Bennetts insurance rip off scam

[omega1987]

Rip off, scam
　
　
Last year I brought insurance with bennetts for quite a reasonable price but when the time came to renew this year they had put my premium up to £694 (up nearly £200) on last year despite not having had an accident, anyway I decided to go with Caroline Nash who quoted me £220 for a very similar policy so I went with them, unforchantly however I received a letter from bennetts telling me that I had been charged for a years policy (£694) and it turns out that in the small print you have to opt out of renewal, so I phoned bennetts and asked for a refund but I got nothing but poor attitude once they found out that I was cancelling. I was told that they would charge me a £30 admin fee plus £50 for five days cover despite being covered by another insurer. The insurance was due to start on the 17th and I phoned on the 20th to cancel but they didn’t charge my account until the 21st . So I’ve paid £694 for insurance with bennetts and £220 with carol Nash.
Now it seems to me that bennetts lure you in with a competitive rate for the first year and then hope you don’t notice the small print and charge you an uncompetitive rate for the next years insurance.
You’ve been warned
Bennetts are a scam.
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Just been to reviewcenter.com http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews64066.html and bennetts scored 0.8 out of five stars (an average with 69 separate reviews) soon too be 70.
don’t use bennetts

[craigrevo]

And you really needed to post this so many times?

[Lutin]

Multiple posts removed and moved here.

[Whealie]

Write to (or email) Bennetts heading the letter Complaint, outlining the dealings you have had so far.

Ask for their complaints procedure and ask at what stage of it they believe you are currently at. Make clear you intend to complain to Financial Ombudsman Service.

Point them to this thread (I have changed the title to help search engines find it - it should be up the top on Google shortly).

[omega1987]

Sorry for the mutable posts, just trying to get a wide audience aware of these scammers. thanks for the advice regarding the financial ombudsman service.

[ADE THE BLADE]

hello all........i`m ade the blades partner and work within banking. my suggestion is..did you pay by direct debit? if so you should be able to go to your bank, they can raise whats called an indemnity-basically they give u your money back and then they( the bank ) will go to bennetts to ask for their money back good luck with it. dont give in. let me know how things gooh just one thing............if bennetts refuse to give the money back to the bank then the bank will debit the money back from you but 9 times out of 10 the company normally give the money back. I deal with these sorts of things on a daily basis!

[jamie92j]

+1 same with me, had a letter at end of my year with a much higher price then i first paid plus a part saying they would charged my account, to which i hastly rang up and made sure they didnt!!!! scammers!!!!

try simple bike insurance, i got the best quote from them by far and are very nice to deal with

good luck in getting your money back

i wont be using bennets again......

[Bikesure]

Automatic renewals are common-place in the industry. Bikesure / Adrian Flux also offers this but it is clear to the eye on the renewal invitation. Can't miss it.

If you arranged alternative insurance with effect from your renewal date, send Bennetts a copy of the new certificate. Their policy will have to be lapsed / cancelled from the inception of your current policy to avoid duel-insurance. If their renewal cover is lapsed from renewal it is unlikely that they will still charge their fees.

If you need any other advice, just give me a shout.

Phil

[steinberg]

I've also recently found Benetts attitude rather aggresisve re. my wife's bike insurance. When we moved house we wrote to everyone to notify them of the change of address - Bennetts were the only people to try and charge us (£25) to update their records! When we initially complained that the charge seemed unfair they said something like 'pay up or the policy will be cancelled and we'll send a debt collector to get the money'!!
We then complained formally to them, pointing out that there was no mention of a charge for change of address in their policy details (albeit there were charges mentioned for re-issue of lost certificates, bounced cheques etc.). They eventually dropped the charge, but have now lost a customer at renewal time!
It was crazy - the £25 they wanted to charge was a quarter of the entire premium !

[sean]

go to Ebike - good prices, easy (online) to deal with and when i had to sort a claim, they were very good. my view on automatic renewals is that firms who set up these are deliberately doing this in order to rip customers off at renewal.