... The Insurance Line were significantly cheaper than any of the other quotes I'd received so I paid over the phone by debit card in full.At this point I was a happy little sand-boy.
I asked for the cover to start in a week's time so that I could get the bike MOT'd and taxed the following ... Read review
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A review by drummingbunny on The Insurance Line June 19th, 2001
Author's product rating:
Price
Service
Efficiency
Advantages:
Cheap quote (originally)
Disadvantages:
Extortionate cancellation charges
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
I recently needed to insure my motorbike at short notice (unexpected warm weather, you see, it always catches us Brits out). Being a rather tight-fisted chap when it comes to paying for a service that I don't intend to use (i.e. motor insurance) I did the usual rounds of freephone numbers and playing insurance companies against each other. The Insurance Line were significantly cheaper than any of the other quotes I'd received so I paid over the phone by debit card in full.At this point I was a happy little sand-boy.
I asked for the cover to start in a week's time so that I could get the bike MOT'd and taxed the following weekend. So far so good. Until I got a letter on Saturday morning that was rather ambiguous but which I took to mean that I wasn't insured until I sent them proof of No Claims. They tell me that this is not what it meant, but that's beside the point. They'd got some of my details wrong and when corrected, the premium was not quite so rosy. So I told them so. They told me to pay up or else not be covered.
By this stage I'd had enough - I didn't pay £275 up front, in full to be treated like a shop-lifter. So I called them and said that I would like to cancel the insurance, I'd rather give my money to someone who at least gives me decent service. They said that there was a standard charge of 30% for short notice cancellations! In short they were charging me almost £100 for a week's poor service! I then wrote to them telling them what I thought of this situation and was told that the best they could do was charge me 30% of the previous (lower) premium! I had expected to have to pay some kind of 'handling fee' but this was just ridiculous.
Avoid this company, they are polite and have a good telephone manner but beware of the small print - I'll certainly be more careful in the future
Advantages: How to save money on your car insurance Disadvantages: None
...You can beat the rising cost of car insurance if you know where to look and what to do.
Firstly don't stick with the same insurer year after year, if you do your costs will go up. Shop around each year, get quotes from several reputable companies direct you will often pick up a discount from them just for being a new customer. Avoid insurance brokers, cut out the middle man and go to the big insurers direct.
Use the internet to shop around for cheaper insurance, there are several reputable companies offering insurance on-line and other companies where you can do an on-line search for the cheapest insurance.
Use the internet. If you are reading this then you obviously have an internet connection. USE IT. I recently saved my daughter over £200 this year on her car insurance by researching prices and quotes on-line. Once we had...
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Advantages: Low Price Disadvantages: No service, cannot get through to customer service, information incorrect after 3 attempts
...After 12 years with Direct Line, I changed to Privilege, same company, cheaper price. My wife had a no fault accident, tried to speak to someone on a mobile phone following the accident, constantly being passed around, left for over four and a half hours on the side of the road waiting for the car to be recovered. The phone bill exceeded £7.00, problems getting through to customer services, as per other reviewer's comment's, kept being passed around each passing the buck.
Three weeks later, still waiting for a response to my complaint letter. Be advised the company also is part of the Direct Line and Green Flag group. If they agree for the vehicle to be recovered it will be Green Flag, if you try to contact customer services, you sit in Direct Linesinsurance quotation queue and pay for it. The company has also been informed on three...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: No advantages that I am aware of. Disadvantages: Very high hidden charges, unhelpful staff and local agents
...I paid Green Flag over £160 a year for the highest level of recovery service they offer. This turned out to be useless when I had an accident.
They refused to recover my car without taking a £78 payment. This was because the car involved was not my main car, and therefore not insured through Direct Lineinsurance (Direct Line operate the recovery sevice under the name Green Flag). It seems my personal; 'any vehicle' cover does not cover any vehicle.
When the local recovery agent finally arrived they demanded a further £150 to move the car less than a mile down the road to my home. This charge then turned out to be £150 plus 17.5% vat. This fact was deliberately hidden from me by the local recovery agent.
Needless to say, the customer service representatives on the telephone were rude and unhelpful.
Avoid Green Flag...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
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