Your battle with Hastings leads to a premium result
D.B. writes: My car insurance premium with Hastings Direct was £410 last year. My renewal quote was for £897, more than double. It showed the previous premium was £665 and not the actual £410. A cynic might think this was intentional. I spoke to a representative but they were unable to explain the huge increase or the inaccurate figure for last year. They offered to run another quote for me which came out at £479. Asking for £897 and then immediately reducing it to £479 after a single phone call is quite appalling.
HASTINGS Direct confirmed you did indeed pay £410 for car insurance last year. But during the year, you changed cars to one worth £12,000 more.
Under rules set by the Financial Conduct Authority, insurers are supposed to issue renewal notices that tell you what you would have paid for a year’s cover on your new car and not to show the figure that you actually paid for your old car. This is so you can make a like-for-like comparison. If you had insured your new car a year ago, you would have paid £665. The current premium would be £857, not £897, according to the insurer.
But you have come out of this well. Hastings Direct has listened to a recording of your call and it agrees its calculations could have been explained better. It has not been able to duplicate the calculation that produced a £479 premium.
Apparently its agent offered to charge just £427 and it will stick to this even though it is below the correct premium.