Hastings Direct has been fined GBP735,000 by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) for treating its customers unfairly. The car insurance company was found to have cancelled over 4,500 policies following a pricing error.
The problem was caused by the Hastings Direct car insurance quotation system, which generated quotes that were lower than the market rate. The insurer then decided to cancel these policies, a step that was not acceptable according to the FSA.
Although a cancellation clause was included within the policies the FSA felt that Hastings Direct should have considered other options first rather than invoking the cancellations. They believe that it is not acceptable to cancel cover because of what is simply a pricing error.
Endsleigh Insurance is warning homeowners that getting repairs and home improvement work done by non-approved people can mean home insurance is not valid, leaving the consumer unprotected.
Should the design or workmanship of a home improvement project be below the typical standard, or if unsuitable materials or tools are used, Endsleigh Insurance will not pay out for any claims made. They, along with many other insurers, will also refuse to pay when structural modifications that have been done on a DIY basis, lead to a buildings insurance claim.
The view of the insurer is that they are basing their premiums on the perceived risk of the property as described. If this changes, through a home improvement project for example, the insurer, be it Endsleigh home insurance or any other, needs to know about it, and to what standard it was done, so they can re-evaluate the risk profile.
A new report from Green Flag shows that we are spending more time than ever before simply waiting – be it in a traffic jam, in a shop queue or for a delivery.
The report reveals we spend around six months of our life just waiting! It seems over a third of the people asked spend over and hour a week waiting in queues at shops and supermarkets. Add in waiting at service organisations, especially banks, and that figure rises to almost two hours.
We are all familiar with waiting in traffic, from the school run delays in the morning, through shopping traffic and the often disrupted motorway journeys. These can be infuriating but Green flag do advocate a policy of not getting stressed to avoid ill health and accidents.
A traffic queue can sometime lead people to drive more aggressively to get out of it, or into a space, but the upshot of that is they may then have to make a claim on their car insurance, which will cost them far more than the time they spent waiting.
