I guess it's just a drive to reduce uninsured modifications. I suspect they analysed the data on policies taken out without mods where quotes were made with mods, versus policies with no mods where they found mods to be fitted for whatever reason, and found a correlation.
Insurance provider changing policy without consent...
- Thread starter rexehuk
- Start date
I'm with Admiral and had a similar one when I did a speculative quote for adding an additional driver, they wrote to me after the policy had been active for 15 days (so couldn't cancel it and get a full refund) saying they were adding this additional driver to the policy and charging my card.
After a quick phone call and speaking to the shift manager it was all sorted though
After a quick phone call and speaking to the shift manager it was all sorted though
It's not that part that annoys people so much as then acting on that without even checking and just debiting money from peoples accounts unannounced.
Hell, I was thinking about a remap last renewal and asked over the phone, they said they'd just not quote me in that case and so I didn't bother. What if i'd done it the way rexeh has, and run two online quotes? Sounds like they'd have just decided I actually had a remap already and cancelled my insurance and not bothered saying anything.
Caporegime
They did a similar thing with me.
Don't run prospective quotes with Admiral if you actually intend on taking a policy out with them.
Whatever you think might add something to your quote (ie what you would run a test quote for to see how much extra it is), they will just automatically assume you have and send you a bill for the extra.
Filed a formal complaint with the financial ombudsman.
They will handle all my letters etc, if within 8 weeks it isn't resolved they take it further.
Now to phone admiral and use that as leverage.
They will handle all my letters etc, if within 8 weeks it isn't resolved they take it further.
Now to phone admiral and use that as leverage.
Caporegime
in hindsight i should really have complained as well.
Cheeky ********
Cheeky ********
Taken off the policy...
Said what will be done to give me back my time / call costs, they said they can't do anything for that.
Shall take it further I think, just for fun now. Wasting my time and threatening me, not a fantastic choice.
Said what will be done to give me back my time / call costs, they said they can't do anything for that.
Shall take it further I think, just for fun now. Wasting my time and threatening me, not a fantastic choice.
Associate
It's utterly ridiculous that they do this. I have run speculative quotes on random advertised cars hundreds of times. I wonder how much hassle it has caused for the owners.
Soldato
Yes, the only way they might learn is to keep kicking them.
It's a money earner, and I'm not surprised the people on the phone don't give a poo about you, they will be being driven by their managers to make sales, a purely speculative quote will get them nothing, its the way the world works now more and more, service is going to go out the window in more and more areas.
Soldato
This happened to a colleague at the office as well. Very underhanded by them.
Soldato
Thanks for the heads up - Now I'm going to keep an eye out for this as I ran a speculative quote to see how much adding an exhaust system and lowering springs would be.
Soldato
Similar happened to me a fair few years back when I was insured with Elephant - was doing a quote on for a new policy with my existing insurer to demonstrate to a mate of mine what difference it would make to add various numbers of points and certain conviction codes.
Got a call the next day from them asking to complete a conference call with the DVLA to confirm the state of my license (i.e. clean) as they had reason to believe that I had provided false information for my policy.
Luckily they didn't decide to change my policy without calling me as per the OP... that would have been pretty bad!
Got a call the next day from them asking to complete a conference call with the DVLA to confirm the state of my license (i.e. clean) as they had reason to believe that I had provided false information for my policy.
Luckily they didn't decide to change my policy without calling me as per the OP... that would have been pretty bad!
Associate
This happened to me with Admiral too, they decided that because I had got a quote from them for my 306 with a remap, tinted windows, aftermarket exhaust + filter and a load of other random stuff, I had obviously had said work done. I emailed them and asked if they would also be charging me for the Volvo 440 1.8Si I got a quote on 5 minutes previously. They couldn't call quickly enough to make grovelling apologies.
Please do stick it to them as much as humanly possible, we need to stand up to insurance companies trying this crap on with us.
Please do stick it to them as much as humanly possible, we need to stand up to insurance companies trying this crap on with us.
To be fair to them, Admiral group are very competitive for a lot of people. This is pretty draconian, but I'm all for anti-fraud measures if it keeps the prices down. They cover my BMW for half the price anybody else would, that's including specialist insurers.
It doesn't help keep the prices down though. If you mod your car and DON'T tell them, it lets them off the hook for any accidents you caused. From that perspective, its better for them to not know.
Anyway, if this wasn't a pure money gouging exercise, you would get a phone call saying "See you got a quote, just to remind you that you must inform us, blah blah". They would not add the money on and then make it costly and difficult to have it taken back off. It smells like a scam and no one has yet gone "Look at this law that says this is legal/illegal", which on an internet forum means its one of those grey areas.
Its legality is debatable. Its morality is not. It is a scummy, immoral move and will see me staying away from Admiral as long as I continue to read reports of it, end of, and I doubt I'm the only one. Up to them if they care or not.
Soldato
I had similar hassle with them last week. A few weeks ago, before taking out my renewal, I did a quote with Admiral and added a claim to the quote, a friend had just had a claim due to the recent floods and I was nothing but curious as to how much that would have affected my premium. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I received an email from Elephant:
So, obviously quite angry with this, I called Elephant. First I was almost called a liar by one of their representatives in a foreign call centre. They said that because I had quoted with a claim, then I must be trying to hide it. I told them that they were my insurer the previous year, and that obviously they would know if I had made a claim. Ahhh, not that simple. Because I had declared on my policy that I had access to another vehicle they wanted written proof from whichever insurer I was using that I hadn't made a claim. The other car I have access to is my girlfriend's, I’m a named driver on her policy. So they wanted written proof from my girlfriend's insurer that I hadn't made a claim on her policy. The most laughable part? She's insured with Admiral, who they obviously share data with! So they can perform data sharing, but only when it suits their needs. The whole episode has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and if they weren't crafty enough to wait until the 14 day cancellation period had expired before contacting me, I’d have cancelled my policy.
The whole situation stinks.
So, obviously quite angry with this, I called Elephant. First I was almost called a liar by one of their representatives in a foreign call centre. They said that because I had quoted with a claim, then I must be trying to hide it. I told them that they were my insurer the previous year, and that obviously they would know if I had made a claim. Ahhh, not that simple. Because I had declared on my policy that I had access to another vehicle they wanted written proof from whichever insurer I was using that I hadn't made a claim. The other car I have access to is my girlfriend's, I’m a named driver on her policy. So they wanted written proof from my girlfriend's insurer that I hadn't made a claim on her policy. The most laughable part? She's insured with Admiral, who they obviously share data with! So they can perform data sharing, but only when it suits their needs. The whole episode has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and if they weren't crafty enough to wait until the 14 day cancellation period had expired before contacting me, I’d have cancelled my policy.
The whole situation stinks.