At 73 I became a renter and Zurich hiked my car cover

Wanting to renew my car insurance with my usual insurance company, Zurich, I flicked briefly through the Statement of Fact paperwork and noticed that I was still listed as a house owner. My move into a rented home, while I downsized and looked for a smaller property, meant that this was no longer the case.

I called my broker, the excellent SEIB, and asked them to change “own” to “rent”.

I heard an exclamation of dismay from the other end of the phone. Zurich, apparently, for this change in circumstances, had loaded my premium another £49.45.

I went ahead with the insurance anyway, being as usual short on time; then I got curious.

Why the apparent bias against those who rent? Does the fact that I no longer own bricks and mortar make me unreliable? A bad payer? A reckless driver? An undesirable?

I am a law-abiding single female, then 73 with an unsophisticated middle- aged little car. I have a clean licence and umpteen years no- claims bonus. Nothing about me had changed since the last renewal except my move into rented accommodation.

I don’t bother with customer services. Any customer services department is paid to get rid of you and your issue as quickly, quietly and cheaply as possible.

I googled Zurich for the name of the chief executive in the UK.

It showed Ms Tulsi Naidu at an address in Hampshire ( she has since been promoted to a different role). There was a photo of Ms Naidu, and she looked very kind and pleasant.

On July 11 I typed a very polite letter to Ms Naidu asking why Zurich apparently practises such ostensible discrimination against people who rent, rather than considering their track record as a customer.

As ever, with such correspondence, I sent it first class, recorded delivery in an A4 envelope so the letter was not folded, and wrote on the envelope “Private and Confidential. Addressee only please”.

This, I felt sure, would elicit a prompt and helpful explanation from the smiling Ms Naidu of the photograph. It did not. But it did result in a prompt refund of the £49.45 via SEIB.

I wrote again to Ms Naidu explaining that I did not make a complaint. I asked a valid question and that I should like it answered, please.

On July 24, I received a short letter from a senior customer care adviser. She was pleased to hear that my premium had been reviewed and updated. If I felt she had not covered all issues, please contact her again.

So I did, and this brought a comprehensive reply that took my breath away. With reference to the increased premium, she wrote: “Each time answers to questions are changed, our system completes automatic adjustments in the background.”

And then – “If new information is presented, the system is updated and adjustments to the premium (whether that be an increase or decrease) are produced and presented to the customer or broker.”

So presenting my new information, the changing of my status from property owner to tenant – untick one box and tick another – caused the Zurich system to complete an “automatic adjustment in the background”.

My “adjustment” was a startling increase of £49.45, or 12.5pc. Is this any way to treat a loyal customer?

Neither I nor SEIB had thought to query this imposition, being so late on a Friday, and if the new premium quoted is not queried by the customer or broker, it goes through.

I am the kind of customer Zurich should be making efforts to retain with loyalty discounts. Even after receiving the refund, I was irritated enough to write to this lady again.

I had asked a valid question. Why is there this apparent inequity?

There followed a ping- pong exchange of letters, and in spite of asking the question four times, I never did get a relevant answer.

Eventually, my correspondent applied to the underwriters for an explanation. They said: “The homeowner question section is one of many rating factors”, and “as with other insurers, we do not publish the reasons behind our underwriting or rating structures”. Perhaps they should have said that in the first place.

If you want to change anything on your original Statement of Fact, and the system sends your premium suddenly and unexpectedly upwards, challenge them over it. Ask for an explanation and demand that they take it off.

The chances are they will, pronto, and you will have saved yourself a lot of money.

A Zurich spokesman told me they were pleased I had decided to stay as a customer – how nice!

He said “multiple factors” were used to calculate premiums and that these “reflect the different risks we take on as an insurer and are based on the past claims experience for similar customers. If a customer provides new information at renewal, their premium might go up or down depending on any change in the level of risk.”

He added that each insurer took a different approach to setting premiums, which was “part of what creates a competitive marketplace”.

But I never did find out what Zurich has against tenants...