Don’t trust Lancaster insurance

[stefan1971]

Just a warning to make sure that you get people’s names when you are insuring your car.
I’ve been going back and forwards between Lancaster and footman James for 6 years now and when I got my renewal from Lancaster it t
Had gone from £100 to £198 so obviously looked around, footman James came back a lot better but Lancaster came back with £114 so decided to stay with them.
When I was getting quotes one of the questions is have I had a crash in the last 3 years which the answer was yes but it was on ice with no other car involved and no 3rd party,
The girl then informs me that this doesn’t matter and not to worry as no 3rd party was involved so they won’t be interested in it,
I then took the insurance out with Lancaster insurance and have just been informed that my insurance is cancelled due to not declaring that I had had an accident in the last 3 years and surprise surprise they have no knowledge of this.
I have just been onto Footman James and before I asked for a quote I asked that when I spoke with them in November did I mention anything about a crash to which he replied yes I’ve got on the system that you slid on ice last year.
So my message is if you up date anything on your insurance make sure you get the persons name and make a note of date and time.

[igor]

...and getting everything from them including all communications in writing might be helpful too.

[MkX]

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/208437/retro-rides-insurance-discount-classicline

↑↑ My Dad has had a succession of very competitive quotes with them and has even taken the insurance for his daily over to them, (and that's without a ЯR discount!) 

[Mercdan68]

The insurance thing really gets me angry!!
Don’t trust any of them.....I need to insure two of my classics About now, hate this time of year trying to sort it out
I’m 51 years old never had an accident over 12 ncb
But its still a chore to sort

[stefan1971]

What also makes me laugh is the bump hasn’t effected my normal car insurance, so the car I use most days and I’m still with the same company hasn’t made a difference but the car on limited mileage and only used once in a blue moon it seems to have effected this.
I wouldn’t mind if I was insuring a car worth 10s of thousands and was 10 k to insure and I was trying to save some money but how much would it of gone up on a £100 policy.

[hotfuzz]

If the telephone conversation was quite recent make a formal complaint and request they listen to the phone recording. Not sure how long they would keep the recording but press this point as in theory that puts the onus on them.

[nomad]

Problems qwith Lancaster you say. Hmm...

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/198484/lancaster-insurance

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/205696/recommend-classic-insurer-say-lancaster

[merryck]

Jan 15, 2020 20:11:18 GMT hotfuzz said:

If the telephone conversation was quite recent make a formal complaint and request they listen to the phone recording. Not sure how long they would keep the recording but press this point as in theory that puts the onus on them.

This. Make a complaint, ask for all correspondence (including phone calls) and take it as far as you can. The Financial Ombudsman Service will be able to help here I think. It looks to me to fall under misrepresentation and non-disclosure.

The Ombudsman Service is completely free and impartial and has the power to force a company to behave. Before you can go to the Ombudsman you have to go through the complaints procedure and attempt to solve the problem with the insurer in good faith, so raise a complaint and go from there. Don't let them get away with mucking you about.

[Dez]

Most insurers keep all calls for the term of the policy now. I got into an argument with an insurer about something nearly 9 months into a policy and they went back and relistened to the call (proving me right at their expense). Took em a few days to find it but i was able to tell them the date of the call.

Also, the insurer gets fined by the ombudsman just for you making a claim, even if it proves to be unsubstantiated or comes to nothing. It’s about £400 I believe. My insurer told me this when they encouraged me to make a formal complaint about a third party insurer.

[elfman]

That's really good advice about how to make a complaint and how to get the Ombudsman involved, I had a problem with Reis insurance on a competition car a few years ago and wish I knew that then....all i can say is don't use them to insure your car.

[rickygolf83]

Ask to speak to their complaints team and ask for the call recording to be pulled and listened to by them.

All calls will be recorded, especially in an insurance/financial etc... situation as the operator would have had to ask you specific questions and read out compulsory information 👍

[westbay]

Important to pursue this as you have now been "declined insurance" and come renewal time when asked " ... have you or any named driver(s) been refused insurance... " and it will recorded on a ... database ... somewhere

[mylittletony]

Agreed, ask them to go and listen to your call.

I asked in principle if I could add a certain car to my classic policy and was told I could in a call, so I bought it. When I rang to confirm adding it, I was told it was too new and they wouldn't cover it. I told them they had previously agreed it on the phone, they checked their recordings and honoured their previous commitment.

The above post about having insurance cancelled is an important thing to get corrected, regardless of anything else

[merryck]

Jan 15, 2020 23:30:47 GMT elfman said:

That's really good advice about how to make a complaint and how to get the Ombudsman involved, I had a problem with Reis insurance on a competition car a few years ago and wish I knew that then....all i can say is don't use them to insure your car.

Not sure how many years back the Ombudsman can go, nor how much evidence there will still be records-wise, but I would look into it. The Ombudsman service is a very powerful tool for the consumer.

[Mercdan68]

To be fair I suppose many people have had bad experiences with insurance companies , I had terrible experiences with flux insurance con artists in my opinion
But footman James have been great with my mgf
And likewise greenlight with our escort van
Daily car is with Hastings direct which again have been good
So my earlier statement about not trusting any company was alcohol induced that evening I posted!!

[elfman]

Thanks Merryck I will look to see if i still have the details dates etc but i did have a big clear out last year and the car involved was sold soon after about 5 years ago ( but its worth looking..
I have found LV pretty good but there again I have never made an insurance claim ( apart from a cracked windscreen) in over 40 years of driving..but they always seem very helpful and good prices too.
The Reis problem involved over charging for a very short period of insurance. I would never trust them again..

[toast00]

Alcohol induced statements or not, I still would not trust any insurance company. The whole industry is too unregulated and lets face it, insurance is just legalized gambling. That's how it was born centuries ago with Lloyds Register and the coffee shop.

Although i have had good experiences with some companies, i find it amazing how the culture of those companies can change so rapidly to make the experience bad within a year, and vice versa. I come to the conclusion their nice periods are when they are having a marketing push and therefore treat them as friends of caution.

If you follow the family tree up, basically they are in the money industry and therefore ultimately owned and backed by banks and finance institutions and therefore are out to make as much money as sickeningly possible, whilst not actually providing a service. Yes i know this is the mandate for alot of companies, but certainly just after the financial crash in 2008, alot of the insurance companies were told to make more money because the banks needed it, not just because the cost of borrowing went up.

Two nasty tricks i have come across recently:

1) Whilst going to and fro from one company to another to get the best price, i found one company didn't honor the quoted price and gave me a price £30 higher. They then reluctantly agreed to give me the reduced price. They then kept me on hold for 20 min after i had given them my details and got to position of no return. Guess what, my phone bill for that call was £30!!

2) This wouldn't apply to classic cars so much but may be useful when thinking of your daily.

Whilst on a training course recently, i got talking to a chap who works for the biggest car dismantlers in the country. Due to the size and supply of parts, they aren't merely a scrap yard, but a used parts processing mega company. Quite often on quite new or valuable cars, the good parts are already sold before the salvage vehicle has even got to the dismantlers. Thus the scrap value of the vehicle is determined by the parts available and their value.

Ok so that's not the bit that astounded me. The bit that really got to me is apparently most of the big insurance companies have connections with the dismantlers, which is why quite often your car is written off for what seems quite a minor repair these days. The value the dismantler will give for the parts out-weighs the true cost of repairing it. This is why some repairers are asked to 'mark up' the cost of the repair to ensure it is written off, because the insurance company have already got a better price as scrap. So whilst it may seem that putting up the repair price means the parts salvage price is less, the repair mark up is false and is done to guarantee the vehicle is indeed written off. Have you ever been told by the insurance company that the cost of repair is too high therefore your car will be written off, only to be told by the assessment garage that if you brought the car back to them and had the repair done privately, it would be half the price? I have been told by repair shops in the past, they are actually told to mark up the repair estimate by the insurance company so the vehicle falls into a different category in their handling of it. I think this is fraud.

Plus the partnership is two way. The dismantler will sell parts to the insurance company at agreed prices should the vehicle be repaired. So when the insurance company says your crashed car must go to one of their approved repair shops, it is because they may well be using second hand parts. So you might be thinking you are getting nice new parts and body panels on your repaired car, but you aren't, you may well be getting something with unknown amount of use and little warranty. So if your car goes for a repair, try to insist it goes to a garage you are happy with and try to confirm if new parts or used parts are being used, and if new parts are they OE parts? Of course all this depends on the vehicle and what you are happy with, but i know i wouldn't be happy if my 1yo car had none-OE parts fitted or used parts from a 4yo car.

The whole thing is a stinking cartel! Sorry for the rant but I hate insurance companies.

[Mercdan68]

^^^^^very very well worded

[gtviva]

Insurance for anything is a complete lottery, not just for cars!

Another thing to remember is ask about salvage rights so at least you will get the chance to have the car back in the event of an accident, If you do have an accident try and get the car recovered to your own place of storage which will save you the extortionate fees they charge