Not exactly do it yourself but I just wondered if anyone else has had this experience or if its just me.
I bought a new car yesterday ( that is I ordered it two weeks ago and yesterday I collected it). Its a Mazda 2 ( 1.5 engine). I got lots of extras as part of the deal ( for free as they say) from Mazda, including insurance for a week to enable me to bring the car home without them having to mess with my insurance sending out cover notes for them to tax it.
Anyway, I sold my old car part exchange . I got the new one home and rang up yesterday afternoon to change the insurance and the bloke at the call centre ( direct line by the way) told me off for daring to buy a new car without getting their permission first. I was just shocked and quite upset at being told I wasn't allowed to buy a new car without getting their approval first.
Has anyone else had this or did I just get a weird call centre guy? My OH thinks its funny but its upset me and spoilt having a new car for me. Thanks.
You got a weird call centre guy. I'd ask to speak to his supervisor. He has no right at all to do that. In fact, I'd be tempted to cancel and go somewhere else.
I've moved away from DL for motor and home insurance as a result of offhand attitudes, unwillingness to negotiate on price, long delays on their phone lines etc. Churchill seem much better and handled a recent claim superbly. Seems crazy that they have the same parent company as DL! I also use Direct Line for Business, a differetn arm of the same company and they are efficient, courteous and very reasonable with lower than inflation price increases for property insurance on a house I rent out.
Just to be charitable, maybe the call centre guy missed the way that you told him that the dealer had the car insured for a week, and was under the impression that you'd driven it home without insurance, as they weren't told to provide cover?
Sadly as with many other walks of life there are many people in call centres who are under trained, badly trained or simply believe they know more than they do.
One of my favourites was being told it was illegal to cover more than 1 car on an insurance policy.
Then having FCII, Chartered Insurer behind my name I enquired whether his employers issued separate policies for every vehicle in fleets of
I *was* with DL for 2 cars and home insurance, more or less from when they started out. Then a couple of years ago, in the middle of a recession, they tried to put up the home premium by 40%. And I've never claimed on it. Getting a quote for the house on their website resulted in one about a quarter of that renewal premium. Phone calls and even writing to them failed to get a resolution, so I changed to another company.
I really can't understand this drive for new customers while p***ing off existing good ones.
Tell him to f*ck off, theres plenty of competition in this area.
YOU are their customer and as much as they might not like it you are paying them and an oik like that needs to be removed from their call centre. If anyone did that to me they'd be history now. Fortunately our brokers are all rather helpful and polite and are as well priced as online and we've been with them for some 20 odd years now:)...
As above theres plenty more insurance fish in the sea. If you need a good broker 01480 393939 .. Four counties at St Ives Cambs...
Yes, so were we. In fact we ( my OH and me) started with them back in 1985.
Then a couple of years ago, in the middle of a recession,
Yes, they seem to have done that to us as well but I had so many things on it seemed easier to just allow it to renew. They have also done some strange things like , without asking add green flag cover and a courtesy car and upped the excess we would pay.
being remiss I didnt see any of this until I got told off for not telling them and told I should look at the details. The thing was, they sent me a renewal notice and said, if you are ahppy with this then you dont have to do anything it will automatically renew. Inertia gets me and I dont act. But its sneaky to change the cover when they say that they are sending a re newal surely? I expected it to be the same as I took out originally.
I saw this especially yesterday because Mazda have also given me 3 years RAC cover including Europe Assist - so the full works and I wanted to remove green flag ( which I hadnt known about anyway and had Britannia Rescue myself for me and OH's car) but they told me I could not do that.
So I ended up paying an extra 16pounds admin fee to just change the car over.
They are not cheap. Even with discount ( so called ) for two cars, they are dearer than others now.
I got a quote of AXA ( can anyone say what they are like? ) for £161 like for like minus green falg and stuff. Direct line even online and pretending I am a new customer want to charge me £206 . Do they still belong to RBS? I asked RBS to quote and they offerred a so called discount for me having home insurance with them. That was £206 too. I was charged £291 for my old car and I am still paying an extra £16 admin to change to a cheaper car.
he told me I could cancel it if I wanted but I wouldnt be able to get a refund on the two months I have to run until the end of the Renault cover.
All this shoocl me because when I changed car last time ( 3 years ago - a new car then too) they made adjustments to the old policy to account for a lower premium on the new car and I dodnt have to pay any admin fee for asking them to swap it. I am a captive customer effectively at the moment. I cant move without losing money and if I want the car insured ( and husband to drive) I have to pay the fee.
And I've never claimed on it.
No , neither have I. Sorry to go on so much. I am just so upset.
This certainly was the case when changing companies took a bit of effort. But making it easy to get new customers via the web means it's also easy to change.
Never heard anything like it. You will get an invitation from the 6 day insurers to continue the cover. Take them up on it unless they are daft money. Tell DL to go stuff themselves and make sure they know why and the time of your conversation. They might as well make use of the recordings they make for real training purposes. Or sackings.
Well I am thinking of giving direct line the boot. I have a quote from Tesco of all people for £185 for better cover. I haven't been offered anything more permanent from Mazda though ( at least not yet, the insurance they gave me is up Friday) . The trouble is I have paid the £16 to swap over yesterday and I suspect if I try to cancel now they will swipe me with a cancellation fee too.
Is it possible to just let it run ( its until May and I pay yearly, so its not a monthly out of my account) and take a new insurance out? Or is that illegal?
If you have an annual contract your insurers may charge if you cancel it early. IF it is your first year with that company they will charge you short term rates.
You appear to have transferred your existing annual policy to your your new car. If your annual policy expires in May you are free to renew with your existing insurer or insure with anyone else at that stage.
If you arrange a new policy now and leave your old one running that could cause problems in the event of a claim. Both policies might exclude cover where there was other insurance in force and the companies would have to come to some agreement as to which would handle it and who would pay what. Proof of NCD entitlement might also be a problem.
In my experience, with a good no claims record, changing every year saves me around £200/£300 on the renewal quotes (Car/House/Buildings). Inertia can be the expensive option.
That sounds exactly right to me; ie he wrongly thought the OP had assumed her cover would just transfer over to the new vehicle.
To the OP: I strongly recommend reading Martin Lewis at
and following his guide - you can definitely save a lot that way. And one good thing about these sites like Gocompare etc, where you have to enter all your details to get a quote from dozens of companies (yawn) - you can save your details and go back next year for another quote - dead quick.
Oh, and take note of what he says about using Cashback sites too.
I would if I could have given him the benefit of that doubt but he clearly understood that I had got an insurance for the new car.
It wasnt the only thing he said. There were several things that got to me including being treated as if I was either a mad drunk or a drug addict as he warned me about invalidating my insurance if I did those things ( very sternl;y) Excuse me but a fifty odd years old I am well past that. besides in my little neck of the woods drugs was something only done by the arty and stupid in my day. The rest of us couldnt afford it if we had known where to go anyway. Same for drink. My mother would have killed me when young. Besides its on record that we are t- total in this house. I just felt demeaned to be honest. Told off for getting a new car .... for drinking when I dont, for being a druggie when I am not . I have never claimed, had any convictions or have so much as a black mark against me.
Thats why I am looking to get shot of them now. I have been loyal to them. I tought it counted for something. Now I realise it doesnt. I have no paperwork to tell me anything about how much they charge to change cars, to cancel a ploicy or anything else. I dont even know what no claims they give me. I have been with them for 20 odd years.
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