Ref morethan car insurance.....

This was a no fault claim

Accident happened in November 2008. Vehicle was written off imediately ( although we did not get a courtesy car, but thats another story) after months and months of phone calls ( India) we finally had the claim closed and got my excess back ( after chasing, but thats another story!!)

Now, this week we get the renewal, and guess what, we have lost all our no claims. I rang the lady up at morethan ( took her 40 mins , on hold) and she told me that because they have not had their money from the other insurance company yet, we have lost our 4 years no claims discount, and it says no fault claim on the letter. So our premium has gone up £250 and also the APR has gone up from 16% to 21% with out them even telling us!!!

I bet if i asked to cancel the insurance they will charge me admin charges (£50) and charge me for a no claims letter.

I will never recomend morethan insurance to anyone. Absolutely a 12 month nightmare and still ongoing.

Just a note, when i was asked to do a survey at the end of the phone call they said it would take 10 minutes so i said yes. I answered the first question with a "poor" then the line went dead. I dont think they wanted to listen to my feelings.

Hi

I have heard that MoreThan have gone down hill and I would not recommend them.

For a fault or non fault claim which has not been settled, you should only lose 2 years discount. It is standard in the Insurance market for 2 years to be lost per claim.

Once they receive their money back from the 3rd party insurers, they should reinstate your discount and reduce the premium.

In your position I would make a formal complaint and if they do not come back with a satisfactory response, make a complaint to the financial ombudsman service(FOS). If you end up making a complaint to the FOS, Morethan will be charged a fee of £450, even if your complaint is rejected. So it worth making the complaint as an act of revenge.

Huckster

huckster..you say..

For a fault or non fault claim which has not been settled, you should only lose 2 years discount. It is standard in the Insurance market for 2 years to be lost per claim.

if your information is correct i have another case..on gateway so slow do nothing car insurance

as if you look at my first post you will see that gateway took our no claims down by well over what you are saying

im still learning i hope your info is to my benefit

sorry for jumping in on your post bluetoff1961 ..good luck i hope your not with swintons gateway.

AAS

All the policies I have ever dealt with, advance a year at a time in terms of discount earned and then if you claim, you lose 2 years.

This has been the standard way for years.

Huckster

do you work for swintons gateway ..

one wonders about that phone call now ....

angry at swinton:do you work for swintons gateway ..

I would not set my standards that low.

I have known some people that have worked for Swintons. It is not recommended. All they care about is selling, with little regard to customer service.

I think the problems you have experienced should be exposed. You should provide some feedback to the Association of British Insurers and make a complaint to the FOS requesting some compensation. If you complain to the FOS, Swintons/Gateway or their parent company will get charged a fee of £450 and it will cost you nothing. So it is always worth complaining to the FOS even if your complaint is rejected i.e. revenge. Also it would count against their complaint statistics with the FOS.

Stay angry but also widen your attack on them, by writing to the ABI, FSA and to the newspapers. The Daily Mail financial page help given by Tony Hetherington is worthwhile.

Huckster

Angry at swinton, that was a nasty slur...surely if you have read Hucksters many posts that they are helpful and informative. He actually knows what he is talking about and thus is not a Swintons employee

Dacouch

I think that angry at swinton is getting to the end of their tether. I don't blame them. Tired and emotional as I would be, with the appaling service they have provided. Did I use the word service.

Have you noticed that Swinton appear to advertise for replacement staff on a regular basis. I don't think they work for them long enough to gain any experience.

Huckster

I know what you mean about Swintons staff, we took on a branch manager who unusually knew motor Insurance inside out and was very good. He told us lots of tales of their operations which were eye openers. The main point was that it was totally about hitting various targets at all costs targets and making as much money as possible. I'm all for making money but some of the stories amazed me. I think the high pressure means they have quite a high turnover of staff.

One of the things I had to retrain out of him was quoting everyone with MMA for home insurance and selling on price alone. He quoted every single customer who had the right security on home insurance with a security discount. I went over how the security discount could be onnerous and went through a load of his cases with him. As the majority were with MMA and in a low rated area the discount he was giving was generally about £2 and in a few cases it was minimum premium so they actually received no discount for having a security discount! I explained that if you give the client the option of the discount and explained the repurcussions if they took it and the locks were not used that the majority of people will not want the security discount and will be pleased you took the time to explain it.

I had a great example for him just after I showed him as one of my big commercial clients had a big break in and I had rebroked him as I was not happy that someone had put him on the cheapest possible policy and put a security discount on the policy. He had a claim for circa £10000 and had not set his alarm. If he had stayed on the previous policy the claim would not have been paid and we would almost certainly loss a client who paid us £30k+ a year. The client was very pleased with the advice I had given him when he saw first hand the result of it and it has helped cement the client customer relationship.

Once I had showed him that a typical broker customer does not always want the cheapest policy but generally wants a combination or price and good cover. He was amazed when he started offering clients the cheapest and then a policy he would personally recommend that was a little bit more expensive. He was much happier selling a policy he was confident in, the other bonuses were commission for us on a higher premium, a happier customer and less problems / work when a claim happened.

I hate selling on price alone and find most customers appreciate using your experience to recommend something that is more suitable for them especially if they have already had their fingers burnt as angry at swintons is probably doing now. The industry is going through a transition period with the advent of the FSA and also the implications of the internet eg people tending to buy on price alone. Hopefully it will settle down again and people will start weighing up price and cover / service

huckster please except my apology for my past comment ..i should have known better than to think you work for the useless people. has you actually took time to advice me and thats something i have had nothing at all from of the useless people ...

AAS

I did not take offence. Your post was late in the evening.

If I were you, I would complain to the FOS to stitch Swintons up with a case fee of £450. It would serve them right.

Huckster