Car Insurance Nightmare - Churchill

[VFellows]

I would be so grateful if anyone could offer any advice that would help resolve this problem.

 

In 2009, I bought a Dodge Caliber (Group 19 insurance) and when my insurance was due for renewal my insurance broker could not come up with a competitive quote so I ran a comparison site query. Churchill Insurance were the best quote that I came up with so I insured my vehicle with them. My previous insurers duly supplied them with proof of my NCB and all went great. In January of this year I received a reminder about renewing my insurance which did not include my years of protected NCB, and had to call the company to confirm details and renew my policy which I did. In March of this year I returned to my car to find that someone had backed into it causing considerable damage and then just driven off. In accordance with my insurance policy, I filled out a Police report and notified my Insurance company who organised for the repairs to be carried out (Fully Comp). What I did not realise and did not find out until last week was that Churchill did not make any attempt to contact the Police force concerned regarding the accident and that they instead just lodged a "Fault" claim against me because they had no-one else to reclaim their losses from. I did not lose my NCB (9+ years) as I had it protected.

 

I have since moved house and sold my car, replacing the Group 19 vehicle with a Group 6 vehicle and on attempting to change the car over on my policy was informed that because I had moved to another postcode, I was going to have to pay a further £250 in premiums for the year, because "the new area was more likely to result in vehicle damage/theft". I complained that making a statement like that was totally discriminatory and informed Churchill that I would be sourcing other insurance quotes which I did and purchased a totally new policy for my new vehicle from Octagon insurance and cancelled my insurance policy with Churchill. On cancellation of my policy I lost 6 months of prepaid insurance premiums, because of the "Fault" claim. I was never informed that this was being lodged against me or that they could not be bothered to investigate/follow up the police accident report.

 

Octagon asked for Proof of NCB which I requested from Churchill on cancellation and in writing when I returned my Policy documents. I have since been lied to on several occasions by representatives of Churchill who have refused to email a copy of my NCB to me, and have supposedly mailed the Proof of NCB to me on August 10th and since then as well. I have not received either mailing. Octagon will not contact Churchill and Churchill will not contact Octagon. Result - my current insurance policy is being cancelled by Octagon and I am now left with a vehicle which I have to re-insure and still fight to obtain proof of NCB from Churchill

 

Why would they do this? Can they withhold my NCB like this and lie to me about posting it. Can I claim compensation for loss of money and the possible future impact on my insurability that will be caused by having my current insurers cancel my policy due to Churchill's obstructive behaviour?

[unclebulgaria67]

I think the RBS Insurance companies are going down hill fast. Seen loads of complaints about them. They are due to be sold off by 2013, so perhaps the staff are not that bothered providing a customer service. Also perhaps RBS are not investing in IT, as they have been loss making for a few years, only just returning to profit recently.

 

Phone Churchill and kick up a stink. Ask to speak to Customer Relations/Complaints and detail the problems you have had. Yes I think they owe you compensation for any costs you have incurred as a result of their poor service. Threaten to report this to the FSA.

 

The only basis that Churchill can withold the NCD proof is if you have outstanding payments owing to them. If this is not the case, there is no reason someone can't spend 5 minutes printing off a letter confirming the NCD proof and sending/faxing as necessary.

[VFellows]

To the best of my knowledge I don't owe Churchill anything. They have never mentioned or invoiced me for any costs to do with my claim (I paid the excess directly from my bank account on collection of my vehicle following repair), nor have I been invoiced for anything else by them.

 

I have in the past 2 weeks made about 6 phonecalls to Churchill each in excess of 20 minutes duration (to 0845 numbers) and have been kept waiting for approximately 10 minutes on each occasion before getting through to totally unhelpful customer service personnel and claims department personnel. I have also contact the Insurance ombudsman (FOS?) who were totally unhelpful and insisted that Churchill had 8 weeks to respond before they would become involved. That unfortunately did not help me, nor could they suggest anyone who could help mediate and assist.