My car was stolen in January 2018 but Hastings Car Insurance underpaid me by £1500. I have had to borrow £1500 over the next two years and I won’t be able to buy another car until this money is paid off.
This happened because Hastings were unaware that I had a speeding endorsement on my driving license, which happened a year earlier. When I was asked ‘has anything changed?’ when I came to renew my policy, I thought they already knew about the sp30. Of course, I don’t know what they have on file when they ask this question, so in future I will make them go through every question. I hired a van in 2017 and was asked if I had any speeding endorsement to which I replied “I have an sp30”.
Thanks to the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 Hastings Car Insurance only have to ask if there have been any changes, so any innocent mistake that is made by the policyholder goes in favour of the car insurance company..
Hastings decided that I didn’t deliberately try to hide my SP30 (and most companies don’t charge extra for one speeding endorsement), but they still reduced my claim by 21%. This figure is set by Hastings (AND can’t be challenged) and represents the extra premium that I would have been charged if they knew about my SP30. So rather than take an extra premium of 21% they took 21% off my claim payout!
Of course, if your car is stolen it is reasonable to expect that it doesn’t make any difference if you have a speeding endorsement, at the time.
www.carinsuranceproblems.co.uk
Reviewed on: 27th September 2018
