Here’s an extreme example of the dreaded “loyalty penalty”.
Andrew Brass was discussing home insurance with his parents and discovered that they were paying £875 annually.
He found that their premium had being going up by an inflation-busting 7% most years for more than decade.
He shopped around and got an alternative quote of just £129.
“It is my belief that my parents have been overcharged by about £7,000 in total,” said Andrew, from Bilston, West Midlands.
“They would have continued to be overcharged without my involvement.”
His parents’ policy was with Aviva, arranged through the Royal London.
When he complained, Royal London told him that it was only the “introducer” and Aviva wrote back: “We do not advertise that we provide the cheapest quotation.”
Aviva told me: “We are currently working closely with the Financial Ombudsman Service to get a fair and just outcome for Mr and Mrs Brass as soon as possible”
As soon as possible? This complaint is more than four years old
The Ombudsman apologised for the delay, saying it was close to a resolution. “We have uncovered some blatantly unfair pricing practices in insurance, especially among more vulnerable consumers, known to be less likely to shop around and exploiting loyalty to trusted brands,” a spokesman said.
“Following our investigations more than 200 consumers have now had fair compensation.”
PS: Aviva boss Mark Wilson left late last year, walking away with a golden goodbye put at £6million.
You don’t have to be elderly or vulnerable to fall for investment frauds, as this awful case proves.A professional couple thought they were investing with global giant AON, the Manchester United sponsor, but lost their savings to online crooks.Dr Nansi Fashtali and husband Marcel, a care home assistant, say they gave their contact details to its website and then were phoned by what they believed to be an AON adviser, who talked expertly about their investment options.“Their offers were never too good to be true, with interest of 1.95% to 5%” said Marcel.“This, and the fact that AON is a renowned firm, meant we had no doubts about investing.”The couple forwarded more than £22,000, which has now disappeared.A month later, the Financial ConductAuthority published a warning that Aonassetmanagement. com was a clone site being used by fraudsters.AON, whose genuine website is Aon.com, believes the couple must have used this fake site.An AON financial crime manager told the couple: “While I fully sympathise with the situation you now find yourself in... as you will appreciate AON is not and cannot be responsible for the illegal actions of third parties who have nothing to do with the AON Group.” Nansi isn’t convinced, saying: “It is a real disappointment that AON accuses us of having initially contacted the ‘clone’ firm.“I am sure we did contact them on Aon.com, this was what was given to me written on a piece of paper by a friend.“We read the homepage before going on to the contact form.” SPONSOR United’s Solskjaer
CHUFFED Aviva’s Wilson