Admiral - Computer says no...

[Ratten]

Just thought i'd highlight my recent dealings with my insurance company (Admiral) ...i've been with them 11 years which is the wrong thing to do, but this last little thing just got me!

Driving home on Sunday in stop start traffic the chap behind goes into the back of the car. Low speed, no damage, photos taken and details exchanged just in case some sensors got whacked. You'd never know. All on rear facing dashcam too.
I phone up Admiral on Tuesday and tell them what happened as you're meant to and say no damage, but getting the garage to check car over. All pictures and video sent to Admiral.

Get an email yesterday saying due to 'incident' they're putting 78 quid on my renewal next week.

Cue me phoning up and forcefully querying!

They state they've closed the claim and recorded zero damage and zero cost, but computer says my premium must go up as (and you'll like this..) those who are in a non-fault claim like having someone go into them are more likely in the future to make a fault claim i.e. me smashing into someone else.

I did suggest this was bo!!ocks and that i've jockeyed a few spreadsheets myself and that correlation is not causation. You could equally equate veganism and claims, but they don't have the data for that. The idea that a 3 mph kiss of my bumper by someone changes my driving risk profile is utter garbage and by the laws of data analysis and physics cannot be true, but having spoken to people in every department (seemingly in every corner of the globe) it came back to computer says no. They wouldn't allow me to speak to the underwriter, their risk modeller or anyone with authority.

I put it to them that i'm petty enough willing to take my 1400 of business to someone else for the sake of 78 quid. They took 4 quid off. I've a bit of free time at the moment and i object to being price gouged.

Once i move the business i'll summarise the position to their CEO and suggest they need better modelling and data scientists as petty gouging and lying to customers is going to cost them business from informed customers.

They've always been good on price and their website is good, but i cannot abide poor analysis and logic and being lied to.

They may well be the people for you if you don't have any out of the ordinary needs and don't mind being bent over for the wrong reasons when you do the right thing, but expect "Computer says no" if you query anything.

NFU for me going forward - helpful, knowledgeable and good pricing.

You live and learn.

 

[John Gryphon]

give the ****s the arse immediately. If you are on social media broadcast all about it and send them the link...pressure may make them see the light.

 

[opticron1]

I tend to agree with JG on this one!
Had a similar incident last year, notified my insurer (Markerstudy) and told them the story - same thing, photo's taken and full description and lack of damage. They noted it and it remained on a pre-action file in case of any later claims, but absolutely no increase in premium and no loss of no claims either. Driver going into the back of you is at fault, end of - driving without due care and attention.
Admiral are taking the pi*s! Change your insurer!

 

[NullMac]

My mate put his wife on the car insurance and got a refund ! Obviously hadn't met the wife

 

[Liveonce]

Been with the NFU for many many years, always found them helpful and competitive. However they did bring in a couple of years back a restriction on the quantity of ammunition or gas bottles you can carry in the vehicle.

 

[Tim.243]

Just thought i'd highlight my recent dealings with my insurance company (Admiral) ...i've been with them 11 years which is the wrong thing to do, but this last little thing just got me!

Driving home on Sunday in stop start traffic the chap behind goes into the back of the car. Low speed, no damage, photos taken and details exchanged just in case some sensors got whacked. You'd never know. All on rear facing dashcam too.
I phone up Admiral on Tuesday and tell them what happened as you're meant to and say no damage, but getting the garage to check car over. All pictures and video sent to Admiral.

Get an email yesterday saying due to 'incident' they're putting 78 quid on my renewal next week.

Cue me phoning up and forcefully querying!

They state they've closed the claim and recorded zero damage and zero cost, but computer says my premium must go up as (and you'll like this..) those who are in a non-fault claim like having someone go into them are more likely in the future to make a fault claim i.e. me smashing into someone else.

I did suggest this was bo!!ocks and that i've jockeyed a few spreadsheets myself and that correlation is not causation. You could equally equate veganism and claims, but they don't have the data for that. The idea that a 3 mph kiss of my bumper by someone changes my driving risk profile is utter garbage and by the laws of data analysis and physics cannot be true, but having spoken to people in every department (seemingly in every corner of the globe) it came back to computer says no. They wouldn't allow me to speak to the underwriter, their risk modeller or anyone with authority.

I put it to them that i'm petty enough willing to take my 1400 of business to someone else for the sake of 78 quid. They took 4 quid off. I've a bit of free time at the moment and i object to being price gouged.

Once i move the business i'll summarise the position to their CEO and suggest they need better modelling and data scientists as petty gouging and lying to customers is going to cost them business from informed customers.

They've always been good on price and their website is good, but i cannot abide poor analysis and logic and being lied to.

They may well be the people for you if you don't have any out of the ordinary needs and don't mind being bent over for the wrong reasons when you do the right thing, but expect "Computer says no" if you query anything.

NFU for me going forward - helpful, knowledgeable and good pricing.

You live and learn.

I was hit by a car who decided to reverse into a drive with me being the last in the line of traffic to pass him with room as he was on the curb (and lost) Took pictures and video got a text message saying it was his fault and still the young chap from the insurance company told me I had hit a parked car after the first 2 mins of our conversation.
Took ages to sort out, with alarm bells ringing as the driver had the same Dave. Smith Danny. Smith so D. Smith and Danny Smith was a car trader!
What it was the dad had picked up a car the son had bought that morning for the son, got lost then hit me reversing in a driveway....
Far to long of a story but after speaking to the insurance ombudsman then requesting all the transcribes of the phone calls digging deeper I told the insurance company I was calling the police as it was fraud. 20 mins later after 2 months of bull **** an asseser was on the phone booking to come see the truck. Got paid out kept the truck as it was a N/S write off for %10 salvage value. Jacked the big dent in the tub out, had it re-moted as they can see on line the mot with not increase in my insurance.
Had I not been dealing with insurance work for 20 years and played their game the truck would have been gone with a salvage yard rubbing their hands and my looking for a replacement truck and far less to replace it with.

 

[Smellydog]

Welcome to AI. Insurers have always been robbing bastards.
I use comparison sites every year. Regular customers get screwed every time.
Talking of the NFU, we knew an old gent that was with them for years. My Mrs did a comparison for him , halved his bill!

 

[Donkey Basher]

Same thing happened to us - other half driving along minding her own business when taxi pulls out from bus stop doing a u turn straight into the side of her car.

Still 5 months to policy renewal but taxi driver had a bit of a rep for claims & his insurer initially declined to cover him so we headed for court with attendant delays.

At renewal premium went up because it was till an unsettled claim on my policy. Insurer assured that once settled all would go back to normal so I went for monthly payments rather than a lump
sum so effect would be immediate.

Claim settled on the court steps & all good… so I thought…

Rang insurer to sort out new monthly amount only to be told exactly the same as the OP.

Insurer was also Admiral.

Didn’t renew the next year, went to Aviva instead.

That was nearly 10 years ago & like the OP I tried everything to make them see logic but to no avail.

 

[snake_2586]

I changed cars recently, ran the insurer to tell them, and the person on the end of the phone came back to me saying that they were unable to insure my new car, so I said, I suppose that means we will be canceling the policy and I will be going else where, at this point I was told there would be a £50 cancellation fee, I then pointed out to them that it was not me cancelling the policy but them terminating it early and I would not be paying them anything.

 

[timbrayford]

Just thought i'd highlight my recent dealings with my insurance company (Admiral) ...i've been with them 11 years which is the wrong thing to do, but this last little thing just got me!

Driving home on Sunday in stop start traffic the chap behind goes into the back of the car. Low speed, no damage, photos taken and details exchanged just in case some sensors got whacked. You'd never know. All on rear facing dashcam too.
I phone up Admiral on Tuesday and tell them what happened as you're meant to and say no damage, but getting the garage to check car over. All pictures and video sent to Admiral.

Get an email yesterday saying due to 'incident' they're putting 78 quid on my renewal next week.

Cue me phoning up and forcefully querying!

They state they've closed the claim and recorded zero damage and zero cost, but computer says my premium must go up as (and you'll like this..) those who are in a non-fault claim like having someone go into them are more likely in the future to make a fault claim i.e. me smashing into someone else.

I did suggest this was bo!!ocks and that i've jockeyed a few spreadsheets myself and that correlation is not causation. You could equally equate veganism and claims, but they don't have the data for that. The idea that a 3 mph kiss of my bumper by someone changes my driving risk profile is utter garbage and by the laws of data analysis and physics cannot be true, but having spoken to people in every department (seemingly in every corner of the globe) it came back to computer says no. They wouldn't allow me to speak to the underwriter, their risk modeller or anyone with authority.

I put it to them that i'm petty enough willing to take my 1400 of business to someone else for the sake of 78 quid. They took 4 quid off. I've a bit of free time at the moment and i object to being price gouged.

Once i move the business i'll summarise the position to their CEO and suggest they need better modelling and data scientists as petty gouging and lying to customers is going to cost them business from informed customers.

They've always been good on price and their website is good, but i cannot abide poor analysis and logic and being lied to.

They may well be the people for you if you don't have any out of the ordinary needs and don't mind being bent over for the wrong reasons when you do the right thing, but expect "Computer says no" if you query anything.

NFU for me going forward - helpful, knowledgeable and good pricing.

You live and learn.

Avoid NFU mutual at all costs. I had a boy racer lose control of his vehicle and smashed head on into my navara writing it off. The police accident investigation exonerated me from all blame , the boy racer got convicted of reckless driving , banned and ordered to take a retest. NFU mutual wanted to settle 50:50, I had to threaten them with legal action to get paid out in full.

 

[John Gryphon]

I was refused house insurance over the phone "because I am in a flood zone" I was told.........Yeah? How in the **** did you work that out, my home is a 1000' (300+M`s) higher than the river ffs" They just used an all encompassing postcode not a physical address. My dollars were received elsewhere.

 

[HallyButt]

Problem is, if you go to a direct insurer due to price (which the industry has conditioned us all too) you get crap. As you can imagine, anyone in a call center is going to have zero authority and will a CEO give a stuff
about one person out of millions, especially when the algo shows higher propensity for future claim (not necessarily fault)?

With direct insurers there is no one in the chain on your side, I would always advocate going to a broker and then you have them on your side and if they screw up your have strong recourse against their advice, rather than your own.

I sit on the board of a few insurance businesses, I always use a broker that way any headaches are theirs, not mine.

The motor insurance industry is a disaster, everyone chasing customers through aggregators and so having to be both the cheapest and suffer a huge cost of comparison commission, they then lose money year in year out, can’t put prices up others the customers they won will move for the same £3 saving elsewhere and so the only option is to be tough on claims and also additional charges ..

 

[tozzybum]

Just thought i'd highlight my recent dealings with my insurance company (Admiral) ...i've been with them 11 years which is the wrong thing to do, but this last little thing just got me!

Driving home on Sunday in stop start traffic the chap behind goes into the back of the car. Low speed, no damage, photos taken and details exchanged just in case some sensors got whacked. You'd never know. All on rear facing dashcam too.
I phone up Admiral on Tuesday and tell them what happened as you're meant to and say no damage, but getting the garage to check car over. All pictures and video sent to Admiral.

Get an email yesterday saying due to 'incident' they're putting 78 quid on my renewal next week.

Cue me phoning up and forcefully querying!

They state they've closed the claim and recorded zero damage and zero cost, but computer says my premium must go up as (and you'll like this..) those who are in a non-fault claim like having someone go into them are more likely in the future to make a fault claim i.e. me smashing into someone else.

I did suggest this was bo!!ocks and that i've jockeyed a few spreadsheets myself and that correlation is not causation. You could equally equate veganism and claims, but they don't have the data for that. The idea that a 3 mph kiss of my bumper by someone changes my driving risk profile is utter garbage and by the laws of data analysis and physics cannot be true, but having spoken to people in every department (seemingly in every corner of the globe) it came back to computer says no. They wouldn't allow me to speak to the underwriter, their risk modeller or anyone with authority.

I put it to them that i'm petty enough willing to take my 1400 of business to someone else for the sake of 78 quid. They took 4 quid off. I've a bit of free time at the moment and i object to being price gouged.

Once i move the business i'll summarise the position to their CEO and suggest they need better modelling and data scientists as petty gouging and lying to customers is going to cost them business from informed customers.

They've always been good on price and their website is good, but i cannot abide poor analysis and logic and being lied to.

They may well be the people for you if you don't have any out of the ordinary needs and don't mind being bent over for the wrong reasons when you do the right thing, but expect "Computer says no" if you query anything.

NFU for me going forward - helpful, knowledgeable and good pricing.

You live and learn.

No accident, no claim just after 3 years loyalty to admiral insurance our 200 quid a year for a ten year old astra shot up to over 600 .
When I rang to say wtf I got a bucket of blah blah blah from the call centre .
And for the he'll of it went on a fat Welsh opera singers site and was quoted £250 by you guessed it Admiral.
When I asked why they said that's only for" new customers" existing satisfied customers get individual quotes.
Funnily enough I'm with Aviva now and admiral can take along walk off a short cliff .

 

[Tf223]

Problem is, statistically those who have had an ‘incident’ even if not their fault are more likely to be involved in another.
Shouldn’t have told them unless you actually were starting a claim - honesty doesn’t pay.

 

[Cyres]

Hasting Premier wanted to increase my car insurance by £130 which was over 50% increase. Would not budge on price so renewed with Tesco identical policy and less than my previous years price. Adrian Flux and Lancaster quoted silly price for Grand vitara. Got good policy from Churchill and this year renewed with them £60 less than last year.
D

 

[Overlay]

Just thought i'd highlight my recent dealings with my insurance company (Admiral) ...i've been with them 11 years which is the wrong thing to do, but this last little thing just got me!

Driving home on Sunday in stop start traffic the chap behind goes into the back of the car. Low speed, no damage, photos taken and details exchanged just in case some sensors got whacked. You'd never know. All on rear facing dashcam too.
I phone up Admiral on Tuesday and tell them what happened as you're meant to and say no damage, but getting the garage to check car over. All pictures and video sent to Admiral.

Get an email yesterday saying due to 'incident' they're putting 78 quid on my renewal next week.

Cue me phoning up and forcefully querying!

They state they've closed the claim and recorded zero damage and zero cost, but computer says my premium must go up as (and you'll like this..) those who are in a non-fault claim like having someone go into them are more likely in the future to make a fault claim i.e. me smashing into someone else.

I did suggest this was bo!!ocks and that i've jockeyed a few spreadsheets myself and that correlation is not causation. You could equally equate veganism and claims, but they don't have the data for that. The idea that a 3 mph kiss of my bumper by someone changes my driving risk profile is utter garbage and by the laws of data analysis and physics cannot be true, but having spoken to people in every department (seemingly in every corner of the globe) it came back to computer says no. They wouldn't allow me to speak to the underwriter, their risk modeller or anyone with authority.

I put it to them that i'm petty enough willing to take my 1400 of business to someone else for the sake of 78 quid. They took 4 quid off. I've a bit of free time at the moment and i object to being price gouged.

Once i move the business i'll summarise the position to their CEO and suggest they need better modelling and data scientists as petty gouging and lying to customers is going to cost them business from informed customers.

They've always been good on price and their website is good, but i cannot abide poor analysis and logic and being lied to.

They may well be the people for you if you don't have any out of the ordinary needs and don't mind being bent over for the wrong reasons when you do the right thing, but expect "Computer says no" if you query anything.

NFU for me going forward - helpful, knowledgeable and good pricing.

You live and learn.

When my land rover got written off when it was parked up with no passengers and no fault of mine they short changed me by 10.5. K. Got my solicitor to take up the reins and eventually got another 3.5 k which left a sliver over 7k outstanding on the valuation after I paid myself, a consultation with a team of solicitors as I was ****ed off big time, the result they came up with that yes they can get the 7k in court all the paperwork was bang on the money, but the cost for that will be 7.5 k or more. Ex demonstrator. With 20k on the clock at the time of the accident

this was through tescos with churchills being the insurer, bunch of thieving bast88rds.

 

[Cyres]

Many years ago was involved in a major RTA. Hit by a car when driver lost control on a nasty bend. Big insurance claim which took nigh on 5 years to resolve. My insurance premiums were increased despite no fault on my behalf. So in my claim put in for 5 years premium increases on 2 car policies. My lawyer was sceptical but fortunately I had a renewal quote just before the RTA and could compare it to quote for neigh on identical replacement car. Case settled on steps of court for the full amount.
D

 

[slider]

Welcome to AI. Insurers have always been robbing bastards.
I use comparison sites every year. Regular customers get screwed every time.
Talking of the NFU, we knew an old gent that was with them for years. My Mrs did a comparison for him , halved his bill!

I was with the NFU for many years, business (now closed), cars and house.
Did a comparison a few years ago and, likewise, halved my premiums.
I have given them the opportunity to quote since but never anywhere near competitive on a little like for like basis

 

[Ratten]

Problem is, statistically those who have had an ‘incident’ even if not their fault are more likely to be involved in another.
Shouldn’t have told them unless you actually were starting a claim - honesty doesn’t pay.

I suspect the problem is their statistics are based on a incomplete data set and hence incorrect. A few Excel plugins does not a data scientist make.... This is a bit like in signal processing where if you fail to sample correctly (nyquist ratio) you lose the information in the signal. They have a limited dataset and are drawing the simplest of conclusions from effectively, aliased data. No human querying of the hypothesis has been applied. Their belief that the moment Terry from Kenya (for it was he) kissed my number plate my risk of taking out a bus queue in the next 12 months increased by 13% is fanciful. They might as well base their model on astrology.

You are right that honesty doesn't pay, but if Nairobi Terry had told his insurance or tried to claim his bumper and i hadn't it would have got back to Admiral and i suspect they'd have hauled me up for the crime of being a lying, devious ba$tard which isn't allowed because that's they job...

I'm just bitter though as they make bin loads of cash by being incompetent. They could make a lot more, but can't see it

 

[kes]

Been with the NFU for many many years, always found them helpful and competitive. However they did bring in a couple of years back a restriction on the quantity of ammunition or gas bottles you can carry in the vehicle.

Thats interesting news since I had not heard it and, vary occasionally carry gas bottles from a friends farm to my own - about 150 metres. How many is 'one' allowed to carry ?