egafd.com

Anyone got knowledge of this sort of thing.

Have just this minute taken a call off my youngest son. At the begining of December he brought his first car, it cost ?2000 of which I lent him ?1500. The insurance, from a known TV advertised company, is costing him a further ?1500pa which he is paying in monthly instalments, also if he makes a claim he must pay the first ?500. Four weeks ago he took a skid on the ice, he tells me he was only doing 10 mph which would be about right in those conditions. His front offside wheel went into the kerb and buckled it, it also damaged the wheel arm, the car was towed that day and sat at the collectors garage for a week, it then went away for inspection. He was told on Monday the car was a right off and that they would contact him later this week with their offer.

This evening he took a call from the insurers saying that because he had the crash so soon after taking out insurance they were cancelling his old policy and he must take out a new policy, and that before they can make an offer he must pay the ?500 surplus plus the outstanding balance of the ?1500 that he had been paying monthly. They expect him to hand over a cheque for approx ?1700 before they will even tell him what compensation they will offer him for his written off car, which may be less than the ?1700 he will have paid them.

Looks to me that he will have insurance cover but cannot afford to replace the car. IS THIS RIGHT?

The name of this company is %)(***& $!!!!!0=+*&?$...................,

Its also a place and name given to a landmark battle in English history, I guess that if they did personal insurance they would have found an excuse not to pay out to Harold for his eye injury.

It probably is right as far as their "policy" goes,but i don't think it is fair.

Sadly I would doubt that this company's policy is unique.
Once a company add a new restrictive clause many more follow like sheep. Boring as it is particularly regarding new policy it is vital to read the small print.

I am sure I have read something about having to make balance of payments before a claim will be met in a policy document but didn't concern me as paid in full up front anyway.

I would clarify what they are implying regarding cancelling the policy.
When I had a car written off the policy was cancelled, which was a right pain because the driving of other cars albeit third party feature was of course not available, but when I bought another car they restarted the policy with an adjustment payment reflecting the value and insurance group of the 'new to me' car.

Too late now but before accepting the policy from ' 2000 - 934 ' did you get quotes from Chris Knott and Adrian Flux as they often give better prices for young/new drivers and those with performance and modified cars?

If the car is a write off and he's not replacing it then it makes sense to cancel the policy, but not take out another one. However the cancellation clause may well state that you are only entitled to a refund providing no claim has been made in the current period of insurance. In the absence of instalments he would have had to pay the ?1,500 premium up front. So if that's what his cancellation condition says, he would still owe them the balance of the premium.

But, what you refer to as a ?500 'surplus' is surely the 'Excess'? If my assumption is correct then H......s should simply be deducting that from their offer - NOT asking him to pay it to them.

welkram, I've worked in motor insurance for over 30 years. Please feel free to email me if you need any further advice.

Why are you unwilling to reveal the company??

paulpaul, I'm not sure but I don't think the site moderators would be pleased if I spell out the name of this company. The clue I gave plus what bigAl wrote should have been well enough for you to ID them.

big Al. Saw my son this evening and the insurance problem is even worse than he first told me. His policy, that he was paying monthly, has been cancelled by the insurers, my son believed the reason for this was because they would then raise a new policy for him........not the case.

They have cancelled the policy....full stop. He has been informed that he must now pay them for the 10 months still outstanding on this policy (Feb to end Nov), on top of that he must pay them the ?500 excess plus the towing charges from the accident site, and all this is before they will tell him how much compensation they will pay out on his car. He paid ?2000 for the car, they may offer ?1500?, on top of this loss he will have paid out ?2000 in insurance, looks like he may finish up ?2500 out of pocket and have no insurance cover.

I guess that if he now tries another insurer he will have to state that his previous insurer had cancelled his policy......and how much will his new insurance cost, thats if he can get covered. Perhaps its all above board but its not bloody fair.

My ex-wife has now become involved, she is the sort that will argue untill everyone is totally exhausted and will give in just to get rid of her, she never uses logic in her arguments only brutal sarcasm, but I think that even she may meet her match with these people.