Insurance being cancelled due to too many changes when I made the quote?

[Plexman]

Hi all,

I've just had the following from esure:

This policy was accepted to commence on xx.06.2023. We noticed that whilst inputting your quote details several changes were made resulting in a different price becoming available. Quotations should generally be input on the first attempt and any significant quote changes tend to follow a pattern which indicates an attempt of receiving a cheaper price. As a result of the numerous changes, we're cancelling your policy from xx.06.2023 at 12:01 hours.

I came from confussed.com and some of the pre selected options were not correct so I changed them along with adding a previous windscreen claim so the final quote and policy was actually more expensive by around £130. Once I reached esure's site the changes I made were the cars value, the registered owner from me to the lease finance company, changed the date I brought the car, changed the cars security options which were wrong and added my previous windscreen claim.

I'm hoping they will re consider once I speak with them tomorrow else this has the potential to make my insurance sky rocket if I have to declaring having had a previous policy cancelled. Crazy how they can do this and I know some of you must be thinking this can't be real or I'm not telling you the whole story but I am.

Where do I stand if I cancel the policy myself before they do? Will it still be recorded on the data base as having had my insurance cancelled?

 

[Rroff]

Uncharted territory really - technically as per the terms of many insurers you don't have to declare a cancellation due to a change in circumstance rather than a serious infraction but then some insurers will have different terms and/or seem like they don't care about it until there is an instance where they can use it to get out of their obligations, etc.

 

[snapdragon69]

Experian run this service for Insurers, a former Colleague used to work there previously and warned me about this. Quote massaging. I too have done what you did just out of curiosity to see what makes a difference to the price and never had it cancelled though. Go though there official complaints procedure and then follow up with the Ombudsman if you exhaust the complaints process.

 

[Haggisman]

"any significant quote changes tend to follow a pattern which indicates an attempt of receiving a cheaper price"

And? Is it illegal or against their T&Cs to try and get a cheaper price, as long as the details you give are accurate?

I'd be absolutely fuming in your position - as advised, I'd raise a complaint ASAP, along with advising them you'll be sending them the bills for any future increases in premiums caused by their actions.

Quite concerning as I'm with eSure as well, maybe time to start looking to change!

 

[jpaul]

had you purchased insurance on the day preceeding the renewal ? and on the day it started, they then send an email saying it would be cancelled that day
(if the policy hadn't started surely cancellation is meaningless)

since most companies now have admin charges even if you cancel before it starts, I no longer confirm/pay the best quote a month before, with the option of cancelling that the night before if I have found something better.

 

[Diagro]

Hi all,

I've just had the following from esure:

This policy was accepted to commence on xx.06.2023. We noticed that whilst inputting your quote details several changes were made resulting in a different price becoming available. Quotations should generally be input on the first attempt and any significant quote changes tend to follow a pattern which indicates an attempt of receiving a cheaper price. As a result of the numerous changes, we're cancelling your policy from xx.06.2023 at 12:01 hours.

I came from confussed.com and some of the pre selected options were not correct so I changed them along with adding a previous windscreen claim so the final quote and policy was actually more expensive by around £130. Once I reached esure's site the changes I made were the cars value, the registered owner from me to the lease finance company, changed the date I brought the car, changed the cars security options which were wrong and added my previous windscreen claim.

I'm hoping they will re consider once I speak with them tomorrow else this has the potential to make my insurance sky rocket if I have to declaring having had a previous policy cancelled. Crazy how they can do this and I know some of you must be thinking this can't be real or I'm not telling you the whole story but I am.

Where do I stand if I cancel the policy myself before they do? Will it still be recorded on the data base as having had my insurance cancelled?

LOL. I've seen it all now

 

[Jim99]

I've heard of this quite a few times before. It's an anti-fraud measure on that part, i.e. they don't want to sell policies to people who've spent ages tweaking their details until the price drops (and probably no longer telling the complete truth).

I do agree though that it will be extremely unfair if that's considered a cancelled policy and causes future prices to rise.

Personally if I'm using a comparison website I tend to use fake details until I'm 100% sure what I want to do, because I'd heard of people having this issue in the past.

 

[Trifid]

I'd have thought there would be a positive correlation between those who look for the best insurance quotations and their likelihood to make a claim...


I'd also be looking to cancel the insurance before they cancel it on you.

 

[Haggisman]

I've heard of this quite a few times before. It's an anti-fraud measure on that part, i.e. they don't want to sell policies to people who've spent ages tweaking their details until the price drops

(and probably no longer telling the complete truth).

These are 2 very different things - one of which is normal shopping, the other is effectively the company committing libel by implying you are a liar.

e.g. when adding my partner as a named driver I changed her licence type between provisional/full UK a few times, as she currently has a provisional, but I wanted to get an idea of how it would change when she passes her test.

I did a couple of quotes with and without certain modifications. Not because I'm trying to get away with not declaring them, but because I'm trying to work out if it's worth doing them in the first place.

By all means feel free to cancel the policy after performing an inspection of the vehicle and seeing that it has undeclared mods, but otherwise they need to STFU and wind their neck in.

 

[tom_e]

I'm sure I seen someone one here a few years ago have something similar.

"We've picked up that you ran quotes with different mods, therefore we assume you have all of these and are therefore going to charge you the higher price"

and the option was pay up or cancel the policy.

 

[Kenai]

I'm sure I seen someone one here a few years ago have something similar.

"We've picked up that you ran quotes with different mods, therefore we assume you have all of these and are therefore going to charge you the higher price"

and the option was pay up or cancel the policy.

I had this with Admiral except it was just "we'll be taking the extra money on [Date]". Cue a lot of arguing. They eventually backed down but I won't use them again if I can possibly avoid them.

 

[Jim99]

These are 2 very different things - one of which is normal shopping, the other is effectively the company committing libel by implying you are a liar.

e.g. when adding my partner as a named driver I changed her licence type between provisional/full UK a few times, as she currently has a provisional, but I wanted to get an idea of how it would change when she passes her test.

I did a couple of quotes with and without certain modifications. Not because I'm trying to get away with not declaring them, but because I'm trying to work out if it's worth doing them in the first place.

By all means feel free to cancel the policy after performing an inspection of the vehicle and seeing that it has undeclared mods, but otherwise they need to STFU and wind their neck in.

I agree (although wouldn't say they're committing libel), I'm just saying that's what they do. For them, they're making a decision that it's not worth having your business because of the risk. Complaining can end up being pretty tricky, because they do have the right not to offer insurance, and if they suspect fraud it gives them a lot of leeway in terms of regulations.

I only posted to say that it is something I've come across before and knew about, i.e. it's not a really weird and unusual outlier that it happened to Plexman.

The ideal fix would be for companies to have a better system for "what if" scenarios, but I don't think they have much incentive to bother so we end up with the current, weird system where it's better to provide fake details for hypothetical quotes.

For what it's worth, I knew someone who freely told everyone in the office that they did this, i.e. changing every option on the policy until they found the lowest quote (e.g. SD&P and it's locked in my uncle's garage every night), and had the insurance company caught it they would have gladly cancelled the policy, but I guess they didn't.

 

[DRZ]

This is completely normal and has been going on for at least 10 years if not 20+, at least with Admiral...

 

[Deleted User 298457]

This is completely normal and has been going on for at least 10 years if not 20+, at least with Admiral...

I've been with Admiral/Elephant for the vast majority of my driving years and never once had an issue. And I have engineered every single quote to an inch of its life via Confused.com.

 

[Semple]

"any significant quote changes tend to follow a pattern which indicates an attempt of receiving a cheaper price"

And? Is it illegal or against their T&Cs to try and get a cheaper price, as long as the details you give are accurate?

This is probably a good basis for complaint to the ombudsman, as long as the details are accurate then I'm not sure they can make the claim that you're massaging the figure. I.e you might want to look at mileage cost differences, you might have typically put 8k per year when you've actually averaged 6k. If they were anal about it they could request your mileage at the start and end of the policy.

This is completely normal and has been going on for at least 10 years if not 20+, at least with Admiral...

Hmm, I remember fiddling around with job titles as there were about 6 job titles I could demonstrate, and there was a slight price difference between them. They've only got themselves to blame for having such a convoluted system. A price should not be based on what job you do.

 

[Haggisman]

I agree (although wouldn't say they're committing libel), I'm just saying that's what they do. For them, they're making a decision that it's not worth having your business because of the risk.

But they've already accepted the business. They've now decided to breach the contract for a spurious reason, causing the OP financial loss due to having to declare it having been cancelled, and I assume charging their cancellation fee of £60. Sounds like a licence to print money to me!

 

[Rroff]

I did a couple of quotes with and without certain modifications. Not because I'm trying to get away with not declaring them, but because I'm trying to work out if it's worth doing them in the first place.

I sometimes look at for instance whether it is better to use one vehicle or another and put the miles on, and my actual usage, accordingly...

 

[Plexman]

Thanks for all your replies and insight. I've now started their complaints procedure and also sent an email of to the CEO which has been acknowledged.

I've since found another insurance provider who's offering a similar price to esure and they don’t ask any questions regarding cancelled policies. Worst case scenario, I cancel the esure policy myself, take out a new policy with other provider and take my complaint to the financial ombudsman to try and make sure they don't add any policy cancellation records to my file.

A pain really but I will get it sorted sooner or later. Will keep you all updated.

 

[Iamzod]

Raise a complaint, you want £300 for the inconvenience.

When I worked in insurance it used to cost us something like £400 if a complaint got as far as the FOS so we'd cave & pay out just to shut people up & save a few quid even if we were wrong.

 

[jaybee]

Absolutely disgusting these scum insurance companies. My daughter had her insurance cancelled recently and it was blatantly because the system gave a very good price. They operate in a wild west.