There are so many TV advertisements for insurance whether it be motor or household some from comparison sites and some from the insurance companies on a direct basis. What we should all be aware of is that when you insure in this manner, you are being your own self appointed insurance adviser. If it goes wrong you can only blame yourself as there is no one to sort it out for you. You are on your own.

However as another blogger has stated many independent brokers can arrange comprehensive cover at equally competitive premiums. Couple this advice with the fact that he will by law have to hold professional indemnity insurance to insure him against his liability to you if it can be proven that he has given you wrongful advice and you are dealing with someone to talk to face to face.Many companies earn more for the legal expenses policy that they do for the motor or household insurance policy. For example the NET cost for motorist legal insurance can be arranged for a premium in the region of £4 whereas the it will retail at about £20 making a nice profit of £16 or so. Household legal insurance cost NET is about £6 but retails out at about £25.

Household Emergency Insurance is a bit more expensive, NET cost is about £25 but retails out at about £12 per month sometimes even more and think how many boilers you can buy for that sort of money. The utility companies especially are laughing all the way to the bank.

No I am not an insurance broker but I used to be........ I never buy legal expenses insurance be it for motor or household and as for Home Emergency Insurance ......What do you think!

By the way, since when has Shiela's Wheels or the Post Office been an insurance company? You can check them all out on the FSA Register.

Having actually had to deal with budget regards a bogus claim made against me, I have nothing good to say whatsover about their customer services and claims teams (teaches me for buying the cheapest I guess!)

I won't go into details but suffice to say they didn't get my renewal and never will get any business from me again. That said when I WROTE to the complaints team on a seperate issue I recieved a timely response with a common sense answer - it took a few calls to get the situation resolved overall but I can't fault the girl who was dealing with the complaint, I think her name was Lucy Fogg.... (hope I'm allowed to put names....)

Hi

No it was a CU80 (stupid i know) but then they slap a £25 admin fee on just for the fun of it.

They are a bad company - KEEP AWAY

leesports:

I have just spoke to budget car insurance who have put my policy up to £800 + a year from £350 - All because I have 6 points on my licence.

They are all very rude and I will not be using that insurance company again - REALLY BAD

Let me guess, you didn't tell them when took out the policy about those points? Or you're renewing the policy an got those 6 points halfway through.

Was it an IN10 conviction by the way?

Hi

Try Adrian Flux brokers or another local broker to you, but not Swinton.

Huckster

I have just spoke to budget car insurance who have put my policy up to £800 + a year from £350 - All because I have 6 points on my licence.

They are all very rude and I will not be using that insurance company again - REALLY BAD

Hello, I’m from the customer services team at Budget Insurance and am sorry to hear you’ve not been happy with your experience with us. We’d like to see how we can help you so would be grateful if you could please email feedback @ budgetinsurance.com (remove the spaces) with your name, policy number and a contact phone number, so we can get in touch to discuss things with you. Could you also please let us know when, during office hours, would be the best time to call you?

We do value our customers' opinions and invite the opportunity to discuss any concerns or issues they may have with the service we provide. This helps us improve our service for current and future customers.

We look forward to hearing from you.

bhb1958:

: ( I didnt mean to cause an argument.

Dacouch, I dont feel there was any need to post that to Al, it was a bit uncalled for, dont you think? Al was offering me advice and help, which is, I guess, what these kind of forums are for? Surely you dont agree with people like myself being ripped off by these firms? You seem to be condoning that.

Al, thankyou again for your help. Like Huckster, I found your input very interesting. Its good to know there are people out there who are willing to go out on a limb and help people, for no gain. I appreciate it a lot.

I called Budget, but to be honest they were less than helpfull, as always. At least, I THINK they were less than helpfull...it was hard to tell as the person I spoke to had a very poor grasp of English, much much harder to understand than the last few I spoke to! I spent most of the time asking him to repeat what he'd said, and in the end I felt quite sorry for him! My first language is not English either, so I understand how difficult it can be, but surely in a situation when you are serving customers over the phone, its important to be able to communicate with them?

Anyway, the end result was not good, I was told that it wasnt possible to switch under-writers, at least not without it costing me! I know thats not true, thanks to you Al, and I said as much. (not about you, obviously, lol) I asked to speak to someone higher in authority, and was then on hold for 20 minutes waiting to speak to a supervisor. Then the line went dead :(((

Ive written now to Budget, saying Im not happy with the under-writer, and that Ive had trouble with them before, and also asked for their official complaints procedure re- the breakdown cover etc. Ive asked for those monies to be refunded. Do you think that was ok?

Al, I dont want to cause you any trouble at all, so I wont involve you in changing my policy, but I want to thankyou from the bottom of my heart for being so keen to help, I wish there were more people like you around.

I think I will go down the "official" route and see where that gets me. Im just sorry that your help caused you to be "rapped on the knuckles" for it. I,ll keep you informed on how it goes. Youve given me an insight into how these firms work, and its made me even more determined to stand up to them, so thanks again.

Kay

many thanks huckster, it is the first time i have visited a forum site like this. abit new to this. yeah its a good idea to remove it, and to be honest its no longer a e-mail i use anymore.

thanks again

Al

You are not allowed by the moderators to add your email address to the text of posts. But what you can do is add the email address to your profile.

What you have to do while you are logged on is. Click on News & Community tab at the top of this page. Then on the right hand side of the N&C page if you click on edit community profile, you will see how you can add the email address.

Then if Kay wants to take up your offer, all they would need to do, is click on bigal123 in your post and they would be able to see your email address.

But I would suggest you remove the address after say a week, as otherwise you might start to get complaints from many other posters.

Huckster

thank you my friend, it does a nice ring to it, budget could change their name to ryanair insurance services.

nothing more than a CON.

sorry kay do u mean refund for rac breakdown cover? if you do they will not, as they state its none refundable.

: ( I didnt mean to cause an argument.

Dacouch, I dont feel there was any need to post that to Al, it was a bit uncalled for, dont you think? Al was offering me advice and help, which is, I guess, what these kind of forums are for? Surely you dont agree with people like myself being ripped off by these firms? You seem to be condoning that.

Al, thankyou again for your help. Like Huckster, I found your input very interesting. Its good to know there are people out there who are willing to go out on a limb and help people, for no gain. I appreciate it a lot.

I called Budget, but to be honest they were less than helpfull, as always. At least, I THINK they were less than helpfull...it was hard to tell as the person I spoke to had a very poor grasp of English, much much harder to understand than the last few I spoke to! I spent most of the time asking him to repeat what he'd said, and in the end I felt quite sorry for him! My first language is not English either, so I understand how difficult it can be, but surely in a situation when you are serving customers over the phone, its important to be able to communicate with them?

Anyway, the end result was not good, I was told that it wasnt possible to switch under-writers, at least not without it costing me! I know thats not true, thanks to you Al, and I said as much. (not about you, obviously, lol) I asked to speak to someone higher in authority, and was then on hold for 20 minutes waiting to speak to a supervisor. Then the line went dead :(((

Ive written now to Budget, saying Im not happy with the under-writer, and that Ive had trouble with them before, and also asked for their official complaints procedure re- the breakdown cover etc. Ive asked for those monies to be refunded. Do you think that was ok?

Al, I dont want to cause you any trouble at all, so I wont involve you in changing my policy, but I want to thankyou from the bottom of my heart for being so keen to help, I wish there were more people like you around.

I think I will go down the "official" route and see where that gets me. Im just sorry that your help caused you to be "rapped on the knuckles" for it. I,ll keep you informed on how it goes. Youve given me an insight into how these firms work, and its made me even more determined to stand up to them, so thanks again.

Kay

bigal 123:

i have come on this site, and replied to kay's post as she needed help and advice, which i have provided.

Al

I have certainly found your input into Kays problem very helpful.

I think others working in the industry just do not like BISL for undercutting the market, by having all these additional costs for any mid term changes. I suppose they are a bit like the Ryanair of the insurance industry.

Huckster