My 19-year-old son CO passed his driving test in the summer of 2022, but unfortunately had an accident that same year and his car was wrecked.
Due to an error, two accidents were reported on the Motor Insurance database from his insurer, General Accident, and when his new insurer, WiseDriving, discovered this, he increased his premium by an additional £860, bringing the total cost to £2,000.
When He took out his policy with GA and there was a 28-day period in which he could contact them in person. Thereafter, (and maybe the reason why it is cheaper) communication were made via email or the website.
Although communication was slow and frustrating, GA eventually paid out and a replacement car was purchased. In the summer of 2023 he received a very high renewal offer and switched to WiseDriving which was around £500 cheaper.
However, shortly after he took out this insurance, WiseDriving contacted him and informed him that two accidents had been recorded in his name and unless we could prove that this was a mistake, his premium would be increased.
He immediately contacted GA, but could only do so through a form on the website to which no one responded.
In the meantime, WiseDriving has debited the additional money from the bank account from which the original premium was paid.
The CO finally found a number to call and the GA said there were two entries to his nameHe asked for this to be corrected and after several more calls he was assured that the duplicate had been removed.
My son forwarded the email he received to WiseDrivingand confirmed that his original statement was true and that there was only an accident. However, they wanted harder evidence because an email trail “can be edited”. They also stated that the There are still two accidents listed in his name in the car insurance database.
As you can imagine, we are becoming increasingly desperate. His insurance needs to be renewed soon and it is probably the The database has still not been updated by GA who are impossible to contact and we are still having to pay over £800 out of pocket.
Dr. Royston
Driving is becoming increasingly expensive for young people, with the average cost of insurance at around £2,175 per year according to a recent study by Uswitch. This makes it difficult enough to even get behind the wheel without these additional problems.
General Accident, a company owned by Aviva, does not come out of this sad story well. After I brought this case to General Accident’s attention, they finally acted with some urgency. There was an error in entering the date of the accident and when a third party used a different date, a second claim was made. General Accident did not compare the two and after With I have been in touch and the duplicate has been identified. No one has done anything to remove it from the database.
Aviva says: “We are sorry that With had trouble getting the mistakenly entered claim removed from their insurance records. We are committed to assisting our customers through the claims process and have contacted the Motor Insurance Database following a full review of this case. The duplicate claim will be removed as soon as possible.
“We have also contacted WiseDriving to confirm that this is only one claim so that his current premium can be corrected. We acknowledge that With did not receive the service he should expect and has offered £300 in compensation to apologise for any distress this may have caused.”
It will take six to eight weeks for the database to be updated, after which things will hopefully be easier for your son. He has been treated badly and if you are not happy with this outcome, it is not too late to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Rare praise for an energy company’s customer service
There is some positive news: KB out of Inverkeithing wrote to share his experience of great customer service.
When we moved into our house, I wanted to stay with our green energy provider Ecotricity, but the property had a surplus Economy 10 electricity meter so wasn’t sure if it could accommodate us.
However, within 24 hours we were told it was possible. Now, four years later, we seem to be paying a standing charge for the old meter. We only know this because we received an email saying the fault had been discovered and we would be refunded approximately £393 plus £75 compensation.
In terms of customer service, this one is hard to beat.
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