February 2005
Can anyone suggest a course of action with the following problem that I have.
I currently own a number of cars, one of which is an old Mercedes insured on a 'classic car' policy (i.e. limited mileage, agreed value, doesn't accumulate any NCB). I have had the policy a number of years with the same specialist broker.
Anyway, I now want to 'trade up' to a different classic car. I rang the broker for a quote - which was acceptable. I then asked for the new classic car to be ADDED to my current policy (subject to an extra premium) so that both cars would be insured until the policy comes up for renewal in May. I would then claim a refund if/when I sold the older car in a month or two's time. The broker agreed this and took a credit card payment for the additional amount.
Anyway, this morning I rang the broker because there was an error on the cover note for the new car. Chatting to the girl on the 'phone and she informs me that they have *transferred* the policy and my older car is no longer covered! I explained the situation, but she wouldn't have it and told me that a transfer had been done. When I argued she said that I 'must have implied' that I wanted the policy transferred, and that the situation is irreversable.
This is bad news because I cannot now driver the old Merc to the MoT station, nor give test drives to potential purchasers. I don't want to take out a new seperate short-term policy because of the cost.
Apparently this broker does not record calls so there is no record of what was said. All in all I am very angry about the situation and their 'tough luck' attitude. No wonder insurers have such a bad image! Read more
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It seems like you've had most of it answered, but on the off-chance...
Find out the price for your new & old cars for 1 year. The additional premium will be calculated as;
current premium for new car - current premium for old car = difference
pro rata difference for amount of year remaining
plus brokers admin charge.
You should then be able to work out what he's charging you for.
It is a fact that most insurers will not accept an additional vehicle and insist on a new 12 month policy for one of the vehicles. These days many of them will not even accept a substantial overlap.
You may find that you have been charged a SOV charge but been thumped on the admin charge as opposed to an additional vehicle charge.
Who is the insurance company (not the broker) ?
And change your broker to a decent one forthwith, tell him you're doing so and why.
Also it is your right to tell your insurance company that you are transferring all your existing policies to a new agent if you prefer not to wait for renewal or prefer not to cancel/replace your existing policies.
>>Apparently this broker does not .........'tough luck' attitude....... No wonder insurers have such a bad image!
Brokers and insurers are different people/companies.
Finally, imagine if you had found this out after you had wrapped the uninsured vehicle around a bus queue. Everything in writing, always.