Tesco Car Insurance: Unjust Cancellation Without Warning

[Cumulonimbus]

Dear all,

 

I am looking for any others that have experienced similar issues with Tesco car insurance, and/or missing communications from them on a wider basis. If anyone has any insight or advice, I would be very glad of that too. I present my nightmarish experience below:

 

 

Three months ago, I chose Tesco car insurance for renewal due to their good price and well known brand. This was a month ahead of the current policy expiry to ensure a good deal, and to ensure ample time for policy documents to arrive before the new policy began.

 

Approximately one week later, I received the Tesco policy documents by post (with the letter dated the same day that I bought the policy). This was paid for annually in advance, and all was in order aside from a request for a proof of no claims discount (NCD). This was obtained from the current insurer and sent on to them in their own pre-paid addressed envelope, within good time and before the policy commenced.

 

I heard nothing more from Tesco until last Thursday 24th October, when a letter dated 17th October arrived stating that they had cancelled the car insurance policy on the 17th October. This was apparently due to them not receiving proof of the NCD, a fact they had completely failed to tell me. The letter of the 17th October states that one warning letter had been sent 14 days prior to that date, and I have yet to see any sign of it.

 

According to Tesco, they had actually sent between 2 and 4 warning letters (none of which arrived nor has any trace outside of Tesco) between the start of the policy and the final notification of cancellation. I refer to between 2 and 4 letters, as each individual spoken to has stated a different number, about which they are adamant. And yes, that letter of cancellation definitely only mentions one.

 

Now this leaves me with two major issues:

1.) I was unaware that the car was uninsured for seven days after they cancelled the policy. I take this very seriously indeed, as aside from risk of damage/theft I could have been caught unwittingly breaking the law.

2.) I now have to tick the "I have had car insurance cancelled." box in all future insurance forms. And yet I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and I have done everything that I should have done. A quick test on Confused.com suggests an increase in premium of 70%!

 

 

Tesco has just completed its initial 24 hour investigation, from which they have concluded that x number of letters have definitely be sent out, and that they have no record of receiving the NCD proof from me. This leaves me in an arduous situation, as having used their postage paid envelope for sending the NCD, I have no proof of postage. In addition, I can hardly produce concrete proof that their letters have not arrived (not that they seem interested in this anyway).

 

I also immediately obtained a new proof of NCD from the old insurer by e-mail (a hard copy is following by post), and forwarded this directly to a customer services manager at Tesco. They have accepted this as proof of NCB, but they refuse to reinstate the original policy, nor repeal the cancellation, leaving me firmly stuck with major issue number 2 above.

 

A more formal complaints investigation is now underway, but I clearly need to gather as much advice and support has possible.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Cumulonimbus

[unclebulgaria67]

Just go somewhere else. You don't need to disclose the cancellation because it is not down to an issue of bad faith or any issue that would affect any other Insurers. Insurers ask the question in a basic straightforward way e.g have you ever had a policy cancelled, so they will be told about every situation of a cancellation. When in fact they really only want to know about situations where Insurers have cancelled due to an issue of non disclosure, fraud, too many claims or some issue of bad faith. They are not interested in cancellations due to payment issues or NCD proof not being received. So you should not worry about this.

 

If you supply the previous NCD proof to another Insurers of your choice you should not have any problems. If you are worried about the cancellation, then go via a local Insurance Brokers.

 

As for Tesco Insurers, they are the same as many companies. There is a problem with them receiving NCD proof and customers receiving letters. The reason these companies struggle with NCD proof is that they receive thouands of post items every day and these are not scanned. They just end up in huge piles and are eventually worked through. It is not unusual for Insurers to not process the NCD received. With regard to letters, these are produced in many thousands every day, with them being printed off in a large print room. There is no quality checking process to say that the letters were actually printed off and posted.

 

You could continue with your complaint with Tesco, but I think they have a poor reputation for complaint handling.

 

I would go elsewhere as advised at the front of this post and not worry about the Tesco c*ck up cancellation affecting you.

[manofmystery]

I would say the same as above, unfortunately they do not actually need a reason to cancel the policy.

[Cumulonimbus]

Thank you both for your advice.

[tescocardisgrace]

Had some good news from the ombudsman.

 

Tesco have been told to:

 

give me a letter of indemnity stating that I should have been fully insured,

the impound fee paid,

all cancelations removed

and £500 compensation.

 

Tesco are a complete sham of an insurance company,

 

they even fought this all the way but the ombudsman made their final decision.

 

Its a shame for a lot of other drivers have just accepted Tesco failings

and not fought their case as I've seen a lot on various forums.

 

Thanks for your help.