Good result for you, but just imagine had you been aged or vulnerable, would they have given the same service ?

These companies are responsible for much distress.

Then they try a new approach

'employing' a talking meercat to entice new customers. Constantly hiding behind new or different names.

But we all know leopards don't change their spots.................Simple !!!!

Folks - truly sorry I never posted an update to my thread re budget started in May, we actually got it sorted out to our satisfaction surprisingly quickly.

Following my cancellation of my policy with Budget and their threat to engage a debt collection agency we wrote an official letter of complaint outlining our grievances about our treatment. This, as with all subsequent letters to Budget were sent recorded delivery.

The next day I received a voicemail asking me to contact and speak to a certain Debbie as regards my complaint. My response was to write a letter acknowledging receipt of that voicemail but stating that I would only deal with Budget by letter.

Budgets response to this was to reply offering to waive all charges apart from £25.27. Our response was to reply stating that paying the £25.27 was very much more acceptable than the initial £259.31 demanded at cancellation of policy, but would they please state what the £25.27 was for.

We also asked once again, as in our initial complaint letter, why a £15 charge is levied for non return of a signed Consumer Credit agreement within the 14 day cooling off period?

Budgets final response letter arrived a few days later. In it they waived the outstanding £25.27 which was apparently the cost of the legal protection purchased as part of my policy.

In response to the question as to the £15 levied for non return of signed consumer credit agreement - this was their response.

Quote "With regards to the CCA form, I would like to expain that we have introduced a new internal process which requires a CCA form to be sent to our customers, signed and returned each time a new policy is purchased. Each CCA form is valid only for the duration of the 12 month policy and does not cover the Subsequent year which is a new contract".

So did we get a reply to exactly what Budget are trying to achieve by administering a £15 levy for non return of a signed CCA form - no! I think we can all make our own deductions as to this practise but save to say we did not sign and return the CCA form at any point. Had we done so then I think the amount we would have finished up paying Budget would have been very different indeed to this final outcome!

Moral of the story. Don't cave in to demands, be prepared to confront and question and above all - deal with complaints by way of written word, keep copies and send all correspondence by recorded delivery. It only took 14 days from the date of posting our letter of complaint (June 2nd) to receiving Budgets final response letter dated June 16th. Clearly, they legally hadn't a leg to stand on - otherwise I'm sure they would have persued the matter further.

Regards

Iain Gallagher.

This company trade under many names, one major name being Marks and Spencer, yep they have signed another 5 year deal with M&S, they also own the insurance comparison site compare the market. Whilst they are supported and encouraged by the likes of Marks and Spencer, l think the poor service will continue. Customers find it hard to research these companies as they trade under many different names. Jack Straw is looking into the car insurance industry at the moment. Don't forget the other forums like Shameboard and Money .co.uk

Thanks Huckster,

your advice is gratefully received. I fully intend to write to BISL and complain and to the FOS as well. I had not thought of contacting the OFT though but yes I thought at the time there was something dodgy & somewhat coercive about the demand for a signed credit agreement or a fine if not received by the "due" date and it's interesting that it was due exactly at the same time as the expiration of the said cooling off period and yes - I was away; and this can be proven.

Keep an eye out - I'll update this as we go along. I think its in everyone's best interests.

Regards

Iain

Yes if you read reviews/forum posts, BISL (Budget Insurance) offers an unfriendly and unflexible service.

Make a complaint to BISL and follow it up with the FOS if you have to. They cannot conduct any debt collection, while the complaint is in progress.

I think the £15 fine for not sending back the credit agreement is a bit dodgy in terms of compliance. I cannot see either the FSA or OFT liking that. As you say, you could be away at the time of receiving the documents.

Hi - I'm new to the forum and I came to join following my experiences this time with my long standing insurer Budget Insurance Services Ltd (BISL)

It all really started just over a week ago when I returned from working away from home for a fortnight to find my annual policy documents had arrived from Budget and despite my having a record of 9 years no claims with them it was immediately obvious there had been a significant price hike this time. The premium had been increased from £364 to £450 - approaching a 25% hike.

I didn't immediately realise the significance of where I was with regards to timescale at this point. However, I did notice that I had also been asked to sign and return a credit agreement (something new this time) and that it said on this document that if it was not signed & returned within 14 days then I would be liable for a fine (lets face it - that is what it was!) of £15, which would be collected along with my next monthly payment if not returned in the said 14 days. By now, I was already starting to think - who the hell do these people think they are?

I contacted Budget the very next day (May 23rd); and for any unfortunate individual embroiled with this firm - rather than going via the 0844 route you can get straight through on 01733 845845. I started by asking the person on the other end of the line why had my premium been hiked by the amount indicated above and was told that "this had been the best quote they had been able to get for me"! I then expressed my opinion as to being fined £15 for not having returned the signed credit agreement within their due date as I had been away from home when the policy documents had arrived. I was told as long as I signed & returned it before my next monthly payment was due that they would not charge me the £15.

I still wasn't happy though. I though that the hike in premium of some £86 for the year was out of order given my claims history, so I checked on Moneysupermarket.com and Gocompare and found Budget (as I recall) on the former site. Entering my previous policy details into the new online proposal from Budget gave me a quote of a little over £300 - even by paying via instalments and certainly less than the new policy Budget had entered me in to! Ever get the feeling that you've "been had"!

The next day, despite the conversation re wavering the £15 fine, a letter arrived from Budget (dated May 23rd!) stating that Budget would still be collecting that £15 fine along with the next instalment of premium on June 8th.

At that point, I decided I wanted to cease doing business with this company. Enter the "terms & conditions" of BISL.

According to BISL, it is within their terms & conditions that if paying via instalments ie through a direct debit mandate that they will renew your annual policy unless notified otherwise. In April 2010, the company did send me a notification for renewal for the policy which indicated only a very slight increase on the previous year and this had generally been the case (ie no 25% premium hikes) in the past with this firm.

It is only now that we realise that no such notification for the current policy reached us in April of this year. The monthly premium of £30.38 in 2010/11 has risen to £37.58 in 2011/12. Had a renewal notification been sent us for this year, I would have immediately noticed the increase and would have acted at once.

And then there is the question of when the documents for the current policy were sent us by BISL. As of May 7th, when I departed home, these had not arrived - yet the documents are dated April 29th for a policy renewal on April 30th. So why did it take so long for them to reach us? Over 8 days! Because of that, it gets worse.

Under BISL's terms & conditions, there is a standard 14 day cooling off period in which you have the option to cancel your policy although no doubt not without penalty of some sort (Yep - £38 + a charge for the amount of time you have been covered!). This option was denied me by BISL because they had

A Failed to send me a renewal quotation in April and

B Despite alledgedly printing off the new policy schedule on April 29th, the documentation failed to arrive before at least May 9th which only left some five days of the cooling off period under their terms, left to run.

I did not arrive home to discover all of the above until May 21st by which time under the BISL terms & conditions, I had passed the point of no return and that "cancellation charges would be applied".

I have gone on to subsequently cancel my policy with this outfit last Sunday. Budget stipulate a scale upon which they will calculate that which is due them under their "terms & conditions". If cancelling the policy within one month of inception you will be liable for 40% of the "cost of cover paid for your car" although it is not clear exactly what they mean by this. However, they also state that if either party decides to cancel the policy then the policyholder will be liable for a "cancellation fee" of £75.

I was told that despite having paid, by the initial direct debit instalment of £37.58 for insurance cover for the month of May, the value of the cover that I had actually used equated to £62.85. All in all, during this phonecall, I was told that I would be required to pay a whopping £259.31 if I wished to cancel the policy.

So, all in all, my brief relationship of 1 months worth of insurance through Budget Insurance Services Ltd will, according to them, cost me a whopping £259.31 in cancellation charges + the £37.85 I have already paid out so - a total of £297.16!!! For 1 months-worth of motor insurance!

Am I the victim of the biggest rip off ever! I think so. Do I intend to take it lying down - NO! The direct debit mandate has been cancelled and Budget have informed me that they will merely hand the matter over to their debt collection agency to deal with. I refused to sign and return the credit agreement document so I don't know at this point if I have a get out clause in that - although it is interesting that they were so keen to coerce me in to getting that signed document in to them before the cooling off period expired. Words fail to describe adequately how I feel about this organisation or how I feel about the fact that they seem to be quite confident in their opinion that they can ride roughshod over me as consumer. It is definitely immoral and how can it possibly be that it is legal - and bearing in mind I have not to my knowledge signed any documentation with them in years - how can they possibly get away with this?

My advice to anyone now would be steer clear of Budget Insurance Services at all costs! If anyone can give me any advice on how to combat what is basically a demand for a ludicrous fine from this organisation, then I would be extremely pleased to hear from you. If anyone wants to see a copy of BISL's fees & charges then you only need to ask.

Iain Gallagher