Monday 10 October 2016

Insurance Company Woes


I insure my bikes with Aviva (formerly Norwich Union) I'm happy enough with them. The price seems ok and I've got a group policy for all my bikes. I haven't made a claim in many years so I can't really say how good they are. Once a year I phone them up, pay, and get my certificates in the post.

A couple of years ago I did this and no certificates were sent. I paid again (they not having taken the cash from my account) and they sent the certificates immediately as pdf files in an email.

This year it took three attempts to pay. Every time I paid (or thought I did) no certificates were sent. Only when I asked for the documents to be emailed did they appear.

In June this year I bought the SV650. I called and paid a small fee to have the bike added and asked for a pdf that was duly sent. Today (4 months later) I got a letter demanding the fee and saying my insurance would be cancelled unless I paid. I checked my on-line account and sure enough the cash hadn't gone through.

I called up and paid again. I asked the guy why Aviva were so bad at taking money from me and was this a common problem. He didn't say, but have the feeling we'll be talking again.

Anyone else had a problem with a company that refused to accept your money even when you try very hard to give it to them? 

4 comments:

  1. I would try Carole Nash next time. They do a rider policy and have no problems taking my money ;-)

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  2. Yikes. That seems like a royal pain in the a$$.

    We use one insurance company (State Farm) for all our stuff here in Oregon. They put all the policies (4 motorcycles, 2 cars, and life insurance on the both of us) all on a monthly billing cycle with auto payment out of our checking account. The car policies are up every six months and auto-renew, the motorcycles are yearly and auto-renew. If there is a change in amount that comes out of your account they send you a letter to let you know if insurance went up or down that renewal. We don't even have to think about it.

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    Replies
    1. Yes it's a pain and surprising because they have been ok for years.

      Over here I avoid auto-renewal. Some companies (in fairness not Aviva, in my case) hike the price for regular customers hoping that they wouldn't notice or be bothered to query it. My good lady often calls the insurance company and tells them to f*&% off, I'm not paying that, and they usually say, ok you can have it at the old price. Valued customer you are not.

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  3. Wow, that sounds like a huge hassle just trying to get your insurance paid! I have my auto insurance on an auto pay which luckily has worked out just fine over the years. I do check every renewal period just to make sure that they have not hiked my rates up however.

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