The Consumer Forums

I strongly recomend you shop around if your thinking about using Diamond.I was involved in an accident with another Diamond insured driver and Diamond asigned responsability to the other driver, it took them over six months to sort out the claim and that was only after threats of possible legal action from myself. I have spent hours on the phone trying to move things along and am always promised something will be done but it never is. When i call back i can never speak to the same person, and the call centre staff vary from polite but not much help to rude and arrogant (despite always being polite myself). I was promised a courtesy car but this has never arrived, And when the work on my car was eventually done (by a garage miles from where i live) i was told that i would have to collect the car myself despite the TAX and MOT running out while the car has been waiting for repairs. I have now moved insurance companies and am paying slightly more than half than i was paying with Diamond. Do not fall into the trap of thinking you will get a better service if you pay more, You wont.

Hubby has been with Direct Line for his car insurance for 9 years,never made a claim at all.Uses is it for business so prmiums are a little more than average
Got the renewal notice this year premiums increased as well as the excess.Decided to have a look at comparison sites and was shocked at the premiums of other companies like for like some of which I had never heard of.
My husband called DL to see if they would match-- outright no!!Said thanks very much I will not be re-newing then.Our daughter then said see if Direct Line online price as a new customer is cheaper guess what it was by £60 plus £75 less excess and nothing extra for paying monthly in all possible saving if one claim was to be made in the coming year of £175 so called direct line back said we know you dont match other companies but will match your own !!! Guess what they siad NO.So 9 yaers of being a loyal customer gets you well and truely ripped off.

Was searching around one day and came across that comparison site (forgotten the name) that does insurance companies - probably insurancesupermarket.com or something.

Anyway, it turns out that Swift Cover were the cheapest for me by a long shot - cut my premium in half, which was nice.

Anyway, come to renewal time the broker I was with phoned and tried to talk me out of going with them stating that cheaper is usually worse etc...

About 8 months later I had a minor accident - bumped a chap at a dual carriageway entrance - cost, £800. IT WAS A TINY CRACK!!

Anyway, I phoned Swift and they said, "yep, we know about it already the other chaps insurance has been in touch, you don't need to do anything. Leave it all to us", and that was that. All done. My premium barely went up at the next renewal and the whole thing was dealt with fast and efficiently. I phoned the chap in the other car and he said it was sorted out really quickly and with a minimum of fuss at his end as well.

So all-in-all, well done Swift.

Every time I have had to phone them about something they have answered the phone quickly and have been polite and helpful, despite me trying to change my vehicle a little while ago on their website, but they didn't have the exact model.

Also, if you're like me and have documents all over the place and you need to find your insurance certificate, you can just log in to their website and print another off.

Suits me down to the ground.

9/10

I've written this in response to a thread about E&L insurance and must start with the warning to avoid them. Ask your vet - I bet they will deal with your claim if you are insured with any other company. Tell them you're insured with E&L you'll be on your own and it won't be an easy ride.

Pet insurance used to be a specialist area. Every insurance company has now jumped on this lucrative bandwagon but be warned, they don't all offer the same cover and they certainly don't all offer the same level of service and payout. READ THE POLICY DOCUMENT BEFORE YOU BUY. It will be available as a pdf somewhere on the website.

There are three types of cover.

1. 12 month term cover - the premiums will seem very attractive.
Your pet is covered for one year. If your animal needs treatment during the period of cover then you will only have to pay an excess. That's the simple explanation - the cheaper companies will exclude special diets and 'alternative therapies'. What counts as alternatve? You tell me.

You can of course renew your cover for the next year BUT insurers will exclude any condition your pet has been treated for AND any condition which has similar clinical signs. Good luck to you if your dog has had something as simple as an upset stomach because those 'clinical signs' may, in future, be taken as proof that he showed symptoms of many an expensive illness.

2. Ongoing cover, cost capped.
Many pet insurers offer this. Don't be fooled into thinking this is open ended because it isn't. It is not cover for life though you'd never guess from some of the advertising. M&S describe their insurance as 'lifelong cover' and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the same as cover for life. The only difference between this and a cheap 12 month policy is that they will continue to pay out for a single condition over more than one year but only up to a set amount. After that they exclude cover for existing conditions and (that evil term) any condition with similar clinical signs.

It can be quite a generous maximum, for example More Than will pay up to £7000 for a single condition but once that figure is reached you are on your own.

The really cheeky thing is that your premium is calculated from your postcode because vets are more expensive in some areas but the payout is a set maximum countrywide. I did test quotes for a 2 year old labrador. In Exmouth you'd pay £163 per year, in Reading £211. Imagine having a diabetic dog. You'll go through your £7000 much faster if you live where vets charge more and be making a difficult decision as to whether you can afford to keep treating a beloved pet out of your own pocket.

3. Cover for life
This is going to be the most expensive because your pet will remain covered (up to your yearly maximum) every year, for life, for as long as you pay the premiums. There are normally levels of cover to choose from. It is worth looking for a minimum of £3000. You would then be covered for £3000 per year for life - imagine that diabetic dog again and you could be looking at £30,000 over the life of your pet.
Petplan are market leaders and are loved by vets.
Pet Protect are fantastic if you have deep pockets.
PetPals are the 'budget' arm of pet protect. They're not budget at all but are an alternative to Petplan so worth a quote.

Petguard is a company I have discovered recently. I have checked with my vet, interrogated the company over the phone and can't find any reason not to give them a go. They will do a bespoke policy. If you want to cover for vets bills alone they will do it though I would recommend you add liability insurance for dogs if your household policy doesn't cover you - CHECK and don't buy it if you don't need it.

My test quote with them for a 2 year old labrador in Reading came to £227 for true cover for life If you input the details you will come to a screen with an initial quote for their lowest level of cover and where you can tailor the policy to your needs. I changed to £3000/year, set the '12 month cover limit' to NO which gives a cover for life policy and added £1 million liability cover.

The website isn't as glitzy as others, you do need to be make sure you have quoted for the cover you need but hey - that's what bespoke is all about. One great point, they don't want your personal details to quote, not even an email address. Just bung in the animal's details and your postcode and you can play around looking at what different levels of cover would cost to your hearts content and you'll never hear from them unless you choose to insure with them. That's my sort of company

I heartily recommend Tesco Car Insurance, having been involved in two non-fault accidents in the past six months. The claims staff have been nothing but helpful and are happy to go out of their way to resolve a problem. We had a serious issue with one of their repairers last week, and it was sorted within an hour.

I work in insurance so know just how bad the service from some insurers can be - good service like this is well worth hanging on to just to preserve your sanity!

Having tried all the "internet supermarkets" to try to insure my daughter to drive a car - a basic VW Polo, and finding that "Confused", Tesco et al were very expensive, I tried "More Than". They were much cheaper. They insisted on a huge excess of £600 - so it won't be worth claiming for damage to the Polo, but the premium was much better value than anyone else offerred. Well done to "More Than".
They have both a phone based service, and an internet one.
It's nice to be able to report a good Company for once!

hi
I had a 4 litre petrol jeep cherokee and was insured with budget,when i changed to a 3 litre toyota hilux diesel i was informed that it would cost me in the region of £1500 (i am 48 and have no convictions)
I had a look on the internet and in the end gave my details to money supermarket for them to find me a better offer and they did,i ended up getting the same insurance for under £500 off co-op insurance
When i phoned budget i was told by an extremely quick speaking south african girl that the cancellation fee would be £40 then they would be charging me £380 but i could not really understand her so i did not know what for it turns out that they are charging me for no real reason,the actual insurers dont know anything about the charge it is just because i have had the gall to go elsewhere
What puzzles me is they profess to search loads of different insurance company`s to get you the right quote so how is it i found one a thousand pounds cheaper ?
Steer clear of budget
S.C

We accepted a car insurance quote for our son after shopping around, Quinn were by far the most competitively priced. Seemed too good to be true but all the docs arrived in order so 'forgot' about it.
However, when we informed them our son had passed his test less than a month later, they wanted to increase the premium threefold, citing a change in policy details i.e. he no longer had a provisional licence !!!!!
We promptly cancelled the policy but have lost the three monthly premiums paid in advance.

Beware, if it seems too good to be true, then it usually is.

After the awful experience of getting my handbag stolen, I then tried to claim insurance - my first claim in 17 years. The company was not helpful at all, they did not phone me back or tell me what I was to do, they just took details but did not contact me. When I contacted them I was told I could not claim for anything except money. I need proof I had the money on me, statements, receipts etc. They have covered my home for 500,000 to rebuild it but the house only cost £42,000 but have not covered important things like items being stolen away from home. Looks like im not going to get anything - really annoys me paying for all these years but I shouldve checked. I lost a lot of money, mobile phone, bank cards, house keys, personal documents etc. This company is most unhelpful and treats you like a criminal

Hi all,
In January I had a brand new kitchen complete with lovely laminate flooring. Three months later we noticed that the flooring was starting to resemble a mountain range so started looking for a leak which was eventually traced to the dishwasher. It had obviously been going on for some time and had damaged three units as well as the floor. I phoned Norwich Union who completed details on the spot and told me a company called Asprea would be in touch.
This company called the same day (Friday) and arranged for the surveyor to call on the following Tuesday afternoon, after 1 pm as I wouldn't be home until then. I therefore really rushed to get home in time only to find the surveyor had arrived at 12 and the card he left had an incorrect phone number on.
Through the head office I arranged a second visit for the following Friday, which was cancelled because the surveyor was ill, and rebooked for the Tuesday. He did turn up that time, took all the details and said the builder would be in touch. I enquired about using the builder who had originally fitted the kitchen but was told I would have to pay up front and then get the money back and as the damage was in four figures, I couldn't afford to do it.
The builder phoned early on the Friday morning (now 2 weeks since I claimed) and came out the same day, but couldn't start work immediately as we were going on holiday the day after. He phoned again the day we got back and arranged to start work the following Monday. I was at work when the job was 'finished' on the Tuesday, but was on the phone to Asprea immediately I got home with a list of 12 faults, the most serious of which was that the laminate flooring had been put down so that grout lines didn't match and it didn't go far enough into the doorway so there was an inch and a half gap when the door was closed.
The manager of the building firm came out the following Tuesday and agreed all the necessary remedial work which was booked for the Thursday and Friday of the following week, and has now been completed to our satisfaction.
The point of this is that the whole process took 8 weeks, and even allowing for our holiday, this is ridiculous for such a small and relatively simple claim. I dread to think how long 'proper' flood claims are going to take! Also the standard of the original work was simply not good enough and I can't believe the workmen ever thought it could be acceptable, and it wasn't because they were in a hurry! The whole kitchen only took a week and a half to do in January, but they took two days just to replace a tiny bit, then another two days to do most of it again.
Even now, the flooring particularly is not quite right and certainly hasn't been laid as well as it was originally but I just can't face the disruption of emptying the kitchen yet again. I know, because I asked at the time, that my builder would have been able to do the work straight away (and I would have given them a key to do it whilst we were on holiday) and it would have been done properly first time. I also know now that they would have waited a month for payment if necessary, but there would still have been no guarantee of getting the money out of Norwich Union that quickly.
The moral of this story - Norwich Union customer service excellent, Asprea not so good, particularly at keeping appointments, the builders I wouldn't ever allow in my home again.

I had the misfortune of my gas pipe bursting and setting fire to my back-burner last year.

The insurance company (ecclesiastical) turned up pretty quick, although this happened on a Bank Holiday Monday and there was an out-sourced company answering the phone - they could do nothing apart from take my details and get someone to phone me back (which didn't happen of course, I had to phone them back the next day).

Anyway, they sent a chap down to assess the damage and then proceeded to wriggle like hell to get out of paying for anything.

They DID pay for the boiler - because it was not the cause of the damage, but refused to pay for a new gas fire, which was totalled and instead would only pay to brick the wall up. The radiator in that room was not big enough to heat the whole room, hence the fireplace.

They also tried to just pay for accomodation for about 7-8 weeks, despite the drying process (the water pipes burst in the heat) taking 7 weeks alone.

All in all, they pretty much got out of it as cheaply as possible, even leaving me to do all the running around and were not very sympathetic when I told them that at the height of the silly season finding a short rent was nearly impossible - there answer was "well, you'll have to look harder." - obviously I couldn't move very far away as I had to get the kids to school.

So, I think about 4/10 - they turned up quickly, but then wriggled and wriggled to pay as little as possible, despite the extra pressure it would put on me. At one point I had to pay the bills, mortgage and rent out of one pay packet - I did get this back, but it meant a summer with no money at all.

Not really all that impressed.

The Consumer Forums

Diamond car insurance

Direct Line car insurance

Swift Insurance

Pet Insurance Know what you're buying

Tesco Car Insurance

More Than

Budget rip off

Quinn - direct Insurance

Liverpool Victoria Insurance

Norwich Union household insurance

Ecclesiastical Insurance