Beware Churchill Insurance

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Alasdair said

The other tacky thing they do is debit the card immediately you phone them, rather than when the old policy expires. Typically they get the money anything up to a month sooner than they are due it that way.

Had the same with Direct Line - formal complaint resulted in a letter from them confirming that they would not debit my credit card without my explicit written permission.

I would recommend that you get this in writing from them so that there is no scope for disagreement when they debit your card (blaming it on the computer system) in 12 months time

Had an even better one from Sun Alliance (that was) - having paid my mothers motor insurance they debited my credit card 12 months later not withstanding my mother had given them her debit card details.

Barclaycard had the cheek to say that I had given a continuing authority and consequently would not play ball. Fortunately for me I used to work for Barclays and having set the Head of Customer Services on them they backed down pretty quickly.

Even then a refund was not smooth - Sun Alliance refunded to another persons credit card and then when I rang up to query told me their credit card numbers.

It seems that if you fall into the standard category your are alright. Any thing slightly out of the ordinary that cannot be scripted then god help you.

Alan

Doesn't always help - see

No surprise as Direct Line, Churchill and Privilege are all owned by the same company.

This, as far as I can see, is total bunkum and scare tactics on the part of the CIS. If CIS has sent out Certificates of Insurance to the motorists concerned, then the motorists are covered. They are not breaking the law. Yes, they may well owe the CIS the renewal premium but that is a totally separate issue.

I'm surprised that the BBC endorsed what CIS said without carrying out an investigation.

That's what I thought when listening to "Moneybox". But the CIS spokesman was pretty adamant that, although those affected were "probably" covered for RTA purposes and third-party claims they wouldn't have paid out for fire&theft or fully comp claims.

I thought this statement was outrageous; "But he (CIS spokesman) warned: "You could argue they were committing a technical offence of driving without insurance."

I dont see how, they have been sent confirmation of insurance by CIS. the fact that CIS screwed up and didnt charge people is irrelevant up until the point that they (a) notify people of this, and almost certainly (b) give them reasonable time to pay (they may be away or otherwise unaware of this 'problem').

The actual problem is that CIS have insured 2,000 people but forgot to charge them! Saying they aren't insured is a joke, and though IANAL I cant see how they'd be able to make a case in court, otherwise any company could renege on its agreements unilaterally by just screwing up its IT.

Neil

For extra fun when you give your cc number on the phone, ask if the call is being recorded and say "It's $FOO o'clock on the $BARth day of $BAZ, and I, Alasdair Bobbaxter am explicity NOT granting a continuous authority on card 1234..., but authorising a single transaction"

rgds, Alan

CIS spokesman speaks with forked toungue.

Offer; Acceptance; Consideration. Meeting of minds.

I had an amusing one once where rather than send me a renewal quote an insco once sent me a new cert of insurance and told me that I had to pay them or send it back or I'd be breaking the law. I told them that *my* policy was that unsolicited goods could be collected from my house from

rgds, Alan

This is what the BBC always do.

When the Royal Mail were touting 'pricing in proportion' they gave the BBC some figures to print showing the cost of sending a standard letter in most EU countries was three times the price in the UK.

The Beeb just printed it without checking, they removed it in 15 minutes when I mailed them to tell them it was rubbish.

IMHO you have to be an idiot to believe that the cost of locally sending a 10 gram letter costs a pound, but they did.

tim