Thanks I'll do that. Not sure why but in the last few months I seem to spend all my time sorting out problems caused by other people who don't apear to be that helpful. Still mustn't let them grind us down.

Thanks I think I'll be doing that. I would say that the increase in premiums are a direct result of the accident and in fact Bell have confirmed this. I will get back to them and see what they have to say first. I was just thinking why couldn't Albany tell me this in all this time since you've done it in about 15 minutes?

In April 2009 my daughter was driving my car as a named driver when she was hit from behind at a roundabout. The tp's insurers admitted fault and the car was repaired. I am with Bell and they use Albany Assistance for uninsured losses and I sent them the receipt for the £250 excess. At about this time my daughter's insurance became due and it turned out Bell was cheapest but the accident raised the premium by about £50. Apparently if you have a no fault accident you are more likely to have a fault one. Sounds a bit odd to me and I would doubt if the difference was statistically significant and certainly not warranting an extra £50. We did get this down a bit through a multi car policy although I'm not really happy about this as I may be moving abroad so I'll be selling my car. When I sent the receipt I mentioned the increased premiums and asked for their advice on what evidence was needed but when I got the cheque for the £250 they didn't mention it. Albany have a web address you can go onto and log in to check on your claim and there is an option to email them which I did and got an automated reply saying it would be dealt with. Nothing happened so I emailed again with the same result. I then found another email address for claims and tried that but still no reply. In the end I sent a letter recorded delivery and got a reply from the customer services manager who didn't supply their name (don't think I would either). This is part of their reply:- "Please note we unfortunately are unable to claim back your increased monthly premiums as this is an issue your insurers need to deal with once the claim has been settled." There was no mention of the failure to reply to my emails. So much for customer service. In the end I contacted Bell and they agreed that there was nothing they could do about the premiums but I eventually spoke to someone in customer services who said that the way this had been handled by Albany was not good enough and they would contact them. I then received the letter I have shown below dated 14th January 2010:- "I am writing in response to your recent email to us regarding an increase in your insurance premiums. I have spoken to your insurers today and requested that they call you to discuss this as we only deal with you losses such as excess. Please accept my apologies that you have not been contacted previously regarding this, however we have been referring this back to your insurer as anything to do with your premiums needs to be addressed with them." By the way my most recent email was 3rd October 2009 so hardly recent. Does anyone know if this issue of increased premiums is an uninsured loss as Bell seem to think it is and I wouldn't trust anything Albany say as they seem to know less about insurance than I do and nothing about customer service. I will probably end up cancelling my insurance and that of my daughter and paying extra to go to anyone who doesn't use Albany.

Only just seen this so a bit late and I'm no expert. The tp's case could be damaged by the fact he has already lied about the hit and run as proved by the police. Having already proved that your brother has not committed an offence by leaving the scene of an accident then he has little to gain whichever version of events is true so why would he lie. The tp however clearly stands to gain financially. In the case of a crime always look for who has motive.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the delay in replying. The amount of money isn't a problem but I will certainly be complaining that they failed to mention this for 4 years even though I specifically asked more than once if my view that the dates were wrong was in fact correct. In fact it was only one of the girls on the phone who thought this might be the case based on a similar situation with her father. Actually their customer service team was supposed to contact me but when they phoned my mobile it was always when I was at work or driving and they only let it ring twice. I did phone them on that number but just got some guy who said he was just answering the phone as they were not there. I can take calls at work but not everyone can and they only work normal hours.

On 19th August 2005 my wife who suffered from multiple sclerosis was taken to hospital after losing conciousness and died on the 23 of the month.at the time she was on Disability Living Allowance and I received Carers Allowance and Income Support. After her death I sent off the form I was given to notify the various benefit departments. I got a letter to repay some of her DLA which I did. I think it was in February 2006 I was told that a deduction was being made on my benefit at the time, I think it might have been Jobseekers. I assumed it had something to do with that but I was told it was IS overpayment and a letter had been sent the previos November. I asked for a copy of this but they didn't have one so sent a screen shot from their computer. I noticed that the IS was reduced from 19th when my wife entered hospital not 23rd when she died. I spent 4 years trying to sort this out until late last year when I gave up. It was only about £20. I never received notification of the results of the review and appeal and in fact the main communication was just warnings to pay. Towards the end I was told that when IS is reclaimed it is done from the beginning of the benefit week (19th August in this case) and not the date the entitlement changes. Does anyone know if this is right? If it isn't I will try complaining again just out of principle. Many thanks.