Falcon insurance

[Austin]

FALCON BIKE INSURANCE

Don’t buy from FALCON BIKE INSURANCE without being very very clear about what you are letting yourself in for. Read their T&Cs carefully before you commit.

My 18year old son took out a policy with them. Their on line engine said the policy would be £170, and the cheapest by far, but he had to phone to arrange. At this point they added nearly £60 in fees taking the policy to £230. As this was still the cheapest (but not by much) he committed and only then did they tell him he had to provide a certificate of restriction to 33bhp preferably from FI International. As he doesn’t have one of these I don’t know how he could meet the terms of the policy.

I came home at this point and said no way was he taking out a policy with a company that did business like that, and phoned up to ask about the discrepancy in pricing and to say that he couldn’t meet the terms of the policy. Their advice was to get it on a dyno’, which I wasn’t prepared to do – his is a 20 year old bike and it’s not worth the risk (it is restricted BTW). They said the only thing to do is cancel the policy. Which I did – perhaps in haste and anger at their poor attitude.

After returning the documents they have now said the refund is £114, ie over 50% of the policy costs for a policy in force for only a few hours and one that they could have easily not submitted to the insurance underwriter. After challenging them on this amount the refund is now £139 after they have taken off the cancellation fee £50, and their admin fee of £48 (I know it doesn’t add up and I get a different story and set of figures each time). They have also said they aren’t refunding the money until mid-May (6weeks after cancelling) as this the earliest they will get the premium back from the underwriters.

I found the following in the terms of business on their website.
5. What you will have to pay us for this service?

We reserve the right to make charges for the services we provide in arranging and renewing any insurance policy. Charges are normally up to £100 for policy arrangement and £100 for renewal or as per our statement of price. The amount is dependent on the type and size of policy and the work involved and will be declared to you on our statement of price. If a policy is cancelled mid-term we will charge up to £50 to cover our administration costs plus recover any lost commission. We also make a charge of up to £100 for policy alterations, £25 for dishonored payments and debt referral, and £10 for duplicate certificates plus any charge made by the insurer. All our fees are non-refundable.

So you pay your policy, plus a charge for setting it up, which is non-refundable if cancelled, plus any changes in policy details are at outrageous prices for simple admin.


I got myself into this position through not looking at the terms of business properly and acting in haste to cancel the policy. Nevertheless I will be pressing for a bigger refund as I think this is all sharp practice.

I shudder to think how this company will behave if I needed to make an actual claim. Howsever I think the loss I making on this is worth it never to have to deal with Falcon Insurance again.


Be careful guys, there's sharks out there.

[Boris]

I thought the distance selling regs give a mandatory cooling off period of something like 14 days where the policy can be cancelled without any penalty.

[Boris]

Found it. It's 7 days

Distance Selling Regulations* - The Office of Fair Trading

[Austin]

Thanks Boris, unfortunately those regulations don't apply to insurance.

[sean]

complain to the insurance ombudsman

[AlanH]

Falcon Insurance will be seeing this thread on page 1 of Google for the term "Falcon Insurance" now.

Let's hope they recognise an opportunity when they see it and do the decent thing. If not, drop Whealie a PM and see if he has any suggestions.

[AlanH]

They said the only thing to do is cancel the policy. Which I did

Hang on a minute - they acted on your instructions to cancel your son's policy? They can't legally do that unless he has given them prior authorisation for you to act on his behalf. If they cancelled his policy purely on your say so, that's a serious DPA breach regardless of the fact you are his dad.

[Boris]

Thanks Boris, unfortunately those regulations don't apply to insurance.

I don't think that's quite correct. There is a clause that covers short period insurance so you can't take out cover for a weekend hire car then cancel it after 7 days if you don't crash but I understand normal policies are covered.

Certainly when I renewed this year they (Swinton) told me I could cancel under the distance selling regs.

Found this
Motor insurance customers getting great deals from online car sales | Car Insurance Blog

I would check the the OFT to be on the safe side if I were you.

[Austin]

Thanks for the tips guys, I will be writing to the ombudsman if I don't get a result but have to give falcon insurance time to try and rsolve my complaint first.

As regards acting on my instructions, they sort of did but rightly insisted the cancellation was in writing from my son.

Distance selling regs - insurance is one the specifically exempted by clause 5 and in schedule 2 Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 2334

I plan to have a chat with whealie about this next week.

Edit..... Ooooh and you are right on the google thing. This thread is now 4th on google.

[Whealie]

My general warning applies here.

It is very easy to make insurance cheap. The insurer just takes out stuff that might be included in a more expensive insurance product.

Motor - and motorbike - policies do not have standard wordings - few policies do (some people with cancelled flights now will be able to claim off their travel polices but many won't).

When you go into Tesco and look at tins of beans there are about 10 varieties. If you buy the cheapest - value brand - you know you will get fewer beans in a watery sauce.

Well cheap insurance is not full of beans either.