excuse me??

The co-op (CIS) are nothing to do with eco insure or BISL

The £20 admin fees pay for the assoicated costs of having the dozens possibly hundreds of BISL staff who handle the adjustments, without the admin fee I cannot see how BISL would be able to afford to pay them along with the associated costs from the income of the circa 10% to 15% of an additional premium which can often be from zero to £50 so produce commission of circa £7 without the fee.

Most of the companies I have ever worked for need to employ as many or more staff to deal with the adjustments than they do for providing quotes.

If your bosses and / or the Insurers discovered you were promoting the arrange alternative cover and then cancelling within the 14 day grace period they would not be happy at all, it goes against the principle of utmost good faith that is expected within the industry from customers, Insurers and employees

hi, i have worked in the insurance industry for many years, and there may be a few brokers out there that cannot do this, companies like budget can do this.. if you ever have insurance on an instalment plan, on your bank statement if it shows BISL,its budget.

bigal 123:

luckily enough i dont work in the customer service dept, i deal with complaint's. thank you for your kind words, and best of luck.

al

I found your earlier post interesting that Budget can change the panel underwriter mid-term. Although this may be possible on the system that you use, does this contravene any agreement you have with the underwriter. I have worked with various panel insurance systems over the years and could not change the underwriter mid-term.

It is also interesting that you work in the complaints department. This must be one of the busiest departments at Budget, going by the comments online. I am not keen on the business model where companies appear to be very competitive at the outset, but then make lots of charges in you change the policy mid-term. Budget are not alone in this.

Huckster

luckily enough i dont work in the customer service dept, i deal with complaint's. thank you for your kind words, and best of luck.

Hi Al, I cant thank you enough for all this help, seriously...and NO I didnt find your post long-winded at all, I found it very interesting and very helpfull. (what is someone as helpfull as you doing working for someone like Budget! You are too good for them)

I,ll be calling them tomorrow, so will let you know how I get on. Thanks again :)

no worries more than happy to help. my apologies, if it seemed too long winded. :)

if you need any further help or advice, just reply on this site, even with future insurance. too me it is nothing more than a legal con the way insurers can charge honest customer's. insurers set their own rates and people like you & me get hammered with stupidly high premiums.

before you call them just ensure you know what you want. i.e bad experience with your current u/writer or chepaer insurance. probs best to go with the 1st one, as if you call them and request cheaper insurance with a different u/writer, they may not be able to get a cheaper u/writer. that ll be the end of that one.

if all else fails, ( i dont normally do this ) ill e-mail u my e-mail address and you can give me your pol number, and ill sort it for you. ill just waive shrt term rate and canx charges. but you shouldnt have any probs with customer services when requesting a rebroke, ( dont use that word "rebroke" as this is only known who works within the insurance industry.

best of luck and let me know how it goes.

al

Wow, thanks for such a detailed reply, its full of very interesting points, and I,ll re-read it again carefully before I contact Budget. I really appreciate your help, and the time youve spent giving it, and will definately act on what youve said, and get back to you.

Thanks so much!!

Kay

hi there, i have just joined the forum, and i work for budget group. huckster is correct, and the opertor who you spoke to, should never of said take out the legal protection, and theyll waive the admin fee. thats shocking and totally against FSA guidelines.

Hi

I called my bank, after checking that no DD was set up for Budget, and they told me that if Budget think they are owed money, and have my card details, they can reinstste a DD themselves. I cant believe it! Budget can have control over my own account like that?

The bank said that while its "unethical" its not illegal.

I checked my account statement online this morning, and saw that Budget have debited £22 from my account this morning. I checked my DDs and theres no set up for budget on there, so they must be just taking it from my card?

They cant even get that right though, because £22 is the monthly payment for my OLD car policy, which was cancelled.

Im not even in a position to cancel my card today as Im waiting for other things to come out of it that are important, and it would mess all that up. God Im so angry at this company. Another 20 min phone call with them seems on the card today, and yet more cost involved.

I cant even drive my new car while all this is going on, as I cant tax it with no insurance docs.

bhb1958

New policies are quite often a lot cheaper that existing policies with most companies.They buy you in cheap and hope that through inertia, you will renew the policy.

A company cannot just debit the money without your consent but to be on the safe side, you should cancel the direct debit by contacting your bank.

If you have made up your mind, when you write to complain why don't you ask them to cancel the policy from a future date, ideally the date the next payment would become due. Then arrange a policy elsewhere. The reason for putting the cancellation request in writing, is that when you phone them, they will ask for your permission to debit the outstanding premium. At which point you will get into an argument.

Beware that if you do not pay the outstanding premium, Budget may refuse to provide any proof of no claims discount. So make sure the company you choose does not require written confirmation.

Huckster

I got a "new" online quote from Budget, and it was over a 100 quid cheaper!

I then spent ages on the phone with one of their very unhelpfull (and rude) customer services folk, and tried to get him to explain why it was so much cheaper. He (again) was very hard to understand and gave me lots of jargon, and Im really non the wiser. It seems Budget give you very low initial insurance, to "catch" you, then once caught, they dont care and up the premiums. It was so frustrating trying to speak to this guy that in the end I gave up and put the phone down.

Ive been googling a lot about Budget, and they really are slated by most review centres. Apparently they are known for being bad? Wish Id known that earlier!

I also found a website,- How to complain.com or something like that, and they give you a link to complain to online, so I did that as well as writing to head office. Tomorrow Im going to call Budget again and cancel the whole policy I think...I dont trust them at all now. My concern though, is because they have my bank details, can they take money out, even if theres no DD set up? Will the bank just let them take money from my account? I will pay the cancellation fee but Im not paying anything else! Certainly not 91% of the policy!!

Is it enough to cancel by phone? Im worried that by the time a written letter of cancellation has got to them, they would have already taken money from my account.

Oh, one other thing, any other insurance Ive had before, that has been taken out online, the policy details come to me in e.mail straight away...but with Budget, when I checked online for my policy it just has my name and policy number, but no details of price, is that normal? It just says "Your Policy cannot be viewed at this time." Whats that about?

Thanks again for all your support.

Right, I,ll go get a quote on the website and see what that comes up as.

Thanks so much for your help...Im so worried about all this. Im glad I found this place.

bhb1958:

You should continue to pay until the problem is sorted out. Also don't forget if you are due to earn any no claims discount at renewal, you will not receive this, if you cancelled early.

What you could do in the meantime, is obtain a quote from the Budget Insurance online site, to see how much they would charge you as a new customer. You may find this alot cheaper that the amount they have quoted per month on your existing policy. If so, you should also complain about this and get them to lower the premium.

If you stopped paying, Budget would count any outstanding as a debt and their accounts department would start sending you threatening letters. If the amount remained unpaid, they could pass to debt collectors to chase you. Ultimately, you could end up with a default on your credit record and may even be taken to court.

In regard to Hastings Direct, I have heard of quite a few complaints about their service.

Huckster

Thanks for your reply, it was very helpfull and Ive just done what you suggested. I,ll see what the managing director does.

Im really confused about what to do, as in right now, re insurance though...I really dont want to stay with Budget just because Ive been bullied into it..and conned, I believe! I want to just cancel and not give them a penny more. Will they just take money from my bank account without me saying they can, if I cancel and refuse to pay the stupid 91% of the policy they are demanding?

At the moment they are going to be taking £41 or so every month from my account, this will make me overdrawn every single month, what with my other DD and commitments monthly. They will do that untill March 2010, when the original policy ends (and then I,ll probably have to go through all this malarky again when I want to cancel then!) and I cant realistically do it.

Ive just been given a quote by Hastings Direct (ok, its only third party but its all I can afford right now) which will only be taking out 23.00 per month, which I can afford . I really feel I want to tell budget to go jump for their money, and take up Hastings instead. Where would that leave me legally though with Budget?

Thanks in advance, I appreciate the help as Ive no-one else to ask.