Who is right? Me or the Insurance Company???

dudara

tommy21 wrote:

I live within the city, 5 mins from the city centre.

Yes, but do you live within the city boundaries as laid down in the legal definition of the city? The city council will be able to tell you this.

For instance, the actual city boundaries in Cork City are much smaller than people think.

LookBehindYou

tommy21 wrote: »

But won't I lose a fortune on any refund of the rest of the premium considering policy is two months old?

YES you would lose. also you will have to declare the accident to the new insurance company, who may penalise you because of an ongoing claim.

tommy21

dudara wrote: »

Yes, but do you live within the city boundaries as laid down in the legal definition of the city? The city council will be able to tell you this.

For instance, the actual city boundaries in Cork City are much smaller than people think.

Good idea, I'd imagine I do but I'll check tomorrow.

tommy21

LookBehindYou wrote: »

YES you would lose. also you will have to declare the accident to the new insurance company, who may penalise you because of an ongoing claim.

:eek:

tatli_lokma

I just can't understand why you would pay an extra €200 plus the €51 upgrate to fully comp to get a car hire for 3-4 days. just checked budget, you could get a VW Polo for 3 days €22.50 TOTAL, add on €28 if you collect from airport, so total of €50.50. you would have had a car for 3 days, and not had to ask your insurance co for ANYTHING to do it. This price from Budget inc insurance blah blah.
I really don't see how the desire to have a hire car for such a short period of time would be motivation enough to pay €250 to the insurance company.
Madness!
I would have hired a car myself or gone without. If I'd hired it myself I would have looked into the 3rd parties insurance co refunding or part refunding the cost of it.

GerardKeating

Cincikchick wrote: »

I just can't understand why you would pay an extra €200 plus the €51 upgrate to fully comp to get a car hire for 3-4 days. just checked budget, you could get a VW Polo for 3 days €22.50 TOTAL, add on €28 if you collect from airport, so total of €50.50. you would have had a car for 3 days, and not had to ask your insurance co for ANYTHING to do it. This price from Budget inc insurance blah blah.
I really don't see how the desire to have a hire car for such a short period of time would be motivation enough to pay €250 to the insurance company.
Madness!
I would have hired a car myself or gone without. If I'd hired it myself I would have looked into the 3rd parties insurance co refunding or part refunding the cost of it.

Many the OP should put the €251 towards taxi fare for the days in question.??

tallaghtoutlaws

Cincikchick wrote: »

I just can't understand why you would pay an extra €200 plus the €51 upgrate to fully comp to get a car hire for 3-4 days. just checked budget, you could get a VW Polo for 3 days €22.50 TOTAL, add on €28 if you collect from airport, so total of €50.50. you would have had a car for 3 days, and not had to ask your insurance co for ANYTHING to do it. This price from Budget inc insurance blah blah.
I really don't see how the desire to have a hire car for such a short period of time would be motivation enough to pay €250 to the insurance company.
Madness!
I would have hired a car myself or gone without. If I'd hired it myself I would have looked into the 3rd parties insurance co refunding or part refunding the cost of it.

With Car Hire you also need a €500 refundable deposit. Car Hire Companies scan your card to make sure you have the funds available. No funds available on card to cover deposit no car.

tommy21

Cincikchick wrote: »

I just can't understand why you would pay an extra €200 plus the €51 upgrate to fully comp to get a car hire for 3-4 days. just checked budget, you could get a VW Polo for 3 days €22.50 TOTAL, add on €28 if you collect from airport, so total of €50.50. you would have had a car for 3 days, and not had to ask your insurance co for ANYTHING to do it. This price from Budget inc insurance blah blah.
I really don't see how the desire to have a hire car for such a short period of time would be motivation enough to pay €250 to the insurance company.
Madness!
I would have hired a car myself or gone without. If I'd hired it myself I would have looked into the 3rd parties insurance co refunding or part refunding the cost of it.

I guess I'm impulsive or impatient or both Madness as you say but in fairness I haven't paid the 200 and am not going to either until I talk to the ombudsman after considering your feedbacl. I paid 50 deposit for the car which I will get back, I did not need to upgrade my insurance bizarely. As you say madness, I guess I've just been shell shocked by whole thing and not thinking straight!

MugMugs

tommy21 wrote: »

Now they did send me out one of those confirmation forms that you sign and send back and on that it does list my address as the county one, but I think it should not matter and am reluctant to fork out more. To be honest I failed to see the distinction at the time and was more worried about checking car details etc.

What they sent you was a proposal form and on that form it would state, "If any part of this form is incorrect then ammend it and return it to us in a reasonable amount of time."

You failed to do this....

Insurer's act on "Utmost good faith" reliant that the information given to them at inception is correct. They check this during indemnity checks when the policy is called on ie: a claim... They can potentially cancel a policy back to inception if they wish if the non disclosure of material facts is strong enough.


You can run this to the Insurance Ombudsman and plead your case however I will put money on the Ombudsman siding with the Insurer and not you.... They covered themselves with the fine print.... You failed to act.

MugMugs

tommy21 wrote: »

Well that's true, I'll have to keep it for a few days in case god forbid had an accident in the rental. Anyone have any idea on how long it takes to resolve via ombudsman? Do I need to get my solicitor involved here also or can I make the complaint myself? I'm caught in a bind because if I don't pay the insurance within the next week I estimate they will likely suspend it meaning I can't drive (im assumming rental car wil be long gone back by then as assessor is viewing car tomorrow or possibly already today).

Pay the money and go to the Ombudsman.... If you win the ombudsman will instruct the company to refund the monies owed...

You need to follow the internal complaints procedure for the company before reffering to the ombudsman. Write to them and request they resolve your complaint and highlight that in the event they cannot then to issue you with a FINAL RESPONSE in order to pursue this matter through the ombudsman. Once you have this the Ombudsman will step in and begin their process..... Cases can take anything from 3 months to a year for the Ombudsman to resolve.... The time scale has risen since the downturn due to the increased amount of complaints being received....

Best of luck

Del2005

tommy21 wrote: »

Well not sure what you mean by that, as in I don't have the letter with postmark so I can't check. I do have the insurance cert whcih has my county address on it. My argument is that the quote I orignally got said just the place I live e.g. Dublin not Co.Dublin or Dublin City.

Sorry I miss read your OP and thought you lived in a different house. Didn't realise that it was different addresses for the same house:o

tatli_lokma

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

With Car Hire you also need a €500 refundable deposit. Car Hire Companies scan your card to make sure you have the funds available. No funds available on card to cover deposit no car.

We hired a car only a few months ago and there was no €500 deposit required. Also there was no way they could scan our card to check its balance as we used laser and they can't check if you have a set amount in your account - they can only take a pre-approval, which anyway wouldn't work on laser as 10 mins after that approval you could go and withdraw €500 from your account! If they did this on our account it would have been declined as it was 2 days before payday (:D) so no way €500 was there, only about €150! Just checked our booking form and no mention of €500 deposit or any such!

Del2005

Cincikchick wrote: »

We hired a car only a few months ago and there was no €500 deposit required. Also there was no way they could scan our card to check its balance as we used laser and they can't check if you have a set amount in your account - they can only take a pre-approval, which anyway wouldn't work on laser as 10 mins after that approval you could go and withdraw €500 from your account! If they did this on our account it would have been declined as it was 2 days before payday (:D) so no way €500 was there, only about €150! Just checked our booking form and no mention of €500 deposit or any such!

You can be sure if it came back with any damage they'd have tried to take the money off your card. When you hire a car you give them nearly open ended access to your card. Not too sure if laser cards have a shorter time but CC's can be charged up to 3 years after the transaction was authorised.

tommy21

dudara wrote: »

Yes, but do you live within the city boundaries as laid down in the legal definition of the city? The city council will be able to tell you this.

For instance, the actual city boundaries in Cork City are much smaller than people think.

Definately live within the city boundaries I checked with council.

tommy21

MugMugs wrote: »

Pay the money and go to the Ombudsman.... If you win the ombudsman will instruct the company to refund the monies owed...

You need to follow the internal complaints procedure for the company before reffering to the ombudsman. Write to them and request they resolve your complaint and highlight that in the event they cannot then to issue you with a FINAL RESPONSE in order to pursue this matter through the ombudsman. Once you have this the Ombudsman will step in and begin their process..... Cases can take anything from 3 months to a year for the Ombudsman to resolve.... The time scale has risen since the downturn due to the increased amount of complaints being received....

Best of luck

This is what I shall do I think, I'll send a letter containing: an outlining of my reasoning why I should not have to pay, the cheque but "paid under protest" (so that my insurance can continue and yet I can attempt to reclaim it) and ask them to issue me with a final response if it cannot be resolved. Best thing I can do does everyone think?

A letter arrived today from them in relation to accident asking to explain what happened (the standard form), so I will just fill this out and send it back. Other drived admitted responsability so ok on that one.

tommy21

Well it turns out I'm right I sent them the cheque "under protest", and outlined my grievences in the letter. Regional Manager called me today and semi-apologised, and sending a refund cheque, though they did advise me that the premium could go up next year to reflect my address - of course this won't matter as I shall never use them again for anything! Hurrah, lot of stress but shows if you fight your corner you do sometimes win. Thanks for all the advice everyone!