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Alex C.

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About Alex C.

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  • Birthday 14/08/1987

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    Portsmouth
  1. Not quite, although its an annual contract, the FOS takes the stance that premiums should be refunded on a pro-rata basis, subject to a cancellation fee. See this article here. Obviously there is no premium due here as it is monthly payments but they shouldn't be trying to charge for the full year. Breakdown assistance, legal expenses and any other 'addon' products can be charged at annual rates though with no refund due. They've not published guidance on an acceptable cancellation fee but £50 is often quoted as being reasonable.
  2. My info is at least 18 months out of date - things may well have moved on. Nice to see it's free to move home now There may be a charge for a new phone line still - when I was there this was £39 for new customers and £125 for existing customers, but the only way to find that out is to call them (and don't expect the broadband to be switched on particularly quickly in the new property!)
  3. It completely depends on the offers they have on - when I was there a Tuesday was the best day to call as that was the last day of cancellations 'week' so they were always pushing for targets. Likewise, at the end of each quarter (so March, June, September and December) they were always keen to increase or maintain the number of HD subscribers, number of premium subscribers etc. The first offer they're likely to give you is either half price or free installation when moving home (and this usually won't include a phone line). You would definitely be better coming in as a new customer. Virgin are running some incredible offers at the moment, we took out a package for £35/month the other day which included phone line rental, 30mb broadband, xl TV, v+ box and second STB - Sky couldn't even come close to price matching.
  4. Complain, insurers have a duty to treat customers fairly - I work for an insurer and usually get at least one 'lost glasses' call a week - technically we have a clause requiring reporting to the police within 24 hours, but I can't remember anyone ever having done that. We just ignore it the time limit and ask them to call up and report it after speaking to us. Most of these time exclusions are ignored so as to treat the customer fairly (ie if someone calls up 6 months after something has happened, we still deal with the claim, we never repudiate 'because it's been too long' even though the policy states everything has to be reported as soon as possible) I can't see how it makes any difference, it's not as if a crime has been committed, so the police aren't going to investigate. The time delay doesn't alter anything materially. Unfortunately, some of the cheaper insurers do try and wriggle out of claims, but most reputable insurers are actually there to deal with claims fairly. Uptowngirl, if you have a particular policy you were thinking of getting, let us know and someone might be able to give you a bit more detail. edit: I see you say your broker declined the claim - did you speak to the insurers? might be worth giving them a call.
  5. Protected no claims discount is exactly that, it guarantees you'll receive x% off the base premium as a discount for being claim free. It does not guarantee that the premium will not be adjusted at renewal to account for the claim made.
  6. They'll usually be able to give you cash towards paying off your contract, sometimes it can be quite a substantial sum.
  7. I think a lot of people just thought they made them up. It actually adds to their credibility since all those times they had a story citing "a source close to..." and I thought they were making it up, it was probably actually their voicemail.
  8. Police have instant access to the motor insurance database which contains 'live' (or as close as possible) records of insurance policies which can be matched to a vehicle registration. In addition, it is now an offence to have a car which is not SORN'd be uninsured, even if it is on private property, and this can be easily cross-referenced. I'm not sure what benefit there would be in informing the police when a policy is cancelled.
  9. That's very unusual, household insurers don't usually take travel insurance claims into consideration (for example, if you get a quote on confused.com, they ask you specifically if you've made any buildings or contents claims in the past). I know the database for travel insurance claims is only in the proposal stage, and is likely to stay that way for some time, so I haven't got any idea how they could find out about a travel claim that had been made, unless there was an internal connection between the household insurer and the travel insurer.
  10. Travel insurers don't currently share details of claims, household and motor insurers do via CUE. It's a not a state secret at all, and all proposal forms / terms & conditions will refer to insurers sharing information.
  11. Some insurers do automatic renewal, some don't so that alone isn't an indicator that there's something odd about the OP.
  12. More and more insurers are taking non-fault claims into consideration. If someone crashes into you even if you're not in the car at the time, by making a claim for damage or even just reporting the incident - which you are bound, by terms and conditions to do could see your premium rise.
  13. Yep that's the way to do it, to my knowledge it's the last hovercraft in operation in the UK, definitely an experience if you've not been on one before.
  14. Admiral are still making a profit, they are one of (again, from memory) three UK motor insurers to make underwriting profits, the vast majority are losing out on every £ of premium they write.
  15. Not the police but the insurance companies make a fortune in referral fees, referring those involved in accidents on to claim management companies. Unfortunately, it's a viscious circle, any insurer which didn't accept these referral fees would immediately be at a competetive disadvantage. Most motor insurers are still making a loss (and theft is a very small part of settlements, the vast majority of costs in motor insurance come from third party claims - credit hire and personal injury) on their underwriting - from memory, the only ones who are making an underwriting profit are Admiral, Sabre and Chartis - but I could be wrong. The insurer I work for raised motor rates by about 30% on average (but about 50% for young drivers) in 2010, and are anticipating a similar rise this year.
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