. This is why you need to get some legal help, as if you write to them stating either some case law or legislation or both, they will probably just write the money off.

I would think they would have a hard time getting judgement on this, but I am sure they will try and bully you into paying with threats etc.

I think from a risk point of view they got a good deal, they got their premium with no chance of having to pay out as incorrect details given.

which company is this ?

Thanks for the responses thus far.

This is The Green Insurance Company, sister company to Kwik-Fit Insurance. I did a search after this issue arose and found on one review site that there were 37 entries rating them an average of 1.2 stars out of 5. The main problem with them apparently is if you sell your car during the policy term at which point the cancellation fees can be horrendous. I digress.

Ah ok.

Actually we dont get a lot of complaints about Green Insurance.

Gaynor Wood usually responds to emails quite quickly.