7 replies to this topic

[POWER5LAVE]

right ive been insured with lancester (on a classic policy)with my current mini for the last 5 months. Everything is declared and im happy, until today i phoned(to make sure) that i could add a flipfront roll cage and harnesses to my policy and i was told that the insurance wont cover my car if i add a rear cage and the harnesses but i am allowed to fit a fibreglass front what the hell.

so im just ranting. anyone else had problems with lancester and or at least could some one tell why they wont cover a cage but will happilly let me rip the whole front of the car off and fit a fibreglass one!!!. the lady on the phone was really helpful but i dont think she really understood what i was on about bless. but the thing that annoys me the most is the fact that i have bucket seats in the car that are declared but i cant fit harnesses.

i considered just fitting the cage anyway but knowing my luck i would get caught out lol

/rant over

anyone else have problems with lancester.

i dont really want to have to switch insurance again as lancester were the only company that would offer me a sensible quote on my modified mini .

[GW]

this is a non problem. Lancaster are a broker, not an insurer. When you took out the policy you declared the mods you had and they found you a policy.. your current insurer wont cover a roll cage. this used to be vary common and many insurers still do not like roll cages. This can be put down to the race car image, and also to increased personal injury claims from people hitting heads and limbs on cages during crashes.


You have 2 options now.

1) Wait until insurance is due for renewal then find an insurer that will cover the mods - before you do them.

2) if you want to add these now, find cover elsewhere that will allow these mods and stump up the extra cash/cancellation fee.

I would reccomend Brentacre, they don't seem to have a problem with cages IIRC.

[yorkshirechris]

Insurance companies are all much of a muchness and to be honest you shouldn't be too hacked off that they've refused to cover it on your policy - something to remember when dealing with insurers, estate agents and solicitors is that common sense goes out of the window. It seems perfectly reasonable to me for them to cover the extra bits you want to add but rules and policies are there and under no circumstances will they change them to accommodate you whether it makes sense or not. In hindsight it might've been a good idea to ask them about things like this when you took out the insurance.

I'm not a happy customer of Lancaster by the way - I'm still having to make monthly payments of "insurance" to them for a car which was stolen back in March this year.. so technically I'm paying for cover for something which I don't actually posess any more. If I'd have sold the car, they would've terminated the policy at that point, charged me £15 cancellation and not wanted anything more out of me, but because I had to make a claim on the policy their attitude suddenly changed and they are exercising their legal rights to charge me for the full duration of the policy... which I think is pretty damn cheeky!

[Scallywag630]

Insurance companies are all much of a muchness and to be honest you shouldn't be too hacked off that they've refused to cover it on your policy - something to remember when dealing with insurers, estate agents and solicitors is that common sense goes out of the window. It seems perfectly reasonable to me for them to cover the extra bits you want to add but rules and policies are there and under no circumstances will they change them to accommodate you whether it makes sense or not. In hindsight it might've been a good idea to ask them about things like this when you took out the insurance.

I'm not a happy customer of Lancaster by the way - I'm still having to make monthly payments of "insurance" to them for a car which was stolen back in March this year.. so technically I'm paying for cover for something which I don't actually posess any more. If I'd have sold the car, they would've terminated the policy at that point, charged me £15 cancellation and not wanted anything more out of me, but because I had to make a claim on the policy their attitude suddenly changed and they are exercising their legal rights to charge me for the full duration of the policy... which I think is pretty damn cheeky!

I don't see how it is cheeky to ask you to pay the full premium. You took out a yearly policy and, as you said, would have got a partial refund if you had not used the policy. But you did make a claim. Would you have been happy for the insurance company to say "you have only paid for 3 months, ie 25% of the premium, therefore we will pay 25% of the value. You can't have it both ways.

[alicetheauto]

I was more angry at them when my policy lapsed, I got a better quote elsewhere and took it out, THEN Lancaste renewed my policy with them aswell. Only, it went from £198/year to £600!!!! And they charged me for 2 months. As soon as I mentioned finacnial services authority in my third letter to them it all got sorted.

[yorkshirechris]

I don't see how it is cheeky to ask you to pay the full premium. You took out a yearly policy and, as you said, would have got a partial refund if you had not used the policy. But you did make a claim. Would you have been happy for the insurance company to say "you have only paid for 3 months, ie 25% of the premium, therefore we will pay 25% of the value. You can't have it both ways.

Well no, that's not strictly true is it? If I sold the car after three months I would've used three months of the cover and only paid for three, because after that, the car was no longer in my posession to be covered. The car was stolen after three months, yet they're charging me for twelve,even though the car is no longer in my posession to be covered.

It is cheeky because a car is just as likely to be stolen in the first week of the 12-month policy as it is in the last week of the 12-month policy. The argument that I should only get 25% of the value of the vehicle if it is stolen after 3 months is both theoretical and ridiculous - I pay the cover on a month by month basis but the whole value of the vehicle is covered at any one time.

Like I said, they're just squeezing as much money as they possibly can out of me purely because I had to make a claim and they're happily extracting £31 a month from my bank account for insurance to cover a car that is no longer in my possession - if that's not cheeky, I dont know what is. Do you work for an insurer by any chance?

[alicetheauto]

You didnt pay for your insurance on a month by month basis, you took out a loan from a 3rd party to pay for your annual premium. The finance company pays the insurer the total upfront, then you owe the finance company. Month-by-month insurance IS available from some companies (at a higher cost).

[stevedx]

I am with lancaster - bloody usless